Tens of Thousands of Foreign Residents Get 60-Day Reprieve as Immigration Agency Pushes Renewal Deadline to Mid-June

Portugal's immigration and asylum agency, AIMA, has extended the validity of residence permit renewal certificates by 60 days, pushing the expiry date from 15 April to approximately 14 June 2026. The announcement, made on 2 April, affects tens of thousands of foreign nationals whose permit renewals remain stuck in the agency's backlog.

Who Is Affected

The extension applies specifically to renewal certificates linked to residence permits that originally expired on 30 June 2025. Holders of these certificates — predominantly immigrants who submitted timely renewal applications in 2023 and 2024 — have been living in a bureaucratic limbo, legally resident but unable to obtain a definitive permit card while AIMA processes their cases.

AIMA stated that "a significant number of pending cases had not yet reached a final decision," making the extension necessary to prevent legal harm. Without it, affected residents would have found themselves technically undocumented despite having done everything required of them.

The Backlog in Numbers

When AIMA replaced the former Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF) in October 2023, it inherited more than 400,000 pending immigration cases. The agency has resolved the majority of that mountain, but an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 cases remain actively pending as of early April 2026. These tend to be the most complex files — cases submitted when processing was at its slowest or involving documentation that requires additional verification.

The situation has been compounded by labour disputes within the agency itself. Cultural mediators, the subcontracted workers who make up nearly half of AIMA's effective staffing, went on strike in late March over precarious employment contracts. The underlying dispute over integrating mediators into AIMA's permanent workforce remains unresolved, raising the risk of further disruption in May and June.

What Permit Holders Should Do

Affected individuals should check their AIMA online account to confirm whether their specific certificate falls within the scope of the extension. Different permit expiry dates may be subject to different rules, and not all renewal certificates are covered equally.

AIMA has also raised its fees — increases of up to 33 per cent took effect on 1 March, the agency's first fee adjustment since its creation. For those still waiting, the financial and emotional cost of the backlog continues to mount, even as the administrative burden slowly shrinks.

The 60-day extension buys time, but it does not solve the underlying problem. With summer approaching and mediator strikes still a live threat, the pressure on AIMA to clear its remaining caseload before the next deadline will only intensify.