Parliament Rejects AIMA Court Decentralisation as 124,000 Cases Pile Up

The Assembly of the Republic voted down a bill from Iniciativa Liberal that would have distributed AIMA-related court cases across Portugal's administrative courts, rather than concentrating them exclusively in the Lisbon Administrative Court. The rejection leaves 124,000 pending cases exactly where they are — in a single, overwhelmed tribunal.

The bill was defeated by a broad coalition of parties: PSD, Chega, Livre, PCP, CDS-PP and Bloco de Esquerda all voted against. The PS, PAN and JPP abstained. Only IL voted in favour of its own proposal.

The Scale of the Backlog

The numbers are staggering. As of January 2026, the Lisbon Administrative Court had 124,000 AIMA-related cases on its docket, according to the Superior Council of Administrative and Tax Courts (CSTAF). These are predominantly injunctions filed by foreign nationals seeking to compel AIMA to schedule residency interviews — a step that has become a bottleneck in the immigration process.

The CSTAF has responded by temporarily assigning 50 additional judges to help clear the backlog. But the council itself opposed the IL bill, arguing that decentralising cases would not solve the Lisbon court's problems and could simply spread the crisis to other courts around the country that lack the capacity to absorb such volumes.

A System Under Strain

AIMA, created in 2023 to replace the former SEF (immigration and borders service), has been plagued by processing delays since its inception. The agency inherited a massive backlog of pending applications and has struggled to scale its operations to meet demand. For tens of thousands of foreign residents, the practical consequence is months or even years of waiting for basic documentation — residency permits, renewals, family reunification appointments.

The court system has become a pressure valve. When AIMA fails to schedule appointments within reasonable timeframes, applicants turn to the courts to force action. This has created a secondary crisis in the judiciary, with the Lisbon Administrative Court now drowning under the weight of cases it was never designed to handle at this scale.

Thursday's vote means the status quo persists. The 50 temporary judges represent a sticking plaster, not a structural solution. Until AIMA itself can process applications at the pace they arrive, the courts will remain the de facto backstop — and the queue will keep growing.