AIMA PORTAL and IN-PERSON nightmare: a detailed experience of a family of 5 trying to renew.
We have Canadian passports and are living in Lisbon, having INVESTED IN REAL ESTATE (bought our own house) about 6 years ago.
Our current permits (1st renewal) expired in January 2025. When AIMA started scheduling appointments for renewals, I requested appointments for all of us via the contact form. A few MONTHS later, only appointments for my wife and I were scheduled (kids forgotten) in Lisbon AIMA. The appointments (in September) were partly successful: my wife and I renewed for 185€ per card - the cards, valid for 3 years, came in the mail in December. However, AIMA staff refused to process the kids’ renewals -they said their hands were tied-, asking us to try to schedule again via the contact form.
I re-submited the contact form and a couple of months later the kids were scheduled for March 2, 2026 (two sons in Bragança AIMA afternoon, daughter in Castelo Branco AIMA morning). We laughed and decided to try to make a roadtrip out of it… to discover parts of the country we would never otherwise go to…
To our surprise, however, the sons were abruptly rescheduled to Porto on the same day and AT THE SAME TIME (10:30am) as daughter in Castelo Branco. Desperate to have our kids finally re-legalized, my wife and I decided to divide and conquer: she would go with our daughter to Castelo Branco, I’d go with the sons to Porto.
However, a month before: SURPRISE! AIMA announced the PORTAL was to become the only way to renew. What a convenience!
It was difficult to get access. First, the portal wouldn’t recognize the NIF of the investor and the permit number. Or the email address. Or it said the applicant was not legible. Or didn’t exist. Eventually, I cracked the code, matching the FRIST (very original) permit of the principal investor (my wife) to the email addresses I used when I auto-renewed the kids’ permits the first time on the old SEF portal (each kid had to have a different email address). I discovered that hack by going to the ‘recuperate password’ area. So I gained access, even though their permits expired in January and the portal is supposedly only for those that expire July onwards…
But… a new problem arose: the portal wanted me to pay first, before even asking me what kind of investment we have. And the price… 3700€ instead of 185€. Per kid, that is.
I didn’t pay. Decided to see what happens at the in-person appointments, which we had to attend anyway.
In Castelo Branco AIMA, my wife explained everything to them and they talked to the manager and finally agreed to process the application for my daughter’s renewal at 185€. Done.
Contemporaneously, the staff at the Porto AIMA also agreed that the permit should be renewed at 185€ (it’s the law), but said it absolutely must be done online. Email the online people, they said, or email the general email, they are only allowed to take the biometrics for the kids and that’s it - their hands are tied. I reasoned with them unsuccessfully and finally made a fuss, refusing to leave without proof of refusal and insisted that the police officer be present to witness it. It was fun, but now we are back in Lisbon empty-handed.
I really don’t want to pay them 3700 for their fantastic service (because trying to get the money back will be even more fantastic), so my plan is to complain through all channels and force them to fix the portal and re-set my kids’ profiles.
If any of you notice the portal changes to the correct fee for DEPENDENTS of REAL ESTATE INVESTORS or starts offering a selection of type of renewal, please post about it here.
Thanks for reading. I hope this helped someone.
PS: I just learned from another applicant that the fee on the portal is 185€ real estate principal investors. It seems the portal is not set up to take that fee for DEPENDENTS.
Real estate investors, please post here about your DEPENDENTS’ fees on the portal. If the fees are incorrect, we have to complain – make a fuss about it when we go for biometrics at AIMA, try to strong arm them into processing the files on the spot instead of the portal, fill out all the complaint forms available, write many emails. Otherwise, they won’t fix the glitch.
