Cant we find the official rule on this so we can present it to them of they have a different opinion?
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Even if you’re right - arguing at the airport, especially with the helpers in vests, isn’t really going to get you anywhere or be a great idea. Like, press back a bit but trying to read the law to them is misreading the room and everyone’s roles.
Yeah it probably isn’t easy, but if you have the rules / law printed off in Portuguese with the part highlighted that is relevant then it would be hard to argue against it, but they still may say no.
No I’m saying that the attendants aren’t there to debate with you about which line you go into. They’re operating on whatever instructions they have, and are just trying to get everyone in roughly the right place and keep things moving.
Just to add an experience leaving on an expired residence card via Munich on a Passport with Schengen Access. In Munich they could not see my actual place and time of entry. I told them the date/place in Portugal and they calculated my remaining days based on staying on a tourist visa since that entry.
I have had many entries and exit via Portugal over the last year on an expired card and I assume Portugal has just been clearing that data each time I leave/enter which is why Germany could not see anything.
I will enter back via Italy on an expired card next month. Since I had a December renewal appointment I am expecting the card any day. Does anyone know if there is anything I need to do once that card arrives to switch from a tourist visa to the new card? Should I just make sure my next exit is via Portugal or should I do a quick run out/in of Schengen via Portugal before my remaining tourist visa days are out?
Just another data point for our scenario. We are still waiting for our first residency visa from our GV application. We have visited Portugal 4 times from the US in last year entering from US to both LIS and OPO. This last week was the first time that I got any questions entering the country. The agent asked about other visits I had in past 90 days (came in April 2026).
We are not over our 90 days in 180 day tourist stay but they seem to be a lot more diligent than our previous visits where it was a stamp and a high five.
I don’t think you need to do anything other than present your GV card and passport together when entering or leaving the schengen zone next time. Any ‘overstay’ will be ignored by the officer at that point.
In Lisbon, when leaving, there is a digital display showing in red or black the number of days in the zone. If it displays more than 90 in red the officer overrides it if you have a card. At least that’s what happened to me (the officer told me what he did)
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https://www.portugalresident.com/portugal-boosts-airport-border-controls-from-today/
More than 360 police officers are being deployed to Portugal’s airports from today (Monday) in a bid to speed up border controls and reduce long queues experienced by passengers since the introduction of the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES).
Let’s see what changes…
Had more fun experience exiting Portugal the other day.
Reminder: I still travel on a “long-time-ago” expired card + AIMA receipt.
The first officer tried to take my fingerprints/photo twice before giving up and sending me to another booth/officer. That’s despite me telling him that my bio is not on the EES system hence trying to scan me at the booth is probably futile as there is no data to match.. 
The second officer still tried to scan/photo me twice, before giving up.
Then they both had a bit of a joint consultation and asked me if I had any problem entering Portugal to which I responded negatively 
Finally, the second officer typed up the info from my AIMA receipt into his computer and let me out without stamping the passport. He said they don’t stamp passports anymore..
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We departed Faro on Thursday with one QR code and one expired card (no QR code). Went through the EU & residence card line without any issues. They didn’t even look at the cards, front or back.
Returned to Faro late Saturday evening (10pm) where there were probably 1000 people waiting in the immigration line. It was so long it was spilling out onto the apron where the buses are and the planes are parked. One Portuguese couple said that EU passport holders, etc can skirt the line and head for the EU passports line, which was a giant snake around the immigration hall. We followed suit and much to our surprise, it worked. We went straight through to immigration where a cheerful agent took out documents, scanned them, had a chat and we left. Took maybe 4 minutes. I think the non-EU passport holders might have had 4 hours wait.
This is the second time entering/exiting Faro with at least one expired card and we haven’t had a single question yet. Maybe they are less militant down here than in Lisbon. Either way we are grateful for the lack of harassment that others here have had.
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Something to be nervous about if you get waved through due to overcrowding 
EU officials say it is impossible to have the system open in some countries and not in others as it would lead to the “unfortunate situation of travellers stranded at border crossings”.
This could happen, for example, if a passenger from Britain entered the Schengen area at a border where the new controls were operational but left via a border where they were not. In this instance they would be at risk of being registered as overstaying their 90-day travel allowance in any 180-day period and refused entry on a future trip.
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You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave 
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Eager to avoid Lisbon airport’s random immigration SNAFUs for us legal residents with expired cards, we booked our return to Bangkok with Qatar via Madrid (top tip: Iberia sells these flights as code-shares out of Lisbon for less money than direct with Qatar).
The entry at Terminal 4 to the S terminal through immigration this morning where all the non-Schengen flights go from was horrendous and the only reason we got through in about an hour was that we gamed the system. Non-EU passport holders with or without EU residency must all go through the Non-EU queue. This queue was backed up to the bottom of the escalators at the transit station. If you know Madrid airport then you will understand how grotesque this makes the situation. We did not register, quite correctly, with the EES terminals but we still had to join the non-EU queue. The EU queue was short and flowed freely through e-gates.
At the top of the escalators, groups without children were separated off and joined a shorter queue for the e-gates which seemed a bit perverse. But the principle seemed to be that adults only would use the e-gates while groups with children must be manually processed. We also knew we would have to be manually processed but we followed the adults queue and diverted ourselves at the front to the manual queue without bothering with the e-gates. Many people were being rejected by the e-gates and there was a blitz spirit among the throng whereby a cheer and round of applause broke out when somebody successfully navigated the e-gates without being rejected. Even the staff seemed to join in the fun with broad smiles. This, after these people had been in a queue from the transit station for hours.
We joined the manual queue for no-kids with maybe 20 people ahead of us by this point and it moved quickly.
Now, the important bit. We handed over our UK passports, expired residency cards, the AIMA QR code document and verbally explained with a smile that we were residents in Portugal and do not have our new cards yet. The woman gave us a weary smile, stamped our passports, and let us through.
So entering/exiting though Madrid also seems to be fine for us if you can stomach the queues but they’re still stamping passports that Lisbon seems to have stopped.
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Ran into the same issue. The sign clearly says titulo de residencia. They looked at my GV card and said permanent residence only.
I had to wait in the general line.
Another reason to get GV-PR
Similar exit experience from Madrid T4S to Toronto a couple weeks ago.
Still waiting on 1st ARI card, so dutifully pre-registered at T4’s EES terminals (not busy at 7am on a Friday)… but this was pointless as nobody’s pre-registration worked once we got to the e-gates at T4S. So into a manual queue for all of us, with just 2 agents working.
Unlike your experience, no passport exit stamp in Madrid. I haven’t had an EU entry or exit stamp since March, and that’s with 3 or 4 EU flights every month.
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Just got through passport control flying OUT from LIS. Both my wife and I have valid unexpired ARI Visa cards and US passports, hers is the older style with the paper info page and mine is the newer with hard plastic
There’s a line for us to skip the ees registration thing, which is nice, but then you wait in the epassport line or manual line. We tried epassport and were both rejected even after multiple attempts. Guy told us to go to the manual line but then after we asked politely and a little bit pointedly and pointed out our visas, he told us to go through the eu line. No wait there, nice and easy
When you say the general line do you mean the all passport cue?
What do you mean by the manual line?
In another expat group, it was also mentioned that temporary residency card holders should now use either the e gates line, or the “all passports” line. Can’t use the EU line anymore.
Been using the EU passports line in and out of Faro without issue, with expired cards. Maybe Faro is less militant about these things. Wouldn’t surprise.