My grandfather moved from Portugal to South Africa to work many years back and married my grandmother who was south African. He registered my mom at the Portuguese Consulate but the procedure wasn't completed. Now she's contacted them and they're going to register her and give her a Portuguese I.D card and passport, and then once she's done she's going to do the same with me and my sister. Do we have legal rights to citizenship?
Embassies & Consulates - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
It depends on Portugese law.
2 :
Under Portuguese law you have to have a parent born in Portugal in order to claim Portuguese citizenship.
3 :
If you have the passport you will be a citizen , but in this case I doubt very much you and your sister will be able to get a Portuguese Passport - you may have a chance with a visa. Your Grandmother can obtain citizenship through marriage . The child of a Portuguese born parent may acquire citizenship if they are born outside of portugal if their births are registered with the embassy. Very few European countries (in fact I can't think of any other than Italy ) are going to give citizenship to grandchildren that are second generation foreign births. A child born to a Portuguese parent is automatically a Portuguese citizen provided the parent was born in Portugal or is employed by the Portuguese state. Or, the child may be registered as a Portuguese citizen. Portugal does not offer citizenship beyond the first generation so although your Grandparents children could claim a passport you and your sister could not.. You might be able to get an ancestry visa to live in Portugal but you will have to be able to speak Portuguese.
