Lisbon — Visual artist Lenne Russo, 51, is on her way to fulfilling a dream: obtaining Portuguese citizenship. More than having the coveted European Union passport, which allows free transit through more than 120 countries around the world, she wants to regain her family's original surname, which was lost in the bureaucracy of the Brazilian public service at the beginning of the last century. Between 1907 and 1908, her grandfather, Eduardo dos Santos Russo, then three years old, landed in the port of Santos with his family, who were looking for better living conditions in Brazilian lands.
Lined up, each of the Portuguese who landed in promising Brazil was registered for federal control. But the haste and neglect of the servers at the time ended up resulting in gross errors in the notes. Surnames were changed without being contested by immigrants, many of whom were illiterate. In the case of Lenne's grandfather, Russo disappeared from the record. Only Eduardo dos Santos remained. “So much so that, officially, my name is Edilene Aparecida Mora dos Santos”, she says. All he had to do was use the last name Russo when he started his artistic career. change promoted in legislation by the government of Portugal in 2018, however, brought a breath of hope for Lenne. To attract descendants of Portuguese who left the country — many to escape poverty —, the possibility was opened for the grandchildren of these citizens to directly request their original nationality. Until then, grandchildren of Portuguese born abroad could only apply for derived citizenship. That is, they received the right from their parents, but could not pass the benefit on. With the change in the law, Portuguese nationality became an inheritance right, and they will be able to transmit it to the following generations.
But let it be clear, warns lawyer Renato Martins, CEO of the Martins Castro office, based in Lisbon: “If the grandchildren of Portuguese people do not apply for citizenship, their descendants will not be able to apply for it. It's like the rope snaps." Therefore, it is important to file nationality requests while those who are entitled are alive. This is the case with Lenne. “I don't have children, but my sister, Elaine Aparecida, has three. So, she and I are applying for Portuguese citizenship so that my nephews and their children can benefit from it”, he points out. “Better: all documents issued by the Portuguese government will have Russo as our last name”, he celebrates.
Artificial intelligence
There are no updated estimates on how many descendants of Portuguese born in Brazil are entitled to citizenship in the European country. Data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), from the mid-2000s, indicated that 21 million Brazilians were of Portuguese origin. Most of these citizens are spread across Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Pará and Goiás. Not everyone, however, is able to prove the connection with the ancestors, even due to lack of knowledge. “Therefore, serious professional follow-up is necessary”, recommends lawyer Joana Nunes, from the Garcia, Silva, Nunes e Associados law firm.
The biggest difficulty, adds Renato Martins, is gathering all the documentation required by the Portuguese government. He recalls that, until 1911, there was no civil registry in the country. Births were cataloged in churches. And a lot was lost along the way. Thus, a thorough search is required. “There are people who have been in this process for more than 10 years, without success”, says he, who set up, with the partners of Martins Castro, an artificial intelligence program capable of identifying information in a shorter time.
“Today we have more than 1 million metadata, within a genealogical bank, which can be read and searched for”, explains the lawyer. The process involves locating information in churches and conservatories (registries) in Portugal, and in ports, municipalities, as many Portuguese went to work in agricultural activities, and even in inns, in Brazil. With this information, we crossed the data and we can reach what we are looking for”, says Martins. He points out that not everything is digitized, but digitization itself is not a guarantee of success in the endeavor of those who are applying for Portuguese nationality.
It is necessary, according to the lawyer, to transform each piece of information — name, gender, parents' names, location and date of birth — into searchable data. “We call this metadata. From then on, the artificial intelligence does its part, as it can read the documents”, he details. He adds that the time required for the entire process of obtaining citizenship to be concluded depends on the quality of the information. When they are more readily available, within five working days it is possible to locate the necessary documents. The whole process, however, can take about two and a half years. Important detail: no candidate for Portuguese citizenship may have been sentenced to three years or more in prison.
sephardic jews
Foreign trade analyst Maria Lígia de Melo, 35, has been looking for records of her Portuguese ancestors since 2019. Her case, however, is more complicated. She claims to have links with Sephardic Jews, who were expelled from Portugal by the Inquisition in the 15th century. A significant portion of these Jews moved to Recife, with their names changed so that they could live in peace. The benefit of the original nationality of the Sephardim was created in 2015, but this year there was an amendment to the Portuguese Nationality Law, to make it difficult for those who intend to obtain citizenship in this way.
