Agency for Migration has trained all people who work in the 20 mission centers to serve immigrants who will exchange printed bonds on A4 sheet of paper for plastic cards.
The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) is prepared to meet, at any time, the more than 150 thousand citizens of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) who will exchange the current residence permits, on A4 sheet of paper, by plastic cards, within the standards of the European Union, with two years of validity. This replacement was approved by the Assembly of the Republic and sanctioned, by decree, by the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, on Tuesday (11/02).
To enable the exchange of CPLP residence permits, AIMA has made a training process for all employees who work in the 20 mission centers (task force) spread throughout Portugal. “It was a whole day of preparation,” he says, to PUBLICO Brazil, one of the people who coordinate the work. According to her, the expectation was that the decree approved by Parliament would be signed by the President last February 3. “But he preferred to meet all the deadlines provided for in law,” he adds.
The more than 150,000 holders of the residence permits of the CPLP will be summoned by e-mail, reinforces the same source, which requested anonymity. “All are registered on the SAPA platform, which was used by SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service) when there was the issuance of bonds in 2023,” he explains. “Those who, for some reason, do not receive notification from AIMA should seek the agency. There will be a report on this,” he said. The procedures will be the same used by the mission structure since the work began in September 2024, with the collection of biometrics.
The government decided to expedite the exchange of CPLP cards because the mission centers are already becoming empty, since most of the 400,000 immigrants who were pending lawsuits, regarding the manifestations of interest, have already gone through the screening. “Now, the attendances in the centers are residual, those who have been denied applications and are having a new chance to regularize the situation and those who have recently benefited by the legislation, for having stayed in limbo after the end of the expression of interest. In this case, specifically, there are not many people,” he said.
The criminal background
The 20 mission structure centers will operate by May 31, 2025, as provided by law. “For this reason, too, the Government wants to expedite the exchange of CPLP documents and leave little to be done by the normal posts of AIMA until June 30, 2025, the deadline to tidy up the house in relation to immigrants,” the same person of the coordination highlights.
It makes a point of pointing out that there will be much rigor in the conference of the documentation of those who will exchange the CPLP titles, because when they were launched, many people migrated from the waiting line of expression of interest for the new regime. In this process, document verification was not effective as it is now. All will have to insert the documentation in the AIMA system, including the proofs of criminal record, and pay the fees defined by the Government.
For the lawyer Catarina Zuccaro, it is very important that AIMA acts with rigor, but also with agility to solve the cases of people who have had titles won for almost a year. In addition to not being able to leave Portugal, under the risk of being extradited from other countries in Europe, CPLP holders of the residence permit have struggled to access public services. “AIMA itself does not accept this document in cases of family reunification,” he says. “This, even if there is a government decree extending the validity of residence permits expired until June 30, 2025,” he adds.
In the opinion of lawyer Tatiana Kazan, it is important that the Government makes it very clear how the exchange of CPLP bonds will be. “People need to prepare well for this, so there are no hits,” he points out. She recalls that, in recent weeks, to accelerate the care of immigrants with pending cases, AIMA has started to make appointments such as less than 24 hours in advance and in places far from the homes of the summoned.
“This type of procedure harms people, because there are documents that have expiration dates and are not obtained immediately, in addition to being expensive,” Tatiana emphasizes. She goes further: “Those who exchange the documents will have to wait a long time for the cards. They won’t arrive at the expected speed, as we’re seeing now.”
The two lawyers do not know how to say yet when the Government will open the lock of the AIMA portal aimed at the citizens of the CPLP who want to apply for residence permit already in Portugal. This possibility is also provided for in the decree signed by the President of the Republic. “This will be a second stage,” believes Catarina.
By the decree sanctioned by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Brazilians and Timorese will be able to enter Portuguese territory as tourists and, if they find work or decide to study, they will have the right to apply for residence in the country through the AIMA website. The other citizens of the CPLP will need visas to enter Portugal. “This facility will require a lot of control from the authorities,” says Tatiana.