
As an official apology to the Jews who were either killed or escaped during the Inquisition, in 2015 Portugal introduced the Law in that allows descendants – aka Sephardic Jews – to obtain Portuguese citizenship.
Since then Alex Abrahams and 50,000 other Sephardic Jews have applied and around 10,000 obtained the citizenship that give them access to Schengen.
In the original law you only had to prove that you descended from the Sephardic Jews who fled Portugal.
A few months ago the Socialists put forward a new amendment that will put a limit to what they believe has become a new business venture by adding a restriction to the original law.
If the law gets through the parliament from 2022 besides proving their Portuguese heritage the Sephardic Jews also must have current and effective connections with Portugal to obtain citizenship.
So to our Jewish friends who consider becoming Portuguese but still haven’t started up the process: Maybe you should get started.
Shalom,
Thomas