A Man Under a French Expulsion Order Is Arrested in Lisbon Over a Sham Marriage, a Crime Punished by Up to Five Years in Prison

The Polícia Judiciária (PJ, the Judicial Police) has arrested a 34-year-old foreign man in the Lisbon region on strong suspicion of a marriage of convenience. The police say he married a Portuguese woman, allegedly living in France, with the sole aim of obtaining a visa or residence permit in Portugal. The arrest was announced on Thursday 15 October. The PJ did not give his nationality.

The operation was carried out by the PJ's national counter-terrorism unit, the Unidade Nacional de Contraterrorismo. The investigation is directed by the Ministério Público (Public Prosecutor's Office) at the Lisbon DIAP, its department for investigation and prosecution. The man was due to be brought before a judge the same day for a first hearing, at which coercive measures can be set. No outcome of that hearing has been made public.

What the police say he did

According to the PJ's statement, the man:

• had already been the subject of an expulsion decision by the French authorities;
• was entered in the Schengen Information System (SIS) for removal from the Schengen area;
• had been notified to leave Portugal voluntarily, and was still trying to obtain residence through the marriage;
• used a forged Spanish national identity card that let him move freely around the Schengen area;
• travelled by bus rather than by air, which the police say was to avoid border checks at international airports.

A mobile phone was seized during the arrest. The PJ says it will help establish the facts in full. He is a suspect, not a convicted person, and nothing in the statement has been tested in court.

What the law says about a marriage of convenience

The crime sits in the foreigners' law, Lei 23/2007 (the Law on the Entry, Stay, Exit and Removal of Foreigners). Article 186 provides that:

• anyone who marries, or lives in a de facto union, with the sole aim of obtaining a visa, a residence permit or an EU Blue Card, or of getting round the rules on acquiring nationality, faces one to five years in prison;
• anyone who repeatedly or in an organised way encourages or sets up such marriages faces two to six years;
• an attempt is also punishable.

The offence applies to both partners: the Portuguese or EU spouse can be charged as well as the foreign one.

Under Article 188 of the same law, it is the PJ that investigates the crimes in this chapter of the law and related offences such as human trafficking. The PSP, the GNR and the PJ are required to share information on illegal immigration.

Article 186 has not changed since 2012. The September 2026 amendments that brought the EU Migration and Asylum Pact into Portuguese law (Lei 62/2026) did not touch it.

What this means if your own residence rests on a marriage

The crime turns on the sole purpose of the marriage. A genuine marriage or partnership is not an offence because it also brings a residence right.

Family-route applications are checked, and the PJ's caseload of these investigations has been growing, as we reported in May. If you are applying on the basis of a marriage or de facto union, keep evidence of your life together: a shared address, joint bills or accounts, and correspondence. If you are asked for it, you can show it. Our guide to family reunification with AIMA covers the documents the process asks for.

If anyone offers, or asks you, to marry for papers in exchange for money, that is the conduct Article 186 punishes, on both sides. Organising it carries the heavier sentence.

The Schengen alert in the background

This case involves an SIS alert issued by another member state, France. The consequences of such alerts are being tested in Portugal's courts: in rulings reported this weekend, appeal judges told AIMA that an alert alone is no reason to refuse a residence permit. They said the agency must look at the reasons behind the alert and consult the issuing state, although their own court is divided on the point.

Portugal also issues a large number of orders to leave the country, the second-highest in the EU between April and June, while few of them end in an actual return.

This article describes the law; it is not legal advice. If you are worried about your own situation, speak to a lawyer. If you cannot afford one, you can ask Segurança Social for legal aid (apoio judiciário).