The exchange of expired residence cards will begin in July. Immigrants with biometric data and valid passports will be able to update their titles online, the Portuguese government promises
The countdown has begun for the renewal of expired residence permits in Portugal . There are exactly 374,587 immigrants in this situation, according to data presented this week by the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, António Leitão Amaro. The exchange operation is due to begin on Tuesday, July 1st.
However, it is important to pay attention to the entire process, as immigrants who are waiting to renew their documents will be contacted by the government via email. In other words, there is no point in rushing. Keep an eye on your inbox, including your spam box , to see if the notice about exchanging your expired residence permit has arrived.
The Government has decided that there will be two ways to renew residence permits: online, on a platform that will be launched by AIMA, or in person, at the agency’s 20 mission centers, whose extension was extended precisely because of this service.
The platform will only be available to immigrants who have valid biometric data and passports. In these cases, everything can be done online. Those whose biometric data and passports have expired will have to go through the AIMA mission structure to have everything updated, including criminal records, which can also be requested in the online system. The government is very focused on this security issue.
Therefore, the Government recommends that the more organized immigrants are with their documentation, the easier the process of renewing expired residence permits will be.
The same government, however, does not guarantee that all 374,587 immigrants will be served by October 15, a very short deadline established by a new decree to extend the validity of expired documents, even though the structure in place is prepared to handle the task, There is also no certainty that all new residence cards will be issued within the time frame desired by the immigrants.
The announcement of the extension of the validity period of residence permits that expired until October 15 was made by Leitão Amaro on Monday, June 23. The decree with this new deadline was forwarded on the same day for signature and promulgation by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, which occurred on Friday, the 27th. Now, the next step for the exchange of documents to be made is the publication in the Official Gazette, which should occur this Monday, June 30, exactly the day on which the decree in force expires.
The new decree will benefit immigrants whose residence permits expired between February 22, 2020 and June 30, 2025. Decrees extending the validity periods of these documents have been issued one after the other due to the difficulties in renewing them. Until the extinction of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) in October 2023, it was possible to exchange documents online. With the creation of AIMA, this service was largely transferred to the Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN), which does not have the adequate structure for this.
The president of the Registry and Notary Workers Union (STRN), Arménio Maximino said that there is a shortage of personnel to meet all the demands of immigrants, which range from document renewals to nationality applications . He emphasized that the IRN currently needs 40% more staff, which corresponds to 266 registry clerks and 1,981 registry officers. With the exchange of documents returning to AIMA, the IRN offices (registry offices) will be able to focus on other services. In the case of Portuguese citizenship applications alone, there are 700,000 processes stuck in the pipeline .