Portuguese government publishes decree that makes life easier for CPLP citizens, who have been waiting for two years for a document that will allow them to get formal jobs, open bank accounts and rent real estate
Lisbon — The Portuguese government fulfilled its promise and published, this Tuesday (28/02), in the Diário da República (DR), an Ordinance that allows citizens of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) to obtain, in automatically, residence permit in the European country. The document will be valid for one year and will allow about 175,000 citizens of CPLP who are in the queue of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) to leave illegality. Applications were made between 2021 and 2022 and were stuck in bureaucracy, preventing many people from getting formal jobs, opening bank accounts and renting real estate. In total, according to the SEF, there are more than 290 processes stopped, including all nationalities.
The measure, according to Ordinance 97/2023, signed by the Minister of Internal Administration, José Luís Pereira Carneiro, is part of the Mobility Agreement between the Member States of the CPLP, signed in Luanda, Angola, in 2021. only a fee of 15 euros (BRL 84) for issuing the residence card. The prospect is that, after a year, the renewal of the document will be done without major inconvenience, since the Portuguese government is interested in the permanence of this contingent in the country, since there is a lack of manpower.
According to lawyer Fábio Pimentel, from the Pimentel Aniceto office, CPLP citizens who have expressed an interest in residing in Portugal are exempt from presenting health insurance, return ticket to the country of origin and also from proving means of subsistence in Portuguese territory. “This is a huge opening in relation to other immigrants, who need to provide proof of all these elements,” he said. There will be no need for beneficiaries to go to SEF to obtain a residence document. It will be up to the agency itself to make the contacts.