The law is clear, the AIMA QR is valid only for Portugal. Other EU countries have no way of checking your residence extension and in fact in Reddit, you will see many people that got denied entry or boarding by airlines. From non-Schengen country, I can fly to Portugal and enter with no issues. But I am unable to fly to -let’s say- Denmark or Italy because either the airline will not allow me to board or the visa officers in those countries will deny entry. If I fly to Portugal and then take an intra-EU flight, I might get lucky and no one may check my residence card, but that is again i) still risky ii) annoying, since if I had a card, I would have flown directly.
The only way to eliminate risk is to apply for a tourist visa to my destination country as if I have no residence in Portugal.
EDIT: OBVIOUSLY this post relates to people who do require Schengen visa (or EU Card) to travel to EU, if your passport already allows you visa-free travel to EU, this post is OBVIOUSLY not applicable to you.
Am I correct that you are on an ARI visa? My lawyer told me recently that only non ARI visas require a NISS. So is this a change - that ARI visa holders do require a NISS?
Update: Yesterday, August 10th, my husband received his card (renewed directly at AIMA Cacém in October 2025). The waiting time was 10 months. The card is valid for 3 years from the date of the final decision.
Yes I’m on an ARI visa. And like you I was also told we didn’t need a NISS, and in fact haven’t had one for previous renewals. Seems like a new thing. I think someone posted an announcement earlier in this thread. In any case, this option to get one in the portal is a very rare case of AIMA making a tech functionality that (for now) actually works as intended!
Thank-you, it seems like I learn more here than from my lawyer.
Do you know if this is only on the online renewal system? For those who had appointments late last year and the cards are still not issued, I wonder if we will also need a NISS?
Hello, Sinan, what do you mean by the AIMA QR Code? I am preparing for the renewal of the first GV cards in few months but also at the same time, planning for our visit which is likely to happen after the GV cards will expire. Is it the QR code you get on the renewal receipt?
That is right, once you apply for renewal (pay the fees and submit the docs), AIMIA provides a letter with a QR code, which allows you to travel to Portugal (along with your expired card) while you wait for your new cards. The distinction is that it is recognized only in Portugal, so you cannot travel to other EU countries using that QR.
You do have the right to be as conservative and risk-averse about your own travel within the Schengen area but “cannot travel to other EU countries using that QR” is far too definitive a statement and it’s also highly misleading and should not be taken as gospel truth. First of all, many GV holders with expired residency cards and the QR code are happily travelling inside the Schengen area both by car and by plane without any issue whatsoever. We are. We have flown to Madrid with these documents (the airline checks your passport as ID against the ticket and not any right to residency upon boarding). We are driving to Seville with these documents (no border infrastructure any more and no document checks). We will be going to the Canary Islands in October with these documents. That you are choosing not to travel within Schengen is up to you. There is a massive difference between travelling within Schengen and exiting/entering Schengen through a third country (ie not Portugal) where there of course is a risk that the immigration officer checking your passport and legal right to be in Europe may not know or care of AIMA’s difficulties but we have personal evidence from Madrid airport and anecdotal evidence (from others on this forum) that third country immigration officers can accept these documents and will let you pass. Nevertheless, for the risk averse, I would agree that it is advisable to enter and exit Schengen through a Portuguese port to avoid unnecessary rigmarole.
I can assure you that all these people with expired PT residency cards and an AIMA document with a QR code, including ourselves, are not sitting here feeling or in practice being trapped within the country. Now, I am speaking as a British passport holder and I do not otherwise need a visa for any other Schengen country but we would still need to register with the EES if we did not have (physically expired by still technically valid) Portuguese residency cards and yet nowhere have we been asked to stand in front of those biometric machines at any port of entry or exit.
Again, you do have the right to be as restrictive about your travel within Schengen according to your level of comfort (which, as you have said, is no travel whatsoever) but we have to allow other GV holders to travel as freely as they want within Schengen for the eight, ten, 12 months or more that we wait for AIMA to fulfil its most basic of functions.
With all due respect, you are not in a position to advice people if you hold a UK passport. For UK or US passport holders, Schengen visa was never required anyway.
We are talking about people who require visa to travel to EU. I was personally denied boarding on a plane to Copenhagen (from Dubai on Emirates) as the airline was clear that they had no evidence that I have legal right to enter EU. And they are 100% right unfortunately. Yes if you travel to Portugal and take a car to drive around the EU, you will probably be fine but it does not mean it is legal. If you need to deal with police in the other EU country for whatever reason, they have full right to deport you.
Portugal’s extension rules apply inside Portugal only. Foreign authorities are not bound by Portuguese decree law. A Schengen border guard in another country can legally reject someone entering with an expired card regardless of whether Portugal considers that card still valid.
Perfect. Full disclosure. That’s why I was clear that I have a British passport. You made a sweeping statement that appeared to apply to every GV holder with an expired residency card because you did not clarify that you were referring to your type of passport and your confidence travelling in and out of Europe or indeed around Schengen/Europe when you would otherwise need a visa. Also, you’re talking about what I am sure was a distressing situation when you were trying to enter Schengen through a third country (in your case Denmark) to get to Portugal and that should not be mixed up with travel within Schengen.
Anyway, we do agree on the first scenario and we will have to agree to disagree on the second scenario which comes down to one’s own perspective on the situation.
If you travel within Schengen Zone with expired resident card issued by Portugal and you are stopped by local police, then there are two possible scenarios:
Scenario 1: you showed them the expired card + your passport (UK US Japan Singapore… or any country that does not require visa to enter Schengen). Police will smile and happily let you go freely.
Scenario 2: you show them the expired card + passport (from a country that is required visa to Schengen). Immediately you are arrested and most likely you will be blacklisted because you are illegal at that particular moment. You will probably be deported and very highly likely it will affect the residency process in Portugal.
Scenario 1: Individuals exempt from the Schengen Area visa requirement are entitled to stay for 90 days within any 180-day period. If you reside in Portugal, you likely have no remaining days available for travel within the Schengen Area; therefore, you may only travel there if you are carrying your valid physical residence permit card.
If you do not reside in Portugal but have the 90 days available and entered via Portugal, you face a secondary issue: upon entry, you are not registered in the system as a tourist and consequently do not appear in the EES entry/exit control system.
Being expelled from any Schengen Area country is a ground for disqualification from obtaining Portuguese nationality.
You are 100% right. However, in reality, police is unlikely to open the passport and do the counting to see that if the person exceeds 90 days or not. Unless the guy is involved in a car accident or some sort of criminal activities and he needs to be checked more thoroughly than usual. Normally, if you show a US UK passport, off you go. If you show Chinese/Indian passport with an expired card, arrested and deported!!!
How many NGers (with UK US passports) that have experienced the 90 days counting at the passport control or by local police inspection?
The tracking system still shows the old process from 2024 as completed.