Agree not directly relevant to GV.
But for AIMA to increase a fee by more than 4x, and demand it be paid within 10 days or the process you’ve been waiting forever for will be cancelled… wow. I guess it’s one way to slash their backlog of pending cases.
Shakedown.
Still just politicians talking (and not specifically about GVs), but fingers crossed…
Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro… once again committed to presenting a package of measures within the first 60 days of his duties: “in the space of a few weeks, we will have this plan for migration”.
…“No party today spoke out in favour of reestablishing” SEF, “as it existed”
There is a meeting today of the Conselho de Ministros to discuss immigration. Speculation that the government may seek to limit the “manifestação de interesse” residency route. We may hear more later.
That would be a massive shame. Thanks for keeping us updated Chris
According to the article, that’s what Chega is proposing. It should be noted that, just in the U.S. where massive influx of immigrants at the southern border is unsustainable, neither is the residency route through the simple “manifestação de interesse”. As every good programme, it could be (and probably already is) too easily exploited.
omg, what a car crash 
- the new body began operations in October 2023 with just 714 employees - 41% of the contingent from the former institution that would (on paper) have been available.
- "There are several mobility requests, estimated to represent the departure of 100 workers."
- AIMA points to the existence of at least 459,384 processes in progress as of October 29, 2023, the majority (344,619) of legalization through expressions of interest (for immigrants who are already in Portugal, without the need for legal entry into the territory).
- lack of a database that indicates the status of each process. So far, it has been possible to inventory the processes from 2022 and 2023, totaling 508", refers to the document cited by Expresso, which says that these numbers are defective. “There are no applications for golden visas, residence permits for students or those carried out as part of family reunification, for example”, he adds.
- AIMA also recognizes that “it is not possible to identify in a simple and reliable way the number of pending cases” with the information contained in the databases.
- AIMA speaks of the “obsolescence of technological infrastructure” which required “significant corrective and maintenance interventions to ensure responsiveness and minimum cybersecurity and information security standards”.
In related news…
- On Monday (June 3rd) the Government’s plan for migration will be announced. …The official presentation is scheduled for 4pm and DN knows that immigrant associations and other entities linked to the sector have already been invited. The plan was drawn up in recent weeks after representatives of all parties with parliamentary seats, associations, experts and the Agency for Migration, Integration and Asylum (AIMA) were consulted.
- Some of the details of the plan were outlined in the interview given by [the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro], which will be published this Saturday in DN.
Sounds like a fun place to work.
A normal company in this situation would:
–cease taking on new applications until the situation can be resolved.
–tackle the backlog one group at a time, while expediting each group using all available means (for example, auto renew all D2 applicants, then start on the next group)
–eliminate redundancies
–clearly communicate to those affected the plan and when their situation will be addressed
–normalize and accomodate those in backlog to assure that no one will be deprived of rights or benefits due to the backlog situation (e.g., send each person an email clarifying their status and providing assurances to third parties that they are legal; Also extend the legalization of expired permits well in advance)
As far as I can tell, AIMA has done none of these critical steps. Time to find a new person to run the agency.
Thinking they need to hire a forensic team, with experience in piecing together files after a major explosion.
So far they’ve inventoried 508 processes from 2022 and '23… leaving how many still unknown? Certainly all the GVs from that time period!
AIMA is not a company, but a governmental agency. It could not stop taking new applications if the law allows to apply. It is a government thing to solve. It should either limit immigration somehow or increase financing and stuff of the AIMA. Unfortunately the previous government have done nothing, only aggravated the problem, e.g. by the new law which started time counting for citizenship since manifestação. Of course, it was well accepted in countries who provided most immigrants via that route, and the number of people coming on Shengen visas with the aim of staying in EU increased.
The data is all there I am sure. It’s a problem that no one knows how to access or use it. If there are 400,000 applications, charge each person a “technology access fee” of 100 euros and hire a qualified company for 40M euros to fix the problem. Could be solved in 3 months time.
Another circus show will continue… 
Also lacking of budget for the internal infrastructure, but at the same time money is always available to support other countries.
Pitchforks time….
I wonder how much of the lack of GV processing is just that they are still in the Jan-May 2022 window where almost nobody even applied for the GV?
I’m not even the best developer but I’m pretty sure I could whip something up for them in a few weeks to inventory all the applicants and get things moving, at least a little bit.
Head of AIMA needs to go, and bring in someone that knows what the hell they’re doing
At this point my cat would be a more effective head of AIMA.
NUNO BOTELHO
À margem de uma visita ao Mercado do Bolhão, no Porto, Catarina Martins comentou a saída de funcionários da AIMA, noticiada pelo Expresso. Para a bloquista, a solução passa pela criação de uma “estrutura de missão” capaz de dar resposta aos processos pendentes que estão a entupir a agência. “Este problema não é novo, mas não se foi resolvendo ao longo do tempo. Desde 2019, o BE propõe que haja uma estrutura de missao para resolver estes problemas”, defendeu.
E acrescentou: “tem sido uma enorme irresponsabilidade que isto não tenha sido feito e os trabalhadores também devem sentir uma enorme frustação”, disse atirando a PS e PSD, os únicos dois partidos que tiveram funções governativas.
Também Mariana Mortágua defendeu que esta “estrutura de missão” pode ajudar a fazer a AIMA funcionar de forma mais “célere” e “competente”.
A coordenadora bloquista, que se juntou à campanha eleitoral para as europeias no Porto, criticou a proposta do Chega de suspender novas regularizações de imigrantes. “Se suspendermos autorizações de residência, vão haver mais imigrantes irregulares. Eles vão continuar a chegar porque o setor da agricultura, dos cuidados, da restauração continua a precisar deles”, explicou. E atirou com mira a Ventura: “Essa é uma não resposta que só vai aumentar a imigração não documentada”.
Neste contexto, o que significa “estrutura de missão”? Maybe something like “strike team” or “response group” to come in and address the backlog?
I’m no fan of BE generally but it’s good to have them on our side, at least, and advocating for something that will help people
