move&invest

Naturalisation clock: when you can apply for citizenship in four countries

A naturalisation period is three rules pretending to be one: how long, counted from when, and whether the years must be unbroken. Every page in this market publishes the first and skips the other two. Put your own dates in and see what they do.

Your nationality
Had you filed for Portuguese citizenship before 19 May 2026?
The nationality application, not the residence permit. Holding a permit from 2021 does not count; filing for citizenship on 18 May 2026 does. This is the most misreported sentence of the Portuguese reform.
Has your residence been unbroken since the permit?
Portugal allows broken periods inside a window; Greece does not allow them at all.

Soonest of these: Malta, 1 June 2030

CountryEarliest you can apply for citizenshipThe provision this rests on
Portugal1 June 203510 years · counted from the permitLei 37/81, art. 6(1)(b) and art. 15(1) as amended by Lei Orgânica 1/2026; window of 12 years under art. 15(3)
  • This date rests on article 7(2). Your nationality proceeding was pending on 19 May 2026, so the previous text applies to it whole — the five-year period and the counting from the residence application together, not one without the other.
  • Article 15(4), under which time spent waiting for the residence permit counted towards the period, was repealed on 19 May 2026. The clock starts at the permit, not at the application for it.
  • Residence has been broken, so article 15(3) applies: periods are summed only if they fall inside a window of nine years for EU and Portuguese-speaking citizens, twelve for everyone else. The date above assumes they do.
  • The seven years must be unbroken, and the Code offers no window inside which broken periods may be summed. A gap starts them again, so no date can be given from what you have entered.
  • Three continuous years, not seven — article 5(1)(δ) gives the shorter period to nationals of an EU member state, to a spouse of a Greek WITH a child, to anyone with parental custody of a Greek-national child born in Greece, and to stateless persons. A spouse without a child does not qualify.
  • This assumes your residence title is one of those listed in article 5(1)(ε) — the investor permit is, at item αθ. On any other valid title, temporary ones excepted, article 5(3) asks for twelve continuous years instead. The tool does not ask which title you hold, so it cannot rule that out.
  • Temporary residence titles do not qualify at all (article 5(3)), and the list of qualifying titles at article 5(1)(ε) is exhaustive. The investor permit is on it, at item αθ.
  • Whatever the earlier years look like, the twelve months immediately before the application must be continuous.
  • With residence broken, the four-years-within-six arithmetic needs your presence year by year, which this tool deliberately does not ask for. No date is given rather than a confident wrong one.
  • Time is one condition of several. Language, civics, good character, fees and the discretion of the deciding authority are not modelled here, and each can stop an application the calendar allows.
Greece1 June 20327 years · counted from the permitLaw 3284/2004, art. 5(1)(δ); qualifying titles art. 5(1)(ε), the investor permit at item αθ
  • This date rests on article 7(2). Your nationality proceeding was pending on 19 May 2026, so the previous text applies to it whole — the five-year period and the counting from the residence application together, not one without the other.
  • Article 15(4), under which time spent waiting for the residence permit counted towards the period, was repealed on 19 May 2026. The clock starts at the permit, not at the application for it.
  • Residence has been broken, so article 15(3) applies: periods are summed only if they fall inside a window of nine years for EU and Portuguese-speaking citizens, twelve for everyone else. The date above assumes they do.
  • The seven years must be unbroken, and the Code offers no window inside which broken periods may be summed. A gap starts them again, so no date can be given from what you have entered.
  • Three continuous years, not seven — article 5(1)(δ) gives the shorter period to nationals of an EU member state, to a spouse of a Greek WITH a child, to anyone with parental custody of a Greek-national child born in Greece, and to stateless persons. A spouse without a child does not qualify.
  • This assumes your residence title is one of those listed in article 5(1)(ε) — the investor permit is, at item αθ. On any other valid title, temporary ones excepted, article 5(3) asks for twelve continuous years instead. The tool does not ask which title you hold, so it cannot rule that out.
  • Temporary residence titles do not qualify at all (article 5(3)), and the list of qualifying titles at article 5(1)(ε) is exhaustive. The investor permit is on it, at item αθ.
  • Whatever the earlier years look like, the twelve months immediately before the application must be continuous.
