Local resident loses appeal on children’s residency

A permanent resident in Macau of Portuguese nationality has lost an appeal to the Court of Second Instance (TSI) in which she aimed to obtain for her two daughters the same residency status, the Office of the President of the Court of Final Instance has informed.
In the ruling, the TSI notes that although the mother was born in Macau and had acquired the status of permanent resident before Macau’s handover, at the time of the birth of her daughters (2007 and 2013) she was living in, and had moved her residency to, Portugal.
According to TSI, it had been asked to issue an opinion on an appeal from the Identification Bureau, after a previous decision of the Administrative Court that had told the mother that people can only acquire the status of a permanent resident of Macau under the provisions of article 1, number 1, line 6 of the Law 8/1999 when they are included in all the following conditions: 1) descending from a permanent resident of mixed ancestry (Chinese and Portuguese); 2) being of Chinese nationality (or not have yet opted for a nationality); 3) having been born outside Macau; 4) have been living and settled residency in Macau, and 5) having a parent (mother or father) that at the time of birth was also residing in Macau.
As the TSI further explained, regarding the first requirement, “although the mother of the two applicants is unquestionably a permanent resident of Macau” the applicants themselves only have “Portuguese blood,” failing on the requirement of also having Chinese blood.
Regarding the second and third requirements, the court stated that there is no doubt that the applicants do not have Chinese nationality and there is clear evidence that they had born in Portugal.
Concerning the fourth and fifth requirements, the court clarified that permanent residence is understood to mean “the usual place of residence, which tends to be stable and is the location where one’s home is, thus necessarily involving stability and continuity and being the center of a person’s personal and professional life.”
Since the mother of the applicants was, at the time of their birth, living in and had her professional life settled in Portugal, this means that she was no longer considered as permanently residing in Macau. Since the same applies to the children, as they had always been living with their parents in Portugal, several requirements to obtain permanent residency in Macau had not been met.