Fernanda Pontes is a Brazilian citizen and is a dual citizenship holder having obtained both Brazilian and Portuguese nationality. She holds dual citizenship due to the fact that she was born in Brazil before her parents immigrated to Portugal, but due to her marriage to Alvor de Souza, a citizen of Brazil at the time, she considered herself to be Brazilian since they were legally married. Consequently, Pontes maintained her nationality when she lived in Portugal and later on in her new country, Brazil. However, in 2021, after Alvor de Souza passed away, Fernanda Pontes lost her citizenship and was consequently required to give up her nationality (although, she retains her British citizenship).
The reasons for Fernanda Pontes’ citizenship issue are many, but some of the main factors include: she was married to an American at the time she qualified for naturalization, thus making her not entitled to certain benefits granted to spouses of US citizens who have acquired permanent residency in the United States, which included access to Social Security benefits. She did not disclose her marriage to Alvor when applying for the visa, which is against the law, nor did she list her husband’s occupation when applying for the visa. Furthermore, her citizenship was revoked by the Brazilian authorities when she served more than five years in prison in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam, which is considered a crime.
The legal battles that followed resulted in Fernanda losing both her naturalization and the citizenship of Brazil that she held. On appeal, the Brazilian Supreme Court found that Fernanda Pontes had fraudulently attained citizenship of Brazil by lying about her past and by misrepresenting information regarding her career and marital status. The Court found that Fernanda Pontes had concealed her true military record while working as a translator in Vietnam, which would have violated Article 8 of the Law of Brazil. The Court found that Fernanda Pontes had falsely claimed that her husband was a retired Army officer, when in fact her husband was a chef. The Court also found that Fernanda Pontes had concealed her real title as a housewife when applying for Brazilian citizenship, and that she had falsely claimed that she was the wife of a deceased Brazilian citizen when in fact she was not. Although the evidence presented by Fernanda Pontes’ defense team suggested that her defense strategy was plausible, the Court nevertheless found her guilty of fraudulency.