  • With residence broken, the four-years-within-six arithmetic needs your presence year by year, which this tool deliberately does not ask for. No date is given rather than a confident wrong one.
  • Time is one condition of several. Language, civics, good character, fees and the discretion of the deciding authority are not modelled here, and each can stop an application the calendar allows.
Malta1 June 20305 years · counted from the permitCap. 188 — twelve continuous months immediately before the application plus four years within the preceding six
  • This date rests on article 7(2). Your nationality proceeding was pending on 19 May 2026, so the previous text applies to it whole — the five-year period and the counting from the residence application together, not one without the other.
  • Article 15(4), under which time spent waiting for the residence permit counted towards the period, was repealed on 19 May 2026. The clock starts at the permit, not at the application for it.
  • Residence has been broken, so article 15(3) applies: periods are summed only if they fall inside a window of nine years for EU and Portuguese-speaking citizens, twelve for everyone else. The date above assumes they do.
  • The seven years must be unbroken, and the Code offers no window inside which broken periods may be summed. A gap starts them again, so no date can be given from what you have entered.
  • Three continuous years, not seven — article 5(1)(δ) gives the shorter period to nationals of an EU member state, to a spouse of a Greek WITH a child, to anyone with parental custody of a Greek-national child born in Greece, and to stateless persons. A spouse without a child does not qualify.
  • This assumes your residence title is one of those listed in article 5(1)(ε) — the investor permit is, at item αθ. On any other valid title, temporary ones excepted, article 5(3) asks for twelve continuous years instead. The tool does not ask which title you hold, so it cannot rule that out.
  • Temporary residence titles do not qualify at all (article 5(3)), and the list of qualifying titles at article 5(1)(ε) is exhaustive. The investor permit is on it, at item αθ.
  • Whatever the earlier years look like, the twelve months immediately before the application must be continuous.
  • With residence broken, the four-years-within-six arithmetic needs your presence year by year, which this tool deliberately does not ask for. No date is given rather than a confident wrong one.
  • Time is one condition of several. Language, civics, good character, fees and the discretion of the deciding authority are not modelled here, and each can stop an application the calendar allows.
United Arab EmiratesNo citizenship application existsEmirati nationality is granted by nomination, not applied for. There is no period to count towards.Federal Law 17/1972 as amended — naturalisation by nomination
  • This date rests on article 7(2). Your nationality proceeding was pending on 19 May 2026, so the previous text applies to it whole — the five-year period and the counting from the residence application together, not one without the other.
  • Article 15(4), under which time spent waiting for the residence permit counted towards the period, was repealed on 19 May 2026. The clock starts at the permit, not at the application for it.
  • Residence has been broken, so article 15(3) applies: periods are summed only if they fall inside a window of nine years for EU and Portuguese-speaking citizens, twelve for everyone else. The date above assumes they do.
  • The seven years must be unbroken, and the Code offers no window inside which broken periods may be summed. A gap starts them again, so no date can be given from what you have entered.
  • Three continuous years, not seven — article 5(1)(δ) gives the shorter period to nationals of an EU member state, to a spouse of a Greek WITH a child, to anyone with parental custody of a Greek-national child born in Greece, and to stateless persons. A spouse without a child does not qualify.
  • This assumes your residence title is one of those listed in article 5(1)(ε) — the investor permit is, at item αθ. On any other valid title, temporary ones excepted, article 5(3) asks for twelve continuous years instead. The tool does not ask which title you hold, so it cannot rule that out.
  • Temporary residence titles do not qualify at all (article 5(3)), and the list of qualifying titles at article 5(1)(ε) is exhaustive. The investor permit is on it, at item αθ.
  • Whatever the earlier years look like, the twelve months immediately before the application must be continuous.
  • With residence broken, the four-years-within-six arithmetic needs your presence year by year, which this tool deliberately does not ask for. No date is given rather than a confident wrong one.
  • Time is one condition of several. Language, civics, good character, fees and the discretion of the deciding authority are not modelled here, and each can stop an application the calendar allows.

Every provision named here, with the date it was read