This was posted a little while ago by Sara Sousa Rebolo of Prime Legal, reporting on a meeting held between lobby group PAIIR and AIMA representatives on Friday:
First of all, please note that this meeting with AIMA was held by PAIIR but with input from several of its members and fellow lawyers with whom we have been working together to ensure that the applicants’ interests and concerns are heard and safeguarded – not only before AIMA but also before the political parties.
The meeting was quite long and focused not only on the current backlog situation but also on several questions of legal interpretation of the current law (technical details that I’m skipping here).
It was attended by:
• The Coordinator of AIMA Golden Visa Unit
• The Director of the Department of Administrative Procedures and Quality
• the Director of the Legal Competence Center for Migrations).
The main points we would like to share are the following:
• A new platform for Golden Visa applications has already been adjudicated, which will allow for a faster and fully online processing of the entire procedure, including payments, and will enable biometric data to be collected only after final and formal approval. It is expected to be launched by January 2026 and will apply only to new cases.
• Due to IT constraints, the information and cases in the current platforms in principle will not migrate, so ongoing cases will continue to be processed through the existing channels also to avoid the raising of more IT problems. There is a goal to grant appointments for all renewal backlogs by October 15th, and for all concession pending investors by the end of this year.
• Several efforts are indeed being made in the back office to overcome the pending cases, which, although not visible yet, have already led to significant efficiency gains that will soon have an “external” effect.
• As for the criteria for order of processing, they remain chronological according to the DUC payment date, except for cases with positive court decisions and some more recent cases used as “tests” for new internal AIMA procedures.
• Regarding court actions, currently most only benefit from a positive decision if the applicant demonstrates actual physical residence in Portugal. The number of cases filed in court was so high that AIMA is still processing court cases from 2024 only.
• Regarding re-submissions, the department is now waiting for the lists of re-submitted cases to be made available in order to proceed — in chronological order of re-submission — with the respective notifications for appointments. September is expected to finally be the turning point in the current situation. AIMA will take responsibility for the delay and will not request new criminal records from investors (unless internal checks reveal something requiring clarification). The AIMA GV team has already been reinforced and they are also hiring more legal staff.
• AIMA is making an effort to allocate the available slots between concession and renewal cases and to have uniformized interpretation on similar situations, through the request of official internal orientations.
• Currently the new GV renewal form only allows for investors, with family members being permitted in a second phase. Importantly, the appointment notifications will indicate whether the applicant must attend in person or may be represented by a lawyer. In any case, the documentation must always be presented, as well as compliance with the minimum stay requirement.
• Renewals of extinct investment options shall pay the normal fee and not the GV fee, although they still benefit from the 14 days minimum presence rule.
• In this regard, it is important to recall that under Portuguese law the right to family reunification is granted only to applicants who have been formally approved, and therefore this rule will tend to become more evident in the processing of family members’ applications.
• After the biometrics are taken and the file is complete, the case will be approved within 90 days.
• IT-related issues (e.g., DUC payments not updated on the platform, cases not reopened, etc.) must be grouped and sent by the legal representatives by email. It is essential that representatives only repeat requests at reasonable intervals (at least one month between follow-ups), otherwise this only contributes to an endless snowball effect.
• Those who already have proof of a submitted or scheduled case will not be subject to fines or “blacklisting” for staying in Portugal while awaiting the final decision.
• It was confirmed that Permanent Residence for Golden Visa does not require maintenance of the investment. As for the minimum stay requirement (0 days vs. 14 days), a formal guideline from AIMA on this topic will be issued shortly for clarification.
• AIMA is aware of some errors in the new platforms and is correcting them to the extent technically possible.
• The recent new platforms and forms released are very sensitive regarding the information entered. If it does not match 100% with the ARI portal, it is very likely to generate an error.
In light of the above, and although it may seem that “nothing seems to change,” there are in fact many measures being implemented, and their effects will start to be felt soon. We could see that the AIMA team is indeed fully committed and working with maximum dedication to resolving the issues, putting in extra hours to make progress as quickly as possible.
Since there are many internal steps that are not visible to us — those of us on this side of the process — it is important to understand that Portugal has many obligations to fulfil when issuing residence permits, and it is AIMA that is responsible for ensuring these are met, coordinating the reception and validation of information from various entities that are directly and indirectly involved in the process and that work with their on timings and priorities.
In this respect, it is essential that everyone collaborates in order not to block the normal functioning of the system — whether through court cases, incomplete applications with later submission of documents, or sending multiple emails on the same subjects. Human resources are limited, and each time one of these situations occurs, it means that staff must interrupt their “normal” functions and devote time to “exceptions.”
One final note, outside the scope of this meeting summary, regarding the recent amendments to the law:
- Although Parliament has approved amendments to the immigration law, the final wording will only be available after the President’s approval (and/or, eventually, a review by the Constitutional Court) and shall apply only to new cases. As such, let’s wait to see exactly what will be the final wording.
- Amendments to the Citizenship Law have not yet been decided — the Government has postponed the discussion until the end of September in order to hear stakeholders and thoroughly analyze the relevant information and data.
- The discussion on the Golden Visa legal framework has not yet begun. The Government announced it would take place after the summer, with the aim of improving and making the program more efficient.
- Much of what you see on social media and in marketing announcements is not entirely accurate, sufficiently detailed, or even applicable to your particular situation. Please save yourself the stress that comes from hearsay and check with your legal representatives — they will certainly be aware of the official and enforceable information and how it applies to your specific case.
Based on this, we would like to reiterate that AIMA considers 2025 a goal year and a time for “house cleaning.” So, let’s continue to exercise a little more patience and cooperate as much as we can. Rest assured that your lawyers want this resolved just as much as you do. Hopefully, by this Christmas, most of this instability and delays will already be behind us.
