Portugal launches new platform to regularise immigrants with employment contracts

Lisbon: AIMA has now launched its online platform to help the regularisation of immigrants in Portugal.

Immigrants with employment contracts contributing to Social Security before June 4, 2024, will be eligible to regularise their status.

The new changes are expected to accelerate the regularisation procedures for immigrants in this country.

The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) of Portugal has officially launched its online platform aimed at helping the regularisation of immigrants in this country.

The new changes mean that immigrants with employment contracts who were making contributions to Social Security before June 4, 2024, will be eligible to regularise their status, Schengen.News reports.

The new platform is expected to help accelerate the regularisation procedures for immigrants in Portugal.

Portugal’s expression of interest option permits internationals to legally reside in this country and apply for a job seeker visa, which makes them eligible for a residence visa.

However, the expression of interest mechanism ended last year, but foreigners had a transitional regime period until June 3, 2024, as part of Decree-Law No.37-A/2024 to secure an employment contract or job offer.

This led to more than 400,000 pending applications at the Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum (AIMA).

Lawyer Klaudia Freitas told Publico that the new initiative reduces the requirements previously stipulated for the residence permit.

Before, it was necessary to prove 12 months of contributions. Now, it is enough to have at least one month of contributions up to the stipulated date.

In addition, a lawyer specialising in immigration, Catarina Zuccaro, told Publico that the government’s decision brings benefits, in particular to workers who were not eligible to regularise their situation as a result of misinformation or lack of access to technology.

The platform is an opportunity for those who were in legal limbo and already contribute to Social Security, but it is essential that the discount be made by the employer. This excludes, for now, self-employed workers and those who make individual contributions.

In December 2024, the government of Portugal announced that it would give immigrants with residence permit applications rejected a second chance to apply to obtain this document.

The decision is expected to have an impact on nearly 108,000 immigrants whose requests were denied by AIMA after failing to pay the fees.

Announcing the decision, the Deputy Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Rui Armindo Freitas, as well as the president of the agency, Pedro Portugal Gaspar, said that there will be a new call so these immigrants can resolve all pending issues after many of them had their requests rejected after failing to pay the fees.