AIMA Adds a Permanent Residence Appointment Request to Its Online Form: Two Documents to Upload and Six Conditions to Meet

Immigrants who have held a temporary residence permit in Portugal for five years can now ask AIMA for a permanent residence appointment online. A new option, "Pedido de agendamento - Concessão Autorização Residência Permanente" (appointment request: granting of a permanent residence permit), appeared on Wednesday 4 November in the agency's online contact form, under the "Autorização de Residência" (residence permit) heading. The form's own data show the entry was created that afternoon.

AIMA is the Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum). Until now, the agency's contact form had no subject for a first permanent residence permit; our guide to permanent residence describes booking by phone.

What the request is, and what it is not

The new option is a request for an appointment. It is not the application itself. AIMA says the form is "exclusively" for booking an appointment to be granted a permanent residence permit under Article 80 of Lei n.º 23/2007 (the Foreigners Law), and that any request outside that scope, or from someone who does not meet the conditions, "will be disregarded".

Two files must be attached, no more and no fewer:

• a scanned copy of your valid residence permit;
• a document proving you have been a legal resident in Portugal for at least five years.

The six conditions AIMA lists

The form says an applicant must meet all of the following:

• hold a temporary residence permit for at least five years;
• not have been sentenced, during the last five years of residence in Portugal, to prison terms that alone or together exceed one year;
• have means of subsistence, as defined by law;
• have somewhere to live;
• prove knowledge of basic Portuguese;
• prove that tax and Social Security obligations are met.

The first five are the conditions in Article 80 of the Foreigners Law. The law adds that, for some serious crimes, including those under the Foreigners Law itself, terrorism and violent or highly organised crime, a sentence counts even if it was suspended (consolidated text, Portuguese only). Article 80 also says that time lived in Portugal before the 2007 law took effect counts toward the five years.

Once it is granted

• No end date. Under Article 76, a permanent residence permit has no time limit, but the card must be renewed every five years, or whenever the identity details on it change.
• Decision deadline. Article 82 gives AIMA 90 days to decide an application for a residence permit, which it can extend by 30 days in exceptional, justified cases. It must tell the applicant if it does.
• Refusals. A refusal must give its grounds and say how to challenge it in court. Since September, a refused residence application also carries a duty to leave Portugal, as we reported on Wednesday.

Not the same as EU long-term resident status

The same contact form has a separate option, added in December 2025, to book an appointment for EU long-term resident status (Estatuto de Residente de Longa Duração). It is a different status, set by EU rules, and it asks for four documents: the residence permit, a full scan of the passport, IRS (income tax) returns for the last five years, and a Social Security contribution statement. AIMA's description of it also mentions stable and regular resources and health insurance.

UK nationals covered by the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement have their own option, under the "BREXIT" heading, to move from temporary to permanent residence after five consecutive years.

Still missing: family reunification

When we read the form on Wednesday night, the residence permit heading still had no family reunification subject. That option disappeared without notice on 30 October. Renewals of temporary permits run through AIMA's separate renewals portal, which now covers permits expiring by 31 January 2027.

AIMA's contact centre is on +351 217 115 000, on working days from 09:00 to 18:00, according to the form page.