Portuguese Citizenship

Is a recommendation letter from the Jewish community in Porto or Lisbon enough to acquire Portuguese citizenship? A recommendation is currently a mandatory first step on the path to acquiring citizenship for descendants of Sephardic Jews, but the bureaucratic process still take several years after this point. Furthermore, following the recent scandal, the government of…

Can you acquire Portuguese Citizenship Through Marriage? If you are married to a Portuguese citizen, you are also eligible to receive citizenship. It does not matter where you are originally from. You do not need to have Sephardic descent, you do not need to be Jewish, you do not need to live in Portugal. You…

Looking to get a residence visa to Portugal? Well, you can receive one by making a significant investment in the country. The Portugal Golden Visa Program gives residence permits to non-EU citizens if they have made a significant investment in Portugal. It is also known as the residence permit for investment activity. The rules that…

Why are Moroccan Jews Eligible for a European Passport? Moroccan Jewry, as a group, is eligible to apply for a Portuguese passport. This article clarifies said eligibility based on a historical view as well as a legal perspective. Our law office specializes in obtaining Portuguese passports for Moroccan Jews as well as other descendants of…

This FAQ – Sephardic Jews and Portuguese citizenship, addresses many issues regarding applying for Portuguese citizenship as a descendant of Sephardic Jews. It also includes links to longer articles on the topic. This issue has been increasingly addressed in the news, and we will provide details on various topics below.  Why should I apply for…

The discovery of the American continent coincided with the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal. On the basis of historical records, it has been claimed that the expedition lead by Christopher Columbus was funded with the help of money stolen from Spanish Jews. From the year of the expulsion, 1492, and for several hundred…

This article will review the biographies of a number of famous Jews of Sephardic or Portuguese descent, from countries throughout the world. Sephardic Jews and their descendants, according to Israel Prize recipient Professor Yirmiyahu Yovel, “are responsible for a long line of impactful global events, such as: secularism, the modern Western identity, the development of…

Thousands of Catholic Costa Ricans with Sephardic Jewish roots are eligible for a Portuguese passport. Obtaining the passport requires a professional genealogical report to officially prove that the applicant is a descendant of Sephardic Jews and thereby meets the criteria for Portuguese citizenship. Our office specializes in obtaining foreign citizenships. Our attorneys offer comprehensive assistance…

Dutch Jews with a Spanish connection are entitled to a Portuguese passport. Along with them, hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish South Americans who have lived in American countries for centuries are also eligible. If by genealogy research they can prove a connection to Jews of Spanish-Dutch descent, they will be recognized as eligible for a…

For over four hundred years, Morocco was home to the most creative and intellectual Jewish community throughout the Lands of Islam. This was also the largest diaspora that settled in Muslim terrain prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. In the 1940’s there were an estimated 300,000 Moroccan Jews, many of whom resided…