What happened
On 18 November 2025 the ANC published two announcements which together change the approach to preparing a case:
- From 1 December 2025 neither the ANC nor the consulates register files that do not come with all the supporting documents required by Law no. 21/1991 and order no. 85/2025 of the ANC president. The only exception is the language certificate, which may be supplied within the deadline under art. XXI of Law no. 14/2025.
- For files submitted from that same date, additional documents are accepted only at the commission’s request. Anything sent on your own initiative — by post, courier, fax or email — is not added to the case and stays in the ANC archive.
What follows from this
- Filing has stopped being the “entry point to a dialogue”. It is now a readiness check: either the set is complete, or the trip was wasted.
- The strategy of “I will file and send the rest later” no longer works. The only things you may send on your own initiative are the language certificate and notifications of changes (name, civil status, domicile, representation by a lawyer, a child born after filing).
- Replying to a commission query remains time-limited: no more than four months from receiving the request, otherwise the application is rejected as unsupported.
What to do
Before booking the filing appointment, check the set against the inventory rather than from memory: every event in the chain of descent covered by both a certificate and an extract; extracts no more than two years old; legalisation matching the issuing country; criminal record certificates obtained in every country required.
Where this comes from
We publish only what we have checked against the primary source. Here it is — open it and see for yourself.