Registry offices ‘simply overwhelmed’ with more than 700,000 applications, and rising
Following the proposed changes to the nationality law, there has been a veritable stampede by immigrants requesting nationality at registry office throughout the country.
STRN, the Syndicate of Registry and Notary Workers warns it is at breaking point already, with around 700,000 applications ‘in the system’, and new ones arriving every day.
According to the union, the growth in the number of new requests is nationwide, happening both “in online submissions – made by lawyers and solicitors – and in person, at the various service points: the Central Registry Office, the Central Archive in Porto and the other Civil Registry Offices throughout the country”.
“The veritable rush to the registry offices is exerting unsustainable pressure on services that were already in a state of disrepair, aggravated by a critical shortage of human resources, estimated at around 40% below real needs”, says STRN.
According to the syndicate, there is a shortage of 266 registrars and the 120 in training will only be ready to start work at the end of 2026.
There is also a shortage of 1,867 registry officers, and only half of the 240 vacancies recently put out to tender have been filled ‘due to the lack of attractiveness of the careers’.
The situation is further exacerbated by dozens of retirements each month without immediate replacements.
The union equally expects staff holidays to be another factor worsening backlogs during the summer period.
As if all this was not enough, STRN also mentions ‘technological constraints’, since “the computer platform created for the dematerialised submission of nationality applications, funded by the Plan for Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), has had serious flaws since its implementation, with no solution in sight”: interoperability with the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum “has continued to operate with serious limitations for over a year”.
“Each of these problems alone would be worrying enough. Taken together, they constitute a perfect storm, with a severe impact on the quality and deadlines for providing an essential public service to citizens and businesses.
“Despite the tireless efforts of registrars and registry officers, it is becoming humanly impossible to contain the delays and the number of pending cases continues to rise dramatically,” the union emphasises.
In short, the situation is “chaotic and without precedent” in the history of the Institute of Registrars and Notaries, and has already led to “total rupture” and the temporary closure of a number of registry offices.
Only last month, Justice Minister Rita Júdice announced the opening of 400 vacancies for the IRN, saying she intended to “review careers” (meaning, look at ways of making the profession more attractive). ND
