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Immigration

Immigration policy, visa changes, and the expat experience in Portugal.

The Rua Augusta Arch on Praca do Comercio in Lisbon, its white stone sculptures and central archway framed by the yellow arcaded buildings of the square

AIMA Counts 1,585,854 Foreign Residents at the End of 2025, and One in Six Is Not Holding a Valid Residence Card

The agency's Migration and Asylum Report for 2025 puts Brazil at 31.1 percent of the total for a sixth year and Angola second. Some 261,443 of the people counted as resident are pending cases or expired titles awaiting an appointment.

The Portugal Brief 22 Sep 2026

The long white neoclassical facade of the Palácio de São Bento in Lisbon, seat of the Portuguese parliament, with the national flag flying above its columned portico under a clear blue sky.

Portugal's Immigration Agency Is About to Lose Its President Two Years Into a Five-Year Term, and Parliament Hears Him on Tuesday

The parliamentary economy committee hears Pedro Portugal Gaspar on Tuesday over his designation as a board member of the Competition Authority. He has led AIMA since July 2024 on a five-year mandate. The competition seat runs six years and cannot be renewed.

The Portugal Brief 21 Sep 2026

The interior of a Portuguese Espaço do Cidadão public service office, with staff at numbered red and white desks serving citizens and others waiting on chairs along the wall.

Two Fields Have Vanished From AIMA's Permanent-Residence Form for EU Citizens, and the Check Now Runs Itself in About Half an Hour

From 15 September, EU nationals and their family members applying for permanent residence through AIMA's renewals portal no longer supply a NIF or a NISS. The agency verifies both automatically. The fifteen-day and three-month statutory deadlines are unchanged.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The bronze coat of arms of the Federative Republic of Brazil mounted beside the doorway of the Brazilian Embassy in Lisbon, on a pink rendered wall

The Estatuto de Igualdade in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Porto Seguro Treaty Statute That Puts Brazilian Residents on the Same Footing as the Portuguese, and the Six Doors It Leaves Shut

A free statute, open to any civilly capable Brazilian holding a Portuguese residence permit, that grants the same rights and duties as a Portuguese citizen. What it gives, the six offices it withholds, the Brazilian voting rights the political half suspends, and how you find out you have it.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

The Urgência entrance of the Hospital de São José in Lisbon, with ambulances queued beneath the red sign and the Castelo de São Jorge on the hill behind

Half the Foreign Visitors Treated in Portugal's Emergency Rooms Carry No Cover, and the Health Inspectorate Wants the Fee Taken at the Door

IGAS has asked two Local Health Units to consider charging non-residents on entry to the emergency department rather than at discharge, and to add a compulsory check-out point. Its own survey found 92,189 non-residents treated in nine months of 2024, 49.3 percent with no cover at all.

The Portugal Brief 19 Sep 2026

The steel and glass roof of Terminal 1 at Lisbon airport seen from below, with overhead signage reading partidas departures and terminal 2 above the concourse

Portugal Offers Its Border Officers 160 Euros a Month Backdated to July, and 230 From Next Year, to Stop Them Leaving the Passport Desks

The supplement is aimed only at the PSP's air-border unit and the GNR's coastal and border unit. The ministry says it is meant to prevent a new degradation of the service, and the unions have not accepted it.

The Portugal Brief 18 Sep 2026

The Palácio de São Bento in Lisbon, seat of the Portuguese parliament, seen from the street corner with the national flag flying above the portico.

The Interior Minister Would Put Offenders' Nationality in Next Year's Security Report, and the 251 Percent Figure Behind the Debate Is Mostly One Residual Category

Parliament debated the 2025 internal security report on Wednesday. Luís Neves said he is open to adding a nationality column to the 2026 edition. The report itself shows that 838 of the 1,205 immigration-related occurrences sit in a heading it never itemises.

The Portugal Brief 16 Sep 2026

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