The grandchild path follows article 1(1)(d) of the Nationality Law. It links you directly to your Portuguese grandparent. Your parent does not need to be Portuguese, does not need to have applied for citizenship, and does not need to be alive. They appear in the file as a documented link in the chain, not as a legal requirement.
Many people misread this rule. It looks like a contradiction: the parent is Brazilian and never applied for anything, yet the child can be Portuguese. That is exactly what paragraph (d) provides. The grandchild has a right of their own, which does not depend on any choice the parent made or did not make.
What the law requires of the grandparent
The condition that matters is the grandparent's, not the parent's. Paragraph (d) requires that the second-degree ascendant in the direct line (the grandfather or grandmother) has Portuguese nationality by origin and has not lost it. The grandparent must be Portuguese by origin, not someone who naturalized as Portuguese as an adult. To check this, you look at the grandparent's birth record in Portugal for an annotation of loss of nationality. If there is none, the condition is generally met.
The parent's role
Your parent is the documentary link. The IRN has to follow the full chain: you are the child of someone who is the child of the Portuguese grandparent. To prove it, you file your parent's full-text birth certificate. That document proves the link between the grandparent and you. Nothing else is required about that person's life, nationality or choices.
Depending on the parent's situation, the documents vary: - Born in Brazil: full-text birth certificate with a Hague apostille - Deceased: also include the death certificate to close the chain - Alive and Brazilian: nothing beyond the birth certificate
How this differs from the child path
This is where the most common confusion happens. On the child path (paragraph (c)), the parent is the Portuguese person. If your parent is Portuguese by origin, that is your path. On the grandchild path (paragraph (d)), the Portuguese person is the grandparent, and the parent is the middle link. If your parent never applied for citizenship, that is precisely why you are under paragraph (d), not (c). The two paths do not overlap.
What if the grandparent has died?
The grandparent's death does not block the application. Paragraph (d) does not require the Portuguese ascendant to be alive. What you need is the grandparent's birth record in Portugal, which proves they were Portuguese by origin. You order it from Brazil through the IRN's Civil Online portal or through CRAV, without traveling.
Júlia, from Fortaleza, is the granddaughter of a woman born in Coimbra in 1935. Júlia's father was born in Fortaleza, never applied for Portuguese citizenship, and died in 2018. Júlia gathered three birth records: her own, her father's and her grandmother's Portuguese record. She added her father's death certificate to close the chain. The application went ahead under paragraph (d) with no obstacle related to her father.
Linha Reta reviews your family's chain, drafts the declaration of intent and puts together the complete list of documents for your case. You order the records in Brazil and in Portugal, get the apostilles, and file the package with the IRN.