Task force created for the regularization of immigrants in Portugal will end on December 31 next. Agency estimates that more than 600 thousand immigrants passed through the 20 posts of the structure.
The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) is already preparing for the closure of the Mission Structure, which has aggregated 20 extra jobs of care for immigrants since September 2024. All the work that is carried out today by this task force will be transferred to the traditional agencies of AIMA. For this, the public body has opened a series of competitions for the hiring of 86 technicians, which will be distributed throughout the country.
According to media reports, the closure of the Mission Structure on December 31 next is foreseen “under the terms of the Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 99-A/2025, of May 29.” Since the task force began in Lisbon, in the Hindu Center, then spreading to the country, more than 600 thousand immigrants have passed through the 20 posts over the course of a year, as informed by the president of the Mission Structure, Luís Goes, in a meeting with a group of lawyers on October 2 last.
In the same meeting, according to lawyers, Goes acknowledged that there is still much to be done by AIMA, especially to bring to immigrants the residence cards whose applications were approved. “By the way, there are many cards being returned, as the recipients are not being found. AIMA is sending emails to communicate the return and charging 29.20 euros for the withdrawal of the document”, informs the lawyer Klaudia Freitas, present at the meeting.
She also says that the president of the Mission Structure recalled that immigrants who entered the transition regime after the expression of interest will have until the end of this year to apply for residence permits. So far, about 20 thousand have made the request.
When, in June 2024, the government ended the expression of interest – an instrument by which foreigners were regularized in Portugal – there were people who had already entered the country, were working and contributing to Social Security, but had not applied for residence. For them, the transition regime was created. It is estimated that 50 thousand are in this condition.