AIMA Reopens Family Reunification Requests on Its Online Form, With a Separate Option for Relatives Still Abroad

Family reunification is back on the online contact form of the Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (AIMA, the immigration agency), twelve days after the option disappeared without notice. The form now has a subject of its own, "Reagrupamento Familiar", with two separate appointment requests: one for relatives who are already in Portugal and one for relatives who are still abroad.

The two options appear in the live subject list of AIMA's contact form, which we checked on Wednesday morning. Their settings show both were created late on Tuesday 10 November. AIMA's news page carried no announcement when we checked.

Relatives already in Portugal

This request is for holders of a valid residence permit, or one being renewed, whose relatives entered Portugal legally and are still here legally. You must tick a declaration that you meet at least one of the conditions in Article 98(3) of the Foreigners Law (Lei n.º 23/2007, as amended by Lei n.º 61/2025), because Article 103(2) now allows an in-country application only for those relatives. The form asks three questions and blocks submission if you answer no to all of them:

• Do you have dependent minor or incapacitated children? Upload the child's passport and proof of the situation.
• Is your spouse or partner the other parent or adoptive parent of such a child? Upload the spouse's passport and the child's birth certificate.
• Was your permit granted under Article 90 (teaching, highly qualified or cultural work) or Article 121-A (EU Blue Card)? Upload a copy of it.

For each relative you then give passport details, nationality, date of entry and relationship, and attach a passport copy.

Relatives still abroad

The second request covers family outside Portugal and follows the three routes in Article 98. You qualify if you have held a valid permit for at least two years and the relatives lived with you or depend on you; or for at least 15 months, where your spouse or partner lived with you for at least 18 months immediately before you came to Portugal; or if one of the Article 98(3) exemptions above applies. Each answer asks for proof, such as how long you have held your permit and that you lived together. Parents, dependent adult children and minor siblings under your guardianship can be listed only under the two-year or 15-month routes, or by holders of an Article 90 or 121-A permit.

AIMA's page on relatives abroad explains what follows approval: the relative obtains a residence visa and, after entering Portugal with it, goes to AIMA to apply for a residence permit.

What this means for you

• Do not apply twice. If you already asked for an appointment through the reunification portal, the transitional-regime contact form or a court ruling, AIMA says a second request will cause delays.
• Holders of study, unpaid traineeship or volunteering permits can bring only a spouse and minor or incapacitated children (Article 99(3)).
• This is an appointment request, not the application. You must bring every legally required document on the day, listed on AIMA's in-country page. If you miss the appointment, the request is deleted.
• Timing: AIMA has nine months to decide (Article 105). The law lets it extend that once in complex cases, except for applications under the two-year and 15-month routes.
• Fees are set in AIMA's fee table.

We reported on 31 October that family reunification had vanished from the form. The same form gained a permanent-residence appointment request on 4 November.