The Chamber of Deputies approved, on Tuesday (12), a PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) that excludes the possibility of automatic loss of Brazilian nationality for anyone who naturalizes as a citizen of a foreign country. The text was supported in the first round by 464 congressmen.
Three other parliamentarians voted against the proposal, and there was one abstention. According to the wording of the PEC, which will now be enacted as it has already been approved by the Senate, there are only two hypotheses remaining for the loss of Brazilian nationality.
They are: in the case of cancellation of the naturalization process by court ruling —caused by fraud in the procedures for acquiring nationality or an "attack against the constitutional order and the Democratic State"— and in the case of renunciation of nationality, except in cases in which that this act results in stateless status when the person is left without a recognized nationality. The PEC also leaves open the possibility that citizens who may have renounced their Brazilian citizenship have the chance to change their minds and, in accordance with the law, initiate a process to reacquire it.
Translated by Cassy Dias