AIMA gives less than 24 hours for immigrants to attend service and away from home
With such short deadlines, requiring long displacement, many immigrants are not able to answer the agency’s calls with all the organized documentation. The risk of being rejected is great.
That the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) stepped on the accelerator in an attempt to zero the more than 400 thousand cases pending applications for residence permits in Portugal, there is no doubt. But there are also many complaints that the scheduling notices are coming less than 24 hours in advance of the scheduled dates and in places far away where the immigrants live. “This is creating several problems, as there is no timely for the preparation of documents, so that people warn companies that they will need to leave jobs and for detdowns,” says lawyer Priscila Corrêa. “I have followed several cases in this regard,” he adds.
For her, it is understandable that AIMA is expediting the markings to fulfill the Government’s promise to close all stranded processes by June 30 of this year. “That is commendable,” he acknowledges. “However, it is necessary to have more criteria in the analysis of each process, to understand the conditions of each immigrant. It is no use doing the scheduling that he expects so much, if there is no time to present everything that is required by the agency, "he points out. The lawyer says that, last week, an immigrant living in Braga received the appointment notice around 8 p.m., with the service scheduled for 7 a.m. the next day in Aveiro.
“My question is the following: why mark the service with less than 24 hours in Aveiro for a person who is from Braga, where he has a mission center at the Red Cross? It took a more careful look to realize that the best for this person, in such a short time, would be the service in Braga”, says Priscila.
According to her, the situation becomes more complicated for immigrants from South Asia, as there are documents that have a validity period, such as criminal background. “And in the case of this group of immigrants, there is no way to issue anything online, it takes time. At the very least, the schedules should consider the territoriality, that is, that immigrants are served as close as possible to where they live, not have a schedule for Guarda, even living in Lisbon.
Challenges for immigrants
The lawyer Raphaela Souza, is of the same opinion. “The schedules made by AIMA are finally moving forward, which is positive after months of waiting. However, the lack of predictability in the markings has generated significant challenges for immigrants,” he said. “Many have received the notice of service only one or two days in advance, which makes it difficult to provide the required documentation, communicate their employers or even travel to other cities within the stipulated deadline,” he said.
In Raphaela’s view, it is essential that the regularization of the markings takes place in a structured manner and with a reasonable period of time for applicants to be able to provide essential documents, such as home certificates of the Parish Council or criminal records of the country of origin duly apostilados.
“Otherwise, there is a risk that those who have waited so long for care will be harmed and see their processes rejected, further prolonging their uncertainty situation,” he says. “The evolution in the care of AIMA is an important step, but it must be accompanied by clear rules and time to ensure that immigrants can, in fact, benefit from the process,” the lawyer adds.
Sought by the Public Brazil, AIMA did not respond. This silence causes even more apprehension among immigrants, who fear losing the great opportunity they are having to finally regularize the documentation in Portugal. “There have been people waiting for the residence permits for two, three years,” says lawyer Tatiana Kazan. The ideal, she believes, is that everyone has the chance to be served in the mission centers (task force) created by the Government – there are 20 spread throughout the country.
Estimates indicate that since September 2024, when the first center was opened in Lisbon, more than 220,000 immigrants have been treated and have the processes in progress. Another 108 thousand had their residence applications in Portugal rejected, but will have a second chance to resolve the pending issues.
It costs AIMA nothing to give a deadline between the appointment notice and the date of service, so that everyone organizes. Just a little more care.
Rodrigo Vicente, lawyer
Double schedules
It is not only the very short deadlines of the schedules and the distance between the residences of the immigrants and the places of care that concern. The lawyer Rodrigo Vicente says that there has been duplicity in the appointments by AIMA. “There are immigrants who have resorted to the courts to ensure care for the agency and are being called to go to the mission centers. They are also called by the normal procedure. We have cases where the appointments are separated by minutes, one at 5:30 p.m. and, the other, at 5:57 p.m. There’s really something wrong with this scheduling system,” he says.
Not just. “Immigrants have received messages about schedules on Saturdays and Sundays to be answered on Monday. Not all people check email messages on these days. Thus, they end up losing the markings, which is very bad, "says. “It costs AIMA nothing to give a deadline between the appointment notice and the date of service, so that everyone organizes. Just a little more care,” he recommends. “We take the rush to solve processes that drag on for years, but everything is done with discretion, so that everyone can take advantage of the opportunities,” he emphasizes.
Disorganization is also not justified, because even if everyone is treated in the drowning, it will be like a funnel, with bottles ahead. “Even if all the more than 400,000 immigrants with pending cases are met by June 30, most will have to wait for months to receive the residence cards,” says Vicente. “There is a long way to go, and the more organized the regularization process, the better for everyone.”