{"id":3120,"date":"2026-08-07T19:55:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T19:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fiolegal.com\/de-facto-union-and-portuguese-nationality-the-porto-court-of-appeal-trp-rules-that-family-and-minor-courts-have-jurisdiction\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T19:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T19:55:34","slug":"de-facto-union-and-portuguese-nationality-the-porto-court-of-appeal-trp-rules-that-family-and-minor-courts-have-jurisdiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiolegal.com\/en\/de-facto-union-and-portuguese-nationality-the-porto-court-of-appeal-trp-rules-that-family-and-minor-courts-have-jurisdiction\/","title":{"rendered":"De Facto Union and Portuguese Nationality: The Porto Court of Appeal (TRP) rules that Family and Minor Courts have jurisdiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Currently, for those seeking to acquire Portuguese nationality based on a de facto union, identifying the competent court is a relevant practical decision. Filing the action in the wrong court can raise an issue of lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, delay proceedings, and postpone the subsequent nationality application. <\/span><\/p>\n

In our previous article, <\/span>\u201c<\/b>De facto (stable) union and Portuguese nationality: does the new wording resolve or merely postpone the issue of the competent court?<\/b><\/a>\u201d<\/b>, we analyzed whether the replacement of the reference to the <\/span>\u201ccivil court\u201d<\/b> with the expression <\/span>\u201ccompetent court\u201d<\/b>, introduced by <\/span>Organic Law No. 1\/2026, of May 18<\/span><\/a>, effectively resolved this issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the <\/span>Porto Court of Appeal (TRP)<\/b>, through the <\/span>Ruling of July 1, 2026<\/b><\/a>, dismissed an appeal seeking to overturn a decision that found the Local Civil Court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, where it was argued that, under the Nationality Law, civil courts were materially competent in accordance with prevailing case law.<\/span><\/p>\n

The TRP decided that the new wording of Article 3(3) of the Nationality Law should be interpreted to mean that the legislative change is <\/span>merely interpretative<\/span> and, therefore, that actions for the recognition of a de facto union for the purpose of acquiring Portuguese nationality by the foreign member of the couple must be brought before the judicial court with subject-matter jurisdiction according to the general rules of specialization\u2014that is, before the <\/span>Family and Minor Court<\/b>. <\/span> <\/p>\n

The Question That Remained Open<\/b><\/p>\n

The <\/span>new<\/span><\/a> wording of the legal provision maintained the requirement for judicial recognition of the de facto union for more than three years, but now requires a decision issued by the <\/span>\u201ccompetent court\u201d<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we noted in the previous article, this new formula was more compatible with the specialization rules of the Law on the Organization of the Judicial System, particularly with the jurisdiction of the Family and Minor Courts regarding de facto unions and actions relating to the civil status of persons and the family.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, a decisive question persisted for proceedings already initiated under the previous wording: would the change be merely interpretative, confirming that jurisdiction always belonged to the Family and Minor Courts, or would it establish a new solution, applicable only to actions filed after its entry into force?<\/span><\/p>\n

The doubt resulted from a consolidated divergence in case law:<\/span><\/p>\n