In addition to the descent records, it will be necessary to demonstrate a real and lasting link with Portugal through regular travel around the country or to have the document of ownership of real rights over real estate, in case of inheritance. Maria Lígia has been in Portuguese territory for three years, where she works and studies. Despite the difficulties, she does not give up. “My family is from the interior of Pernambuco, which has very poor documentation. So I still can't locate the data I need. But, God willing, I will have my Portuguese citizenship because I am of Sephardic origin”, says
Lenne Russo even considered giving up her Portuguese citizenship when her parents died in 2014. Last year, however, a friend convinced her to resume her dream of applying for nationality, recovering her surname and living in Europe. And went to fight. After much searching, he found records of the arrival of his great-grandfather, Augusto Cesar Russo, with his grandfather, at the National Archives. “It was all there, his full name and his wife's,” he says. “As soon as my citizenship comes out, I want to visit my family's places of origin, in Trás-os-montes”, reinforces her, who will pay R$ 11,200 for the nationalization process for her and her sister.
marriage and children
Lawyer Joana Nunes says that Brazilians who are married or in a stable union with Portuguese people can also apply for citizenship in Portugal. The relationship, however, cannot be less than three years. All documents must be authenticated and apostilled by The Hague, which guarantees international recognition. Children of foreigners born in Portugal are among those who can transfer citizenship, in this case, to their parents, as long as they live in Lusitanian lands for more than five years.
“There are many advantages of having Portuguese citizenship”, says the lawyer. “The Portuguese identity document (citizen card) allows free movement and the possibility of residence in all countries of the European Union. It also facilitates access to bank credit (including for the purchase of a home)”, he adds. She reinforces, however, that the naturalization process is not easy, mainly because of bureaucracy and the lack of personnel in public bodies, such as the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF). “The demand for citizenship is growing, but the government infrastructure cannot keep up with this movement.”
Joana issues another warning: “Before applying for citizenship, you need to seek the help of serious professionals, registered with the Portuguese Bar Association”. The warning makes sense. The Portuguese government is investigating at least 22 Brazilian digital influencers who have been selling facilities for obtaining nationality, but, in fact, scam the unsuspecting. “Professionals registered to provide this type of service can be denounced to the courts if they cause damage to someone and are responsible for it. In the case of false consultants, the punishment is more difficult and the losses certain”, he sentences.
Estimates indicate that at least 1 million Brazilians live in Portugal, including those with dual citizenship. Among those classified as legal foreigners, there are almost 300,000, of which 47,000 were authorized to set down roots in the country in the first half of this year. In addition to these groups, of Portuguese descendants and Brazilians who obtained residence permits, the Portuguese government wants to attract labor to the country and boost the economy. For this, it created a temporary 180-day visa so that interested parties can look for jobs in local companies. The new law should go into effect by the end of August.
Economy and xenophobia
The facilities created to attract descendants of Portuguese and foreigners are not restricted to Portugal, says lawyer Renato Martins, CEO of Martins Castro. He notes that Spain, Germany, France and Luxembourg, which recently naturalized 15,000 Brazilians, are on the same path. And this is the result of what is being called by the authorities a “demographic winter”, when the elderly become the majority of the population and young people in the labor market are no longer enough to guarantee the sustenance of Social Security systems. “I, like scholars from the European Union and the United Nations (UN), prefer to call this reality demographic suicide”, he says.
For him, the countries that are making immigration rules more flexible are seeing the problems arising from the aging of the population in a very concrete way, adopting policies so that they can be repopulated. “No nation sustains itself when its economically active population shrinks”, he says. In Portugal, even with the arrival of foreigners, the number of inhabitants has been falling year by year. There are just over 10 million.
By Vicente Nunes