Portuguese Citizenship for Sephardic Jews – Change the History

25 October 2021

Adriana Carreira Pereira

Sephardic Jews are a Jewish ethnic division originating in traditionally established communities in the Iberian Peninsula. These communities have different traditions, rituals and even a different language from other Jewish ethnic divisions originating in the Eastern or in Central Europe.

Sephardic Jews are believed to have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula even before the Roman Empire was established throughout Europe.

In the late 15th and early 16th century, due to Catholic Monarchs’ desire to establish religious unity in the country, Sephardic Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism (called “New Christians”), keep their practices in secret and even then, forced into exile.

They left Portugal settling all over the world as the United Kingdom, Turkey, some countries in the Middle East, United States of America and Latin America. Some investigators even say that most Brazilian citizens have at least one Sephardic ancestor.

In order to repair the historical damage done to the Sephardic community due to their persecution and expulsion under the Inquisition, both Portugal and Spain approved laws granting citizenship for the Sephardic descendants.

Spain gave the Sephardic community a deadline to file their applications, which ended in 2019.

However, Portugal is still accepting and granting citizenship to those who are able to prove their descendance. In this view under Portuguese law, Portuguese citizenship may be acquired by naturalisation, provided that the applicant:

is major or emancipated under the Portuguese law;
is a descendant of Portuguese Sephardic Jews;
belongs to a Sephardic community of Portuguese origin;
has not been convicted pursuant final judgment of sentence, for committing a crime punishable with a maximum prison sentence equal to or exceeding three years, under Portuguese law;
has not been involved in terrorism-connected activities.

Considering this historical heritage, the Portuguese Citizenship Act grants the descendants of Portugal’s Sephardic Jews, the opportunity to acquire Portuguese Nationality. Please contact us if you wish to know more about how to apply.