Permanent Residence in Portugal After Brexit: What Changes for UK Citizens?

Danielle Avidago | Immigration Consultant

There are essentially two kinds of residents in Portugal: third-country citizens whose right to residency is covered by Law 23/2007 of 4 July, bearing a temporary residence permit; and EU citizens and their family members whose right to residency in Portugal is regulated by Law 37/2006 of 9 August, originated in EU Directive 2004/38/EC, bearing a Certificate of Registration of EU Citizens.

What was once a two-way division among residents in Portugal became a three-way split when the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, following Brexit.

With Brexit in force, many UK nationals and their family members who were living outside of the UK under the EU citizens regime would, from day to night, find themselves in a limbo situation: they no longer were EU citizens, not being able to legitimately bear their CRUE, and not having the legal grounds to bear a temporary residence permit.

However, both parties agreed on a transition period from 1 February 2020 to 31 December 2020. Aiming to create a legal regime for UK citizens residing in different EU countries as EU citizens, the EU and the UK concluded the Withdrawal Agreement.

In practical terms, UK nationals who established residence in Portugal before 31 December 2020 were protected by the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement. That Agreement preserves the substance of the rights those persons already enjoyed — including rights to continue living, working and studying in the host Member State — and requires national procedures to regularise their status under the Agreement. Portugal implemented national arrangements to replace the CRUEs, or permanent residence permits, with a Withdrawal Agreement residence permit confirming the holder’s protected status and even created a specific department that is still operative to this day to handle these cases: the Brexit Line.

This specific Brexit regularisation route, including a dedicated portal process, email address and telephone contact, aimed to convert prior municipal registration certificates, CRUEs, into a new WA residence permit. The Portuguese authorities publicised deadlines and a transition process to obtain the new title.

The new residence permit was issued with a five-year validity, documenting the holder’s protected status during that period. These five years of legal residency are counted from the residence permit request, and not from the issuance of their first CRUE, allowing these residents to continue living in Portugal and proceeding with their daily lives as before.

The EU rules on absences and continuity (for example, the allowance for certain temporary absences not to break the five years) remain the controlling standard for EU nationals and are applied to WA beneficiaries insofar as the Agreement protects acquired rights.

What many of these UK nationals wonder is what happens when their current Withdrawal Agreement residence card expires. Are they allowed to renew it? Should they request a permanent residence permit as EU citizens or as third-country citizens? Can they request a permanent residence permit from the moment they complete five years of legal residency in Portugal, or only when their current residence permit expires?

UK citizens who bear a CRUE and are now holders of a residence permit under Article 50.º of the WA can request the respective permanent residence permit from the moment they fulfil five years of legal residency under Article 15.º of the WA. This means that for these applicants, the provisions stated in Law 37/2006 of 9 August, or Law 23/2007 of 4 July, are not applicable. The legal diploma that is still applicable to them is the Withdrawal Agreement, upholding UK citizens’ rights throughout their lives as residents of a host Member State.

The Withdrawal Agreement created an intermediate regime for those UK citizens and their family members residents in Portugal until 31 December 2020 to protect their residency rights: when applying for the permanent residence permit, valid for 10 years, UK citizens and their family members do not have to prove knowledge of the Portuguese language, and the applicable government fees are the same as EU citizens applying for their permanent residence permit.

To conclude, the Withdrawal Agreement still safeguards the acquired rights of UK citizens and their family members as residents of a host Member State when the UK was still part of the European Union. One of these acquired rights was the guaranteed right of permanent residency, with an exemption from proving A2 Portuguese knowledge, and more favourable government fees.

Following the motto “no one gets left behind”, the Withdrawal Agreement was created with the intention of protecting the residency rights of UK citizens and their family members, whether they wished to live in a Member State for 5 years, 10 years, or a lifetime. And we shall be delighted to assist you in guaranteeing the right to live in Portugal for a lifetime!