The new facility opened this week by Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) is off to a strong start, slated to process more than 200 cases a day in its first week of operations — but it may need to process almost five times as many if further capacity isn’t added and the agency wants to clear out its backlog of cases by next June.
António Leitão Amaro, Minister of the Presidency since 2024, said the new facilities at the Hindu Community center in Lisbon’s Telheiras neighborhood processed 240 people on its first day of operations, representing a more than 25% boost over the 1,000 cases processed daily on the rest of the AIMA network, according to Observador.
That network has 34 “lojas” across Portugal, according to AIMA’s website.
The minister also said that capacity at the new center is expected to “almost double” by the end of the month and during October, according to Público.
“How often have the Portuguese seen the State, in a short time, increase its response capacity? It’s happening because the Government streamlined a plan,” Leitão Amaro said, according to Observador.
That’s great news indeed.
But AIMA’s plan is to process more than 400,000 outstanding cases by June next year, which is in a little over 37 weeks.
That means the agency will have to process more than 2,150 cases per day to hit its goal — and if the rest of the AIMA network stays at the same 1,000-per-day rate, the new center will need to go through 1,150 — or more than four-and-half times as many as it’s processing this week.
Also, this from last month: Portugal’s Immigration Agency to Strike Until Year-End
Meanwhile, anyone hoping to show up at the Hindu Community center should curb their enthusiasm: it’s only open to those with an appointment, something that apparently many people who showed up without one on the first day of operation didn’t know.
AIMA did issue a statement on its website at some point earlier saying that the new center only accepts visits by prior appointment.
This is what it says about two other centers in Lisbon (translation from Portuguese theirs, not ours):
“Loja AIMA LISBOA I, on Avenida António Augusto Aguiar, will now be dedicated to the Reception of Processes, at the usual time (from 9am to 5pm) by appointment, the Issue of Second Vias and the Delivery of Titles (these from 12 noon to 4pm).
Loja AIMA LISBOA II in Anjos is open exclusively for informations, without prior booking, from 9am to 5pm, depending on daily capacity.”
AIMA also used the statement to urge everyone with a pending case to update their email and mobile phone number.
No information was provided on how to do that.
But the AI bot IReNe from the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado gave us this information:
“To update your contact information for your residency case with AIMA (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo), you should contact AIMA directly. You can do this through their website at https://aima.gov.pt/pt/contactos, by email at geral@aima.gov.pt, or by phone at (+351) 217 115 000.
Please note that the IRN (Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado) is only responsible for the reception of renewal requests for residence permits and does not have the authority to handle initial requests for residence permits or to update personal data for ongoing processes.
If you encounter issues with the online service or are unable to perform the automatic renewal, you should contact the IRN via email at siags5@irn.mj.pt. Provide your identification data, the number of the residence permit, the reason for the renewal, and if possible, proof of the impossibility of automatic renewal.”
Let us know if that works for you!
