Portugal News

Lisbon, 30 September 2025 — Portugal’s Parliament is holding a decisive debate on the new Foreigners’ Law, with final votes expected at the end of today’s session. The government is locked in negotiations with the Socialist Party (PS) and Chega, though officials insist that key far-right proposals are not on the table.

The Socialist Party (PS) wants to eliminate deadlines for family reunification of minors, spouses or dependents in the foreigners' law and proposes that the general rule be one year, instead of the two years advocated by the Government.

These proposals were presented today at a press conference by the vice-president of the PS parliamentary group, Pedro Delgado Alves, on the eve of the parliament's debate and vote on the general, specific and final amendments put forward by the PSD and CDS for the re-evaluation of the law on foreigners.

The Minister of the Presidency admitted today that the proposed Foreigners Law could still undergo changes before Tuesday's vote in parliament and accused Chega of "mixing up issues"

António Leitão Amaro participated in the fifth meeting of the National Council for Migration and Asylum, which took place in Lisbon, where he presented the new proposal to amend the Foreigners Law and admitted, in statements to journalists, that "the law that will be voted on tomorrow [Tuesday] does not have to be exactly the same as the proposal that was submitted last Wednesday".

"If [the government] doesn't agree, we won't have an agreement. Because for us, this is a decisive point," warned the Chega leader. Leitão Amaro admits changes before the vote but rejects "issues that could be confused."

The president of Chega (the ruling party) set this Monday, September 29, as a condition for an agreement on the law on foreigners that the new legislation stipulate that immigrants must have five years of contributions to be able to receive social benefits.

The PSD and CDS-PP presented to parliament a new version of the law that regulates the entry of foreigners into Portugal without prior consultation "with any party," arguing that the text maintains the principles of rigor and control over immigration.

The new proposal to change the legal regime governing the entry, stay, departure and removal of foreigners from national territory comes after the first diploma was 'rejected' by the Constitutional Court (TC) and was presented today by the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro.

According to Leitão Amaro, AIMA will have solved 1 million pending cases by the beginning of 2026. He claims that in 2026 the agency will work “without a backpack”, referring to the delayed processes.

The new law, revised after the Constitutional Court's rejection, drops only one of the contested rules and relaxes some others, particularly regarding the integration of minors. But it maintains overall restrictions.

The Government submitted the new version of the immigration law, revising several articles, but dropping only one of the rules rejected by the Constitutional Court .

"While there's a serious debate going on about fires, MP André Ventura slipped away and is out there provoking immigrants in Portugal. This is a disgrace," said the PSD parliamentary leader.

The parliamentary leader of the PSD today accused the president of Chega of being an "incendiary", after André Ventura left the Assembly of the Republic's hemicycle to go to an immigrant demonstration in front of Parliament.

Hundreds of people in Portugal demonstrated this Wednesday in Lisbon, outside the Assembly of the Republic, demanding "documents for everyone." This is a protest against the government's immigration policy, organized by the association Solidariedade Imigrante. Timóteo Macedo, its president, claims that police authorities, on the same day, also carried out raids on foreign communities in areas of the Alentejo region, in the south, which have a large concentration of immigrant labor.

A new report revealed on 17 September 2025 that resident foreigners in Portugal obtain Portuguese citizenship at significantly lower rates than the European Union average. The findings point to barriers such as long legal residency requirements, integration tests, bureaucratic delays, and perhaps limited awareness of the naturalisation path. These obstacles often disproportionately affect immigrants who are already contributing socially and economically.