President of AIMA, Pedro Portugal Gaspar, was called to the Constitutional Affairs Commission of Parliament to talk about the modifications in the Nationality Law, but answered few questions.
The president of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), Pedro Portugal Gaspar, presented, on Thursday (11/09), in the Parliament of Portugal, the situation of the expressions of interest, an instrument that was extinguished and allowed foreigners who wanted to live in the country to apply for residence permit. “We have a liability in relation to this situation. What AIMA did was create the logistics the structure to solve the issue. At this time, 90 percent or more of this matter is resolved,” he said.
According to government data, when the coalition between PSD and CDS took power in April 2024, AIMA had about 900,000 permanent residency processes, of which more than 440,000 linked to the expressions of interest. This data may not correspond to the actual number of foreigners trying to legalize themselves in Portugal, since some left the country and others, coming from Portuguese-speaking nations, in the face of the delay in obtaining the document, also requested the residence permit by the CPLP (Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries).
To resolve the delays, the mission structure of AIMA was created, with more than 20 posts throughout the country, to expedite the processes of obtaining the residence permit. Employees of this structure, however, complain that they have been working in a precarious situation and immigrants, that the residence cards are not being delivered.
The other questions of Members were left unanswered by the person responsible for AIMA. Portugal Gaspar did not respond to the average waiting time to obtain the residence permit and if, during the period with expression of interest, it is considered as a legal or illegal resident in the country.
It has also left the parliamentarians without answers about whether there is an interconnection between AIMA and other institutions, such as the Institute of Records and Notary (IRN), about how many cases are the cases of the anchor babies – in which, with children born in Portuguese territory, parents can apply for residence permits – and about the number of stateless persons who are in Portugal.
Regarding the human resources currently used by AIMA, Portugal Gaspar said that, from February – the last time you were in the commission – the number of employees of the agency for migration increased by 9%.
With regard to applications for residence permits, the President of AIMA did not specify numbers. “In terms of concrete data per requirement, the trend that has occurred, is that around 50% are of Lusophone matrix. I wouldn’t be able to give the exact percentage,” he said.