A Portuguese Grandparent Makes You Portuguese by Origin, If You Can Show the Ties
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Dominica on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
98 exceptions recorded across 37 countries · none match Dominica to Portugal · Residency through ancestry
Portugal's ancestry route is not a residence permit but nationality itself, and it reaches two generations. A person with at least one ascendant of Portuguese origin in the second degree of the direct line - a grandparent - who has not lost that nationality is Portuguese by origin if they declare that they want to be and possess ties of effective connection to the national community. Being Portuguese by origin is not naturalisation: there is no residence period and no test, and the status is attributed rather than granted.
At a glance
- How far back it reaches
- A grandparent - the second degree of the direct line
The number is the degree of kinship in article 1(1)(d), not a quantity.
- Residence required
- None - this is nationality by origin, not naturalisation
- What you must show
- Ties of effective connection to the national community
- Children of a Portuguese parent born abroad
- Portuguese by origin on registration or declaration
Article 1(1)(c), a separate limb with no connection requirement.
- What "effective connection" means
- Not defined in the article
Article 1(3) sends the grandchild limb to further requirements elsewhere, which this record does not quote.
Requirements
- At least one grandparent of Portuguese origin who has not lost that nationality
- A declaration that you want to be Portuguese
- Ties of effective connection to the national community
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Dominica
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«São portugueses de origem: a) Os filhos de mãe portuguesa ou de pai português nascidos no território português; b) Os filhos de mãe portuguesa ou de pai português nascidos no estrangeiro se o progenitor português aí se encontrar ao serviço do Estado português; c) Os filhos de mãe portuguesa ou de pai português nascidos no estrangeiro se tiverem o seu nascimento inscrito no registo civil português ou se declararem que querem ser portugueses; d) Os indivíduos com, pelo menos, um ascendente de nacionalidade portuguesa originária do 2.º grau na linha reta que não tenha perdido essa nacionalidade, se declararem que querem ser portugueses e possuírem laços de efetiva ligação à comunidade nacional; e) Os indivíduos nascidos no território português, filhos de estrangeiros, se pelo menos um dos progenitores também aqui tiver nascido e aqui tiver residência, independentemente de título, ao tempo do nascimento; f) Os indivíduos nascidos no território português, filhos de estrangeiros que não se encontrem ao serviço do respetivo Estado, se declararem que querem ser portugueses, desde que, no momento do nascimento, um dos progenitores resida legalmente no território português há pelo menos cinco anos; g) Os indivíduos nascidos no território português e que não possuam outra nacionalidade.»All seven limbs of nationality by origin. The grandchild limb is (d), and it is the only one that asks for ties to the national community.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Lisbon public prosecutor's legal database, which has carried consolidated Portuguese statutes in plain HTML for two decades. Each statute is served at a stable numeric address with its full amendment history at the head of the page, named act by act and dated.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Not the official gazette and not the authentic text: the Diário da República publishes that, and where the two differ the gazette governs. The consolidation is the office's own editorial work and the page does not say who made it or when it was last revised - only which amending acts it claims to carry. The site is served as ISO-8859-1 with the charset in a meta tag, so a fetch that assumes UTF-8 destroys every accented letter.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
This is attribution of nationality, not a residence route, and it is recorded under ancestry because that is where a reader with a Portuguese grandparent will look.
The ties requirement is the whole difficulty and the article does not define it. Article 1(3) points at further requirements for this limb which are not quoted here.
- consolidatesLei da Nacionalidade (Lei n.º 37/81), consolidated text
Procuradoria-Geral Distrital de Lisboa
About this source
The Lisbon public prosecutor's legal database, which has carried consolidated Portuguese statutes in plain HTML for two decades. Each statute is served at a stable numeric address with its full amendment history at the head of the page, named act by act and dated.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Not the official gazette and not the authentic text: the Diário da República publishes that, and where the two differ the gazette governs. The consolidation is the office's own editorial work and the page does not say who made it or when it was last revised - only which amending acts it claims to carry. The site is served as ISO-8859-1 with the charset in a meta tag, so a fetch that assumes UTF-8 destroys every accented letter.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source