Welcome to the Week em Breve, a wrap-up of important Portuguese news to keep you up to date and in the know.
Portugal foreign ministry cancels all work visa appointments as “foreigners’ law” goes into effect
On Wednesday, the new so-called “foreigner’s law” went into effect, with its publication — in Portuguese — on the government’s official information mouthpiece, Diário da República.
That law includes stricter provisions on family reunification (except for qualified workers and golden visa applicants) and more stringent rules on proving adequate housing, and also limits work visas to highly qualified professionals.
The following day, Portugal’s foreign ministry canceled all appointments for work visas with Portuguese consulates or external visa service providers.
“Instead of a visa for job seekers, there will now be a visa for skilled job seekers, applications for which can only be made after the new typology has been defined by the new regulation, in line with the provisions of the new Foreigners Act,” the ministry said in an announcement (translation ours).
No further information was provided as to when and how that would take place.
As Público explains in its helpful summary of the new law (in Portuguese), the qualified work visa, per Article 57.º-A of the new law, “is aimed at holders of specialized technical skills, which will be defined by means of an ordinance to be issued by the Government” (translation ours).
No further information was provided as to when that would occur.
Assembly approves extending residency requirement for citizenship from 5 to 10 years
After postponing votes on the new nationality law three times last week, the Portuguese parliament reached consensus on one of its main provisions: extending the residency requirement to acquire citizenship to 10 years for all but citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa – CPLP), for whom the requirement will be seven years.
The law was previously five years of residency for all citizens.
The right-of-center coalition between the Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrata – PSD) and the People’s Party (Partido Popularo – CDS-PP), thanks once again to the far-right Chega party, was able to push through the vote despite opposition from the Socialists, who were in favor of only a slightly less lengthy requirement: six years for CPLP citizens and nine for the rest, according to CNN Portugal.
The Socialists also agreed to cut the transition period: after asking that the law only go into effect for those due to become citizens by the end of next year, they relented and agreed to only extend to those eligible by March 31.
The final vote on the nationality law is expected to take place this week.
The new law may or may not apply to golden visa applicants, meaning those buying residency through an investment of a few hundred thousand euros, even as that visa is now one of the most popular in Europe, according to The Portugal News.
But one consultancy offering help with obtaining second citizenship notes that the five-year minimum would be applicable to any golden visa applicants requesting naturalization until June 30, 2026 and/or whose “authorization process” starts before Dec. 31, 2027.
Other caveats for golden visa applicants are likely given the history of the program (including the exemption for family reunification under the new foreigners’ law).
AIMA extends validity of expired residency cards
Interestingly, it appears that at least some residents already eligible for citizenship under the current five-year requirement may still be waiting to renew their residency permits, at least according to Público’s take on what happened earlier this month.
In an Oct. 17 announcement, the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA, Agência para a Integração Migrações e Asilo) extended the validity of cards that expired before June 30 this year — whose validity had already been extended to October 15, according to Pûblico — to April 2026.
Cards that expired after June 30 will now have six months automatically added to their validity, meanwhile.
Those extensions are on top of all the previous extensions that AIMA has been issuing over the past few years as it finds itself unable to cope with the number of applications for renewals and the backlog of new applications.
According to Público, this means that the extension of validity to next April applies to cards whose original expiration dates back to February 22, 2020.
It’s unclear whether those with such cards will be able to apply for citizenship immediately or still wait for their renewal cards.
386,463 residence permits issued in 2025, but 50% reduction on the way: AIMA
AIMA has indeed been busy this year: through Oct. 22, the agency has issued 386,463 residence permits, which is 60% more than in the same period last year, Pedro Portugal Gaspar, president of the board of directors of the agency, told Jornal de Negócios last week.
Gaspar said he believes the government’s new measures will reduce the number of residency requests, which are already down by around 50%.
For anyone wondering why they can’t get through to AIMA by phone, Gaspar offered a glimmer of hope: the agency didn’t answer only 20% of the calls it received this year, he said in the interview.
