AIMA Mission-Structure Walks 385,000 New Immigrant Files to Deferimento — Leitão Amaro Reads Parliament 933,000 Notifications, 568,000 Atendimentos and 458,000 Residence Cards Across Manifestação de Interesse, CPLP and the Regime Transitório

Minister of the Presidency António Leitão Amaro walked into a joint hearing of the Assuntos Constitucionais and Reforma do Estado parliamentary committees on Wednesday 13 May 2026 with the most granular numbers yet on AIMA's mission-structure — the temporary task force the Government stood up to drain the residency backlog inherited from the SEF-to-AIMA transition. The headline number: the estrutura de missão has now produced deferimentos for around 385,000 new immigrants across three regimes (manifestação de interesse, CPLP and the regime transitório), with 370,000 of those people already holding a cartão de residência in their hand. On top of that, the agency's regular services and the mission-structure together processed a further 218,000 immigrant files through ordinary channels and the courts. It is the cleanest read parliament has been given since the June 2024 migration pivot.

The numbers Leitão Amaro put on the record

Speaking in response to PS and Chega questioning on the discrepancies between AIMA's and INE's totals, the minister itemised the operational tape of the mission-structure that took over the residency backlog:

• 933,000 notificações of pending processes routed into the estrutura de missão
• 568,000 atendimentos of pessoas únicas (deduplicated unique applicants)
• 525,000 decisões taken, of which 51,622 were indeferimentos
• 458,000 cartões de residência delivered to applicants
• Historically the agency attended around 200,000 people a year; in 2025 alone, AIMA plus the mission-structure handled 771,000 atendimentos

“Imaginem o sorriso na cara dessas pessoas quando viram esse cartão,” Leitão Amaro told the committees, framing the throughput as a “trabalho hercúleo” performed against an administrative inheritance in which “estavam pendentes milhares de processos no armário.”

The three regimes inside the 385,000 deferimentos

The 385,000 figure is an aggregate of three distinct legal regimes that the mission-structure was given to clear. Lusa's own breakdown of the minister's numbers reads:

Manifestação de interesse. The figure most associated with the pre-2024 system — third-country nationals who entered Portugal on a tourist visa and triggered a regularisation pathway once they could show contributions to finanças and segurança social. 445,000 people were notified under this regime, 264,000 attended, 256,000 decisions were taken — 229,000 deferimentos against 26,000 indeferimentos — and 225,000 residence cards have already been distributed under this leg.

CPLP mobility regime. The Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa authorisation — the document tied to the lusophone mobility accord, which until the regime upgrade permitted only stay in Portugal and not Schengen circulation. 215,000 notificações, 161,000 atendimentos, 153,000 decisões — 140,000 deferimentos and 13,000 indeferimentos — with 130,000 residence cards already delivered.

Regime transitório. The transitional regime parliament forced the Government to accept when the manifestação-de-interesse pathway was closed, covering people already in Portugal who had not yet started the regularisation process. 78,000 notificações, 37,000 atendimentos, 23,000 decisões — 16,000 deferimentos against 6,500 indeferimentos — with 15,300 residence cards handed out.

Renovações: the parallel current

Alongside the new-applicant tracks, the mission-structure has also been clearing renewals — foreign nationals who were already legal residents but whose autorizações had lapsed pending updated documents. Leitão Amaro put that leg at 193,000 notificações, 104,000 atendimentos, 92,000 decisões, with 87,000 deferimentos and 4,800 indeferimentos. This is the leg most relevant for expats whose existing cartões expired during the SEF-to-AIMA transition and who have spent the past 18–24 months in a documentary limbo waiting for a renewal slot.

The clearance ratios — two years on from the migration pivot

The metric Leitão Amaro pressed hardest is the percentage of each pending stack now resolved, almost exactly two years after the 3 June 2024 policy turn that announced a more restrictive migration framework:

• 98% of manifestações de interesse resolved
• 95% of CPLP processes resolved
• 87% of caducated-title renovações resolved

“Nunca tivemos nenhum processo administrativo que recuperasse pendências com esta eficácia,” the minister claimed, adding that the Government now “sabe quem são, o que fazem e onde estão todas estas pessoas” — a line that doubled as a defence against Chega framings of immigration as a security or welfare drain.

The 1.55 million / 1.03 million read

Asked by Chega about the absorption of foreigners into the welfare system, Leitão Amaro put the foreign-resident population at 1.55 million, of whom 1.03 million contribute to Segurança Social — a 66.5% formal-contribution share. Three further data points were placed on the record to push back against the “mitos da desinformação” framing: the share of foreign residents drawing Rendimento Social de Inserção is below the equivalent share among Portuguese nationals; the share of foreign children receiving abono de família is below the Portuguese share; and the per-immigrant proportion of social support is below the per-Portuguese proportion. The minister's framing rejected any “associação da imigração à criminalidade ou ao abuso dos serviços públicos.”

The pushback — apagões and atestados

PS deputy Pedro Delgado Alves told the committees that “a boa-fé de apresentação dos dados não é a melhor,” flagging what he called “apagões pontuais que afetam o escrutínio que o parlamento deve fazer às políticas públicas” — code for the data-discrepancy file between AIMA and INE that triggered Wednesday's hearing in the first place. Chega deputy Bruno Nunes used his time to revisit the freguesias-atestados file: “ninguém sabe quantos atestados de residência são passados. Continuamos a ter uma porta de entrada através das juntas de freguesia que não controlam os atestados.” Leitão Amaro pushed back: “os atestados de residência não são porta de entrada para nada,” and accused Chega of building a “perceção de descontrolo.”

What this means for expats and foreign residents

• The advocacy line that the backlog is unresolved no longer holds at headline level. 98% of MI, 95% of CPLP and 87% of renovações are now resolved — meaning the remaining files are a narrower, more complex tail rather than the indiscriminate armário of 2024.
• The cartão-de-residência leg lags the decision leg. Across the three regimes, 385,000 deferimentos have produced 370,000 cards in hand — a roughly 15,000-card gap that is the operational queue currently sitting between a positive decision and a physical document at AIMA's lojas.
• Indeferimento rates differ sharply by regime. Manifestação de interesse runs about an 11% indeferimento rate (26k of 256k); CPLP about 8% (13k of 153k); regime transitório about 28% (6.5k of 23k). Anyone still inside the regime transitório should price that elevated rejection rate when planning documentary support.
• The Schengen distinction on CPLP files remains. The CPLP residence authorisation under the mobility accord, in its original form, only permitted permanência in Portugal — not Schengen circulation. The 140,000 deferimentos do not automatically resolve that constraint; whether a given CPLP card now travels into Schengen depends on the specific regime under which it was issued.
• Renovações are now a parallel front. The 87% clearance on caducated-title renewals is the leg that most directly affects expats already legally resident before 2024 — and the 13% tail is where the bulk of the remaining documentary-limbo cases sit.

Sources: António Leitão Amaro, audição conjunta das comissões parlamentares de Assuntos Constitucionais, Direitos, Liberdades e Garantias e da Reforma do Estado e Poder Local, 13 May 2026; Lusa breakdown via Observador (13 May 2026); RTP (13 May 2026); Notícias ao Minuto (13 May 2026).