We had some trouble with that a couple weeks ago when we were flying from LIS to the US. There was a spanish guy on loan working at the booth and he didn’t know what to do with the paper - he told us he was looking for the QR code. He stepped away from the booth and called someone. About 10 minutes later he came back and apologized and said it was fine, he just wasn’t familiar with that type of paper. When we flew back in last week, no problems beyond the insane line.
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Thank you so much for this!
Hi, has anyone taken a direct flight from outside of Schengen zone to Portugal with an expired resident card but have an active renewal application thru the new online process and the supporting Recibo Comprovativo de Pedido with the QR code? Will airlines accept the document? Trying to get real experiences and not AI generated answers 
Yes. See below. 
Airline didn’t ask for anything, just a valid passport.
We’ve flown with an expired residency card and our receipt for renewal payment (which we received at our biometrics), no qr code, and entered via Frankfurt as residents with no issues, departed Madrid as residents with no issues, departed Porto as residents multiple times with no issues, and just a very clueless immigration agent entering as residents in Lisbon, who took a couple of minutes to even realize the card was expired, then noticed for how long (March 2025),then looked at the renewal receipt, I said “it’s Aima” then shrugged like what do you expect, then he let me through. But he clearly had zero idea of what was going on with the expired cards or what proof to expect.
I have a us passport, so just trying to limit the days taken from my 90/180 tourist allowance.
My husband got declined trying to enter in Athens as a resident so they took his biometrics and he had to enter as a tourist. The immigration agent understood and had heard of the delays, but wouldn’t budge.
Our renewals have now been tacitly approved, so we’re going to carry that approval with us as a back up. We’re thinking it may have more weight entering/exiting not directly to/from Portugal than the proof of payment for the renewal.
Our residency is valid, it’s just the card is expired, is the story we tell if asked.
Could you briefly tell me how you did the tacit approval? My renewal biometrics were in December 2025 and I’ve still not gotten approval.
Thanks
In the interest of diluting “alternative facts” with the truth, “Deferimento Tácito” is an explicit legal process to force summary approval of a renewal after 60 business days of inaction. Here is a detailed guide to tacit approval:
Here is an official government page documenting tacit approval:
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Thank you, that was exactly what I needed.
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Our attorney handled it for us. Looks like you got some detailed advice from someone else!
It’s not the panacea that people may think it is. My lawyer sent a registered letter to AIMA months ago giving demand for tacit approval. No response. That’s not to say you shouldn’t do it, because you definitely should. Just don’t expect it to be immediately effective.
It’s possible that it has been effective for some people with ARI, but I have not seen any reports of this yet. If you have received a certificate of tacit approval, could someone post a redacted copy to help others?
This discussion of tacit approval is way off topic here.
@tkrunning can you create a new thread for tacit approval or move these messages to an existing topic.