Portugal finalises law that simplifies residence & work permit rules for CPLP citizens

Lisbon: CPLP law to allow nationals of these countries to enter Portugal as tourists and apply for a residence permit while being in the country has been signed.

The new law is expected to improve the diplomatic ties between Portugal and CPLP countries.

In addition, the validity time for permits has been extended to two years.

The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has signed the law for nationals of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), allowing them easier entry into the country.

Thanks to this law, nationals of the CPLP countries will be able to enter Portugal without a visa or on a tourist visa, and then apply for residence permits while being in the country. This will specifically apply to Brazilians and Timorese, who do not need a visa to enter the Schengen Area, Schengen.News reports.

We hope that people will be able to apply for a residence permit, which is a right under the CPLP mobility agreement, and that expired documents will be replaced quickly. It is important to emphasise that, with the new law, Portugal is complying with the agreement.

The format of CPLP residence permits will change and are not going to be granted on an A4 paper sheet but instead issued on a card, just like other residence permits.

In this way, Brazilians and other CPLP citizens will now be permitted to travel to other European countries since the new card document is recognised by the EU authorities.

In addition, the permit’s validity has been extended from one to two years. More than 150,000 people should benefit from the exchange of documents alone.

Soon, the CPLP page of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) portal will have a section dedicated to applicants from these countries but as of February 12, the website is still under development.

The CPLP countries include countries like Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Timor Leste and Brazil, which have been the country of origin for 148,239 Schengen visa applications in 2023.

According to statistics published by SchengenVisaInfo, nationals of these countries mainly filed visas for Portugal.

As the data reveals, 75.6 per cent of all visa applications that Angoleans filed in 2023 were for Portuguese visas. Applicants from Mozambique filed 20,313 visa applications, 66 per cent of which were for Portugal.

Applicants from Cape Verde filed 18,341 visa applications, 91.1 per cent of which – 16,725 out of 18,341 visa applications were for Portugal.