Thank you! I’ve just requested to join!
This shows the evolution of the number of immigrants with residence permits in Portugal. It was around 300k to 400k throughout the 2010s and then spiked around 2019 and eventually went over 1 million in 2023.
Unfortunately great fodder for the politicians to blame everything on outsiders and pass all these laws 
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Yes - forgetting that without them Portugal’s population would be in decline which is the last thing a welfare state needs.
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Portugal’s immigration and citizenship system got overwhelmed because too many people were coming through different routes at the same time: Sephardic Jewish citizenship applications, Brits after Brexit, Ukrainians, the old “expression of interest” process, and people coming as tourists—especially from South Asia—and then trying to get legal residency.
Now Portugal has restricted a lot of these paths and made the process harder. Let’s see how it plays out.
To quantify, and using another view from Pordata.pt, the table shows continuing loss of "native’ population while a stunning YoY increase in immigration after 2020. Up through 2020, it was pretty steady then BAM! - parabolic. The stressors of getting flooded so quickly is real, yet the matters that concerns this forum is how balanced the treatment for those in the pipe are.
Not that this matters to most of us - other than to show that the TC can and will push-back against the right wingers if it is requested to weigh in.
The Tribunal Constitucional has (again) ruled on 8-May that “stripping an immigrant of their Portuguese nationality due to crimes committed is unconstitutional.”
The Government knew this bit would be controversial, thus sequestered it into a separate bill from the main Nationality changes. They’ve already said they’re not too fussed if it gets shot down by the TC (it was mostly Chega’s idea anyway).
This constitutional analysis was requested by the Socialist Party (PS) after the new approval of the bill in Parliament. This text amends the Penal Code, providing for an additional penalty of loss of nationality. The ruling party had decisive support from Chega in its approval.
It should be recalled that the text had already been rejected by the Constitutional Court judges previously . The Government adjusted the proposal in an attempt to comply with the rules of the Constitution. However, since the presentation of the text with the corrections, constitutional experts and opposition MPs have pointed out that the changes were not sufficient to make the measures constitutional.
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Here’s the only important thing ive found in the group I would assume if you sign up they will be in contact. The WhatsApp group feels like a mess and ive only joined a few hours ago.
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People are really really really really really terrible at staying on topic.
Lots of pointless speculation and tangents, and worse, tons of people posting “helpful” conversations they’ve had with their favorite LLM.
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I was thinking, for those of us who live in Portugal, is it reasonable to wait until the end of this year to find out if there will be grandfathering before deciding to move away?
For the rest of you who want to move away after the recent nationality changes, how long are you planning to wait this to pan out?
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We live in PT and we’ve been working on alternative plans the past number of weeks. Annoyingly, our residency cards have expired, April 1 ironically.
We are in the process of renewing, primarily to buy us time to sell our villa, pack up and move. We wish we didn’t have to renew just to leave but it feels like our only real option. We gave up on citizenship a few months ago. Trying to manufacture the simplest and most efficient path forward will require time.
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Funnily enough, my renewal was also close to yours. I kinda regret renewing in one hand and on the other hand I still have to sell my real estate here.
I still hope there might be some sort of grandfathering news by the end of the year that will keep me here. This is my 3rd move within EU and each time I had to give up 2-3 years of residence that was leading me towards passport.
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I really do wish we could have avoided handing over these renewal fees. One of our party of 3 is concerned about remaining in PT without a valid card. We can’t convince them otherwise. Apparently peace of mind has a price - €4500 to be precise. 
Good luck with your plans.
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If you live here what is the issue?
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It’s similar to a FB group chat. Not surprising, given Meta owns both.
But, FWIW, it looks like Risto just locked the group for the time being.
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My children have just received their biometric appointments from AIMA for December 2026 in Faro, but my wife still has not received hers, even though we all submitted our Golden Visa applications on the same day as one family application.
Is this considered normal with AIMA scheduling, or could there be another reason behind it?
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Not normal normal but i have seen this type of scheduling posted by others before
“Normal AIMA scheduling” is totally random, unfair and unpredictable. I’ve seen cases of AIMA scheduling appointments for babies before (and without!) their parents.
Suggest you post your update in this other thread where it’s more on-topic:
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A post was merged into an existing topic: WIKI: HOW-TO: Golden Visa Renewal Mega Thread (January 2025 →)
I can’t disagree with that!
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Are your children minors?
If so you / your lawyer could try emailing AIMA and saying that your wife will need to accompany your children anyway, therefore please do her biometrics at the same time. This strategy worked for my husband in 2023, when he had previously missed his own appointment due to work commitments.
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