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Immigration

Immigration policy, visa changes, and the expat experience in Portugal.
AIMA Reimposes the 10-Senha Daily Cap on Lawyers at the Porto Loja With a 12h–16h Window — Three Cases Per Advogado Per Day Against a 200,000-File Court Backlog, Less Than a Year After the National Cap Was Lifted by Protocol With the Ordem

AIMA Reimposes the 10-Senha Daily Cap on Lawyers at the Porto Loja With a 12h–16h Window — Three Cases Per Advogado Per Day Against a 200,000-File Court Backlog, Less Than a Year After the National Cap Was Lifted by Protocol With the Ordem

The Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo has quietly reimposed the ten-senha daily cap on lawyers at its Porto loja, with access squeezed into a four-hour 12h–16h window. Público's Vicente Nunes reads the new rule on the ground on Saturday...
The Portugal Brief
Assembleia da República Ratifies the 2023 Lisbon Acordo on School Equivalence Between Portugal and Brazil — Ensino Fundamental and Médio Get Automatic Recognition, the Embassy Drops Its 16,000 Yearly Validations, and Higher Education Stays Outside Scope

Assembleia da República Ratifies the 2023 Lisbon Acordo on School Equivalence Between Portugal and Brazil — Ensino Fundamental and Médio Get Automatic Recognition, the Embassy Drops Its 16,000 Yearly Validations, and Higher Education Stays Outside Scope

The Assembleia da República closed the third anniversary of the Cimeira Luso-Brasileira on Friday by voting through the Acordo Complementar ao Tratado de Amizade, Cooperação e Consulta entre Portugal e Brasil, the 22 April 2023 Lisbon protocol that...
The Portugal Brief
Jean Barroca Confirms Undeclared High-Income Foreigners Are Drawing the Tarifa Social de Eletricidade — Government Will Tighten the 2016 Auto-Assignment Rules After IEA Flags 760,000 Households, the Same Count as Spain at a Quarter of the Population

Jean Barroca Confirms Undeclared High-Income Foreigners Are Drawing the Tarifa Social de Eletricidade — Government Will Tighten the 2016 Auto-Assignment Rules After IEA Flags 760,000 Households, the Same Count as Spain at a Quarter of the Population

Energy Secretary of State Jean Barroca said on Friday that high-income foreigners who do not declare income in Portugal are drawing the tarifa social de eletricidade through automatic enrolment. With 760,000 households enrolled — identical to Spain — the rules will be tightened.
The Portugal Brief
More Than 500 Golden Visa Holders Prepare a Collective Lawsuit Against the Portuguese State Over the New Nationality Law — Liberty Legal, Fresh Portugal and Prime Legal Argue Breach of Legitimate Expectations as the Five-Year Path Doubles to Ten

More Than 500 Golden Visa Holders Prepare a Collective Lawsuit Against the Portuguese State Over the New Nationality Law — Liberty Legal, Fresh Portugal and Prime Legal Argue Breach of Legitimate Expectations as the Five-Year Path Doubles to Ten

More than 500 ARI holders, most of them North American, are coordinating a class action against the Portuguese State after the new Nationality Law pushed the citizenship clock from a five-year submission count to a ten-year residence-card count. Liberty Legal, Fresh Portugal and Prime Legal lead.
The Portugal Brief
MAI Suspends 11 Beja Police Officers Implicated in Operação Safra Justa Six Months After the November 2025 PJ Raid — 10 GNR Plus 1 PSP, the 500-Migrant Cabeça Gorda Network and the Disciplinary Channel Finally Catches Up With the Criminal Channel

MAI Suspends 11 Beja Police Officers Implicated in Operação Safra Justa Six Months After the November 2025 PJ Raid — 10 GNR Plus 1 PSP, the 500-Migrant Cabeça Gorda Network and the Disciplinary Channel Finally Catches Up With the Criminal Channel

MAI confirmed on Tuesday it has suspended 10 GNR militares and 1 PSP agent — all from Beja — implicated in Operação Safra Justa, the November 2025 PJ-led human-trafficking case targeting a Cabeça Gorda network that controlled 500 foreign agricultural workers in the Alentejo since 2023.
The Portugal Brief
President Seguro Signs the New Nationality Law Into Force — Naturalisation for Non-EU Residents Doubles to 10 Years, CPLP and EU Citizens Move to 7, and Birth-Right Citizenship Tightens to a Five-Year Parental Residency Test

President Seguro Signs the New Nationality Law Into Force — Naturalisation for Non-EU Residents Doubles to 10 Years, CPLP and EU Citizens Move to 7, and Birth-Right Citizenship Tightens to a Five-Year Parental Residency Test

President Seguro signed the new Lei da Nacionalidade on 3 May 2026, doubling naturalisation residency to 10 years for non-EU/CPLP applicants, raising it to 7 years for EU and CPLP citizens, and tightening birth-right citizenship to a 5-year parental residency test.
The Portugal Brief