For more than five years, residence permits have been administratively extended without the need to replace the documents, first because of the pandemic and then due to the large influx of immigrants to Portugal and administrative delays in regularising foreigners.

Today marks the end of the last administrative extension of Decree-Law 10-A/2020, which recognises expired residence documents as valid, which has led to increased demand at AIMA offices.

However, a government source told Lusa that the date was already scheduled and the overwhelming majority of people already have their documents or have already scheduled their renewals, now with biometric requirements and new parameters also imposed by European partners.

As long as they have scheduled and paid for the renewal, immigrants have their permit valid for 180 days, even after today's date.

"And even today, if they can't schedule an appointment, they can always do so in the coming days," said the same source, explaining that "it was necessary to establish a final date" for the automatic extension of the documents.

Since June, AIMA's mission structure has handled 74,000 renewals, and to date, 190,000 residence permits have been granted based on expressions of interest and 55,000 for citizens of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP).

Criticism

The decree-law, which has been extended since 2020, has been criticised by associations and political leaders because many immigrants have had trouble having documents that have expired in the rest of the European Union recognised.

This is a legal document that immigrants use to justify the expiration of their documents to authorities, a resource that will no longer be available.

The government and AIMA claimed that all digital channels are functioning so that immigrants can schedule the renewal of their documents.