The Portuguese government has allocated €5.97 million to AIMA to expedite the regularization of over 400,000 pending residency applications, before deadline set for June 30, 2025. This initiative addresses the need to regularize immigrants, and demands from employers facing labor shortages. Government invested almost €6 million to AIMA to speed up pending immigrant residency cases. Out of the 450,000 pending files, more than 200,000 applications have been processed. As per local reports, at least 6,000 people who have already been to AIMA centers have received their residence cards.
What Led to Backlog?
The stockpiling of applications were caused by series of events…
- Cases accumulated from Covid pandemic times.
- Transitioning from SEF to AIMA
- Last minute applications filed by property investors for Golden Visa (ARI), with the last date set for Oct 2023.
- Shortage of staff and service centers.
- Delays in visa centers abroad.
AIMA Gets Funding
Government allocates almost €6 million to AIMA to speed up immigrant residency to decentralize application processing in cooperation with municipalities and civil society organizations improving the quality of service to immigrants. The money will fund investments in technology to collect biometric data from immigrants and in more staff to screen documents at service centers. The Capacity of AIMA service centers increased AIMA’s capacity from 800 to 6,000 people per day. The staff at Portugal embassies abroad has also been increased to address delays in visas.
Lawsuits Filed
AIMA is facing over 21,000 lawsuits caused by delay in processing applications for residency. The Supreme Administrative Court acknowledges that the overload of lawsuits against AIMA and a shortage of personnel are crippling the Lisbon Administrative Court, delaying justice in Portugal. Between October and November 2024, over 21,000 cases were filed, linked to delays in processing immigration regularization, with 450,000 pending cases. With only 33 out of 45 required court officials active, the court is prioritizing “AIMA Cases” but faces criticism for delays.
Streamline Applications
The following measures were introduced to streamline application processing with minimum hassle. Residence Card validity issued for two years for investment fund clients and three years for property investors.
- Portugal has extended the validity of all residence permits until June 30, 2025. All expired residence permit is considered valid until this date within the territory of Portugal, provided the holder schedules a renewal appointment with the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).
- Documents in English, Spanish, or French no longer require translation.
- Applications awaiting their initial biometric appointments will be prioritised Biometric appointments will be scheduled from 15 January 2025, in chronological order of document uploads. Appointments can be scheduled between 30 to 90 days in advance.
- Final fees are to be paid at the biometric appointment (payment only accepted by card). Refunds issued for rejected applications.
- Waiting times count toward “residence period” for citizenship, from the date of payment of residence authorization.
Citizenship Applications
Portugal is also struggling with influx of citizenship applications, waiting times have been high upto two years. According to local news reports, The Secretary of State for Justice, Maria José Barros, highlighted the significant increase in applications for Portuguese nationality, which exceeded 1.4 million over the past six years, including 300,000 in 2022 alone. During a parliamentary hearing, she acknowledged that the Ministry of Justice is concerned about the growing demand. Although new Nationality platform launched by the IRN in 2023 aims to streamline the process, waiting times remain high. Currently, urgent applications submitted in the second half of October 2024 are being processed, while non-urgent requests have been pending for up to two years.
