News from afpop

Good afternoon to you all. Welcome to our additional Member Briefing for this week, specifically on the issue of Residency and visa validity.

This mailing contains information for Members who have EXPIRED Residency and visa documents and also for Members whose Residency document is due to expire in the very near future. If that is not your case, you can ignore this mailing. 

Expired Residency validity extension

The decree that was approved by the Council of Ministers and subsequently by the President has now been published and it declares that Residency documents that expired between 22^nd of February 2020 and 30^th of June 2025 will remain valid until 15^th of October 2025. The AIMA website has clear information in English about the new decree and the process of renewal for Residency documents that have expired and the ones that are due to expire soon. You can find that information here (please scroll down for English):

https://aima.gov.pt/pt/documentos-e-vistos-validos-e-aceites-ate-30-de-junho-de-2025-valid-and-accepted-documents-and-visas-until-30-june-2025

As you will see the information mentions that people with expired Residency documents will be contacted by AIMA (so no need to continue trying to book appointments for renewal). It also mentions that for Residency documents expiring in the near future, a renewal portal will be available online soon. We will inform Members when that portal is available.

Expired visas

The new decree Decree 85-B only mentions a validity extension for Residency documents and not visas, therefore it is our understanding that the validity extension does not include visas, even though that was always the case in the past.

If you have an expired Residency visa that needs to be changed to a Residency permit and you have not been able to get an appointment with AIMA, you can now request that on the AIMA contact form, please see further below.

If you have another type of visa (for example tourism visa, study visa etc.), which is not for Residency in Portugal, that has expired or is due to expire and you need to extend it, this can also be done on the AIMA contact form. This option was just added after the new decree was published.

We do know that some Members with expired Residency visas have tried the contact form, and it did not work for them for some reason (validation error – visa number not found or invalid). Unfortunately, we have not been able to get any information from AIMA as to why that is, so if the contact form does not work for you, we suggest emailing AIMA and ask what might be going wrong with your situation: geral@aima.gov.pt.

Please remember that if you came to Portugal on a Residency visa (D7 visa) and you already had your appointment with AIMA and a Residency card was issued, this is no longer considered a visa, it is considered a Residency permit.

AIMA contact form

The form created by AIMA can be found here: https://contactenos.aima.gov.pt/contact-form. 

AIMA has expanded the options for what can be done on this form the last months, at present the options are:

• Residency permit (replace lost/damaged document, change a Residency visa to a Residency permit, renewal of Residence permit for investment)
• Change of data - no appointment needed (change of nationality, address, passport number, gender or email address)
• Change of data – appointment needed (rectify date of birth, name, signature, rectify/insert NIF, NISS or State healthcare number or apply for change of marital status)
• Visas/Vistos (apply for a validity extension)

There is also an option for renewal of EU Residency certificates/cards (application for permanent Residency for EU citizens and family Members), HOWEVER as we have mentioned earlier in our Briefings, this option does not seem to work because the document numbers for EU citizens (on the Residency certificate and the Residency cards that are expired or due for renewal) do not have 9 digits. We have been waiting to see if this fault would be corrected by AIMA but it seems to still be a problem. We will naturally keep our Members updated about this situation.

In the contact form, make sure to read carefully about the mandatory documentation you should attach and be sure not to exceed the MB size allowed per file.