AIMA granted 386,463 residence permits until October 22 of this year, 60% more than in the same period in 2024, and estimates that the 50% reduction in the number of immigrants entering the country will continue.
These data were presented by the president of the board of directors of the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA), Pedro Portugal Gaspar, in an interview with the Conversa Capital program, on Antena 1 and Jornal de Negócios, published on Saturday night.
“On October 22nd we had 386,463 cards [de residência] in fact, new authorizations were issued throughout 2025, already with the final title of the card, because that is the final element. In the same period of 2024we had 236,030, so here we have an increase of 60%, 61%, around that”, he added.
According to the person responsible, most of these processes still correspond to situations involving people who entered Portugal under the expression of interest mechanism, which allowed foreigners in national territory to request a residence permit, especially if they already had an employment contract and Social Security discounts, and which was officially extinguished in June 2024.
Even so, Pedro Portugal Gaspar estimated that, as in 2024, this year the trend of reducing entries will continue, by around 50%, which should continue with the new Foreigners Law.
O new regimepromulgated by the President of the Republic on October 16, provides, for example, the limitation of visas for searching for “qualified work”.
A reduction in the number of entries will also represent a reduction in AIMA’s own revenue, through the collection of fees and fees, which will have to be compensated, but the person responsible did not want to talk about increases, only admitting updates in the amounts charged.
The president of AIMA did not want to comment specifically on the new law, but assured that the institution will adapt to the planned changes, particularly in relation to the type of visas.
Regarding renewals of residence permits, Pedro Portugal Gaspar said that the entry into operation of the Renovations Portal has, so far, prevented 32 to 33 thousand people from traveling to AIMA stores.
When asked about the unanswered telephone calls, the person responsible said that there were 20% of unanswered calls, out of a total of around 300 thousand calls in the first months of 2025.
Regarding the proceedings filed with the Administrative and Fiscal Court, for lack of AIMA schedulingthe president stressed that the institution was never condemned, because it always responded positively to the actions.
To respond to the pressure of requests, Pedro Portugal Gaspar defended a reinforcement of the institution’s staff, currently made up of more than 770 workers, after a 10% increase in the last year which, he said, will continue.
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