News from afpop

Good afternoon to you all and with the return of the hot weather, the return of the jellyfish along the coasts (see below), so please make sure that if you have visitors, particularly with children who might not have seen them before, that you instruct them not to get inquisitive if they see them on the beach. Leave them alone and go to the lifeguards to report their location.

Earlier this week we sent out an additional mailing about Residency validity extension, which seems to have caused a little confusion. The extension referred to in that mailing was for expired Residencies and if your Residency hasn’t expired then the information wasn’t relevant to you and, as I said in my introduction, you could simply ignore the e-mail. If your Residency is still valid there is no extension necessary. We’ll endeavour to make it clearer in any future information on this, but again any extensions are only referring to documents that have expired, so if your residency expires in 2027 for example, this doesn’t refer to you and your existing documents are not affected. There is an update on this below.  

Beginning with the jellyfish notice, here is this week’s information:    

Jellyfish awareness

The Portuguese Institute for Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) has shared reports of gelatinous organisms which have been sighted along the coast recently. The drum jellyfish was sighted in the municipalities of Tavira and Vila Real de Santo António and the Portuguese man of war only in the Azores in the channel between Flores and Corvo. 

If you see any gelatinous jellyfish, please report it to GelAvista program through the GelAvista app, available for Android and iOS systems, or to plancton@ipma.pt. This will contribute to the great monitoring of gelatinous jellyfish! For information on the precautions to take and which species are the most poisonous, please check HERE.

Albufeira – new code of conduct rules

We had already reported in an earlier Briefing that the Municipality of Albufeira has approved a code of conduct to prevent abusive behaviour, providing for fines for nudity and walking around in a bikini or swimsuit in public areas. As you might have seen in the press or online, the code has now come into force since Tuesday (24^th of June).

The objective “is to respond to the feeling of the population that, having verified that there has been abusive behaviour on the part of some citizens”.

The infractions for wearing a bikini or swimsuit outside authorised areas range from 300€ to 1,500€, and the fines also apply to drinking alcoholic beverages, urinating or defecating on public roads.

Camping in unauthorised areas, spending the night on public roads or spitting carries a penalty of 150€ to 750€, according to the code. 

The practice or simulation of sexual acts or walking completely naked on public roads ranges from 500€ to 1,800€.

New rules for motorised personal mobility vehicles

Starting from the 20^th of June 2025, it became mandatory to have civil liability insurance for certain electric vehicles, including those used for personal mobility. This requirement applies to:

• Vehicles with a maximum speed exceeding 25 km/h 

• Vehicles such as electric scooters, electric bicycles, electric motorcycles, unicycles, Segways, weighing more than 25 kg. and with a maximum speed over 14 km/h. 

Equipment used exclusively by people with disabilities, such as electric wheelchairs, whose main function is to ensure assisted personal mobility, is excluded from the insurance requirement.

According to the official clarification from the National Road Safety Authority - ANSR, following are excluded from the obligation to have civil liability insurance:

• Conventional bicycles

• Bicycles with auxiliary motors up to 1.0 kW whose assistance cuts off at 25 km/h

• Electric scooters with a power output of up to 0.25 kW and a speed limit of 25 km/h

These modes of transport are classified as bicycles under the Highway Code (Article 112) and as such do not require mandatory insurance.

Expired Residency validity extension

A decree has been approved by the Council of Ministers to extend the validity of EXPIRED Residency permits until 15^th of October 2025. 

This decree will need to be approved by the President and published before it is formally in place. This should happen in the coming days because the previous validity extension will end on the 30^th of June.

The communication from the Council of Ministers only mentions Residency permits and not visas. However as soon as the law is published, we will indeed confirm that this validity extension also includes visas, as has always been the case in the past.

It was also announced that a digital platform for requesting renewal of Residency is soon to be made available by AIMA. We will keep a close eye on that platform and inform Members as soon as it is ready.

SNS - new support line

SNS is preparing a new support line for surgeries: patients will be able to know the waiting time and which hospital they can be operated in. The new National System for Access to Consultation and Surgery (SINACC) establishes a national database and a digital application where patients can manage their registration, choose facilities for their surgery and track the progress of the process. A telephone line will serve as an additional support channel, but the core of the system will be this online platform, with updated information accessible to all stakeholders, from patients to hospitals.

The intention is to make the system more proactive and transparent, for example allowing private hospitals to propose performing surgeries even before being contacted by the SNS. 

As soon as we have information about when the new system is to go live, we will inform Members as always.

Summer events reminder

With the summer around the corner, we remind you of the website of the Algarve Tourism Board with events being organised this summer: https://eventos.visitalgarve.pt/en/

You can find details of events in other areas of Portugal here:

https://www.visitportugal.com/en/encontre/grandes-eventos/list 

Golf date

A reminder for the golfers that the annual Golf Tournament with MEDAL Insurance will take place at Penina (Alvor) on Wednesday 10th of September. As usual it will be a shotgun start at 8h45 and we will confirm all details in the August edition of UPDATE. Any Member wishing to take part in the tournament can register their interest by contacting the afpop office on info@afpop.com

Satellite Offices 

Please note that there will be no Satellite Offices in July and August. We will return in the month of September.

Social media

Please remember that you can always find us on social media HERE (Facebook) and HERE (Instagram).