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Valid and Accepted Documents and Visas until 30 June 2025

AIMA:

IRN:

No suggestions, I'm afraid, only empathy. I am in exactly the same situation and also don't enjoy just sitting and waiting without any information. I have tried the same methods you describe with zero success.

Only the Decreto-Lei 10-A that Johnny refers to is keeping me in a job here at the moment, and the IRN are adamant that they will contact us, but time is running out for me as my residency expired over four months ago, and they suggest they will only initiate contact if the expiry is within six months.

AIMA is prioritising the processing of 400,000 pending cases left over from the previous government's immigration disaster. The current government has set a deadline to complete this process by 30 June 2025.

I honestly don't see what your problem is, since visas that expire by 30 June 2025 are accepted. The explanation for AIMA not renewing expired visas at the moment is this one.

Thank for your reply.  I guess I just wait.  Was trying to be proactive.

hopefully they will catch up soon..

I'm not sure I/we were making this out to be an enormous problem but sharing experiences of frustration. I learn most useful advice on the current situation from people on forums such as this and find the pooling of information helpful and occasionally re-assuring.

I hope you can appreciate that it takes a lot of trust in the promises made by (or on behalf of) a system - however well-meaning its intentions are - when that system is not available for you to communicate with, e.g. to indicate unusual circumstances.

It also takes a lot of confidence to make plans based on this trust. Many of us have come from hostile countries where allowing a residency to expire would come with serious, immediate consequences, and whilst I for one am grateful that Portugal is not inclined to be punitive, it remains uncomfortable.

One real problem of an unrenewed residency right now, is that I do not have the right to travel in and out of the Schengen zone so that I could visit friends. I will have to consider not having those rights -  which others who don't live in the Schengen zone currently enjoy - for up to a year an unfortunate inconvenience.

@sr_ianbell

Thank you for your response my feeling exactly. The IRN supposedly contacts you directly.

So sounds like it should be soon for you.

Sending good vibes..  I'm afraid I will be waiting longer

@stefano1966

My Residency Card expired on 14 October 2024. Online renewal is still not open for me. I've emailed IRN so many times and get the same generic answer they don't do renewals and that I must do it online. So frustrating.

Where are IRN suggesting that you renew online??!

My understanding from was that we must wait to be contacted with news of an appointment, though I have also heard that:

1. they are not able to renew in all cases
2. working chronologically, they are currently contacting those whose residency expired in August 2004, so it may be a few more months.

My residency expired in September 2024, so I will be more than happy to report back if I hear from the IRN in due course.

@stefano1966

They are not 6 months behind.  They are at least 18 months behind.  I was able to renew mine online luckily, but my wife's card expired in July of 2023!  We have not been able to get an appointment in spite of help from the claims desk at our camera,  private "helpers", and hours of effort on our part, including trips to the various offices.  We did get a response to our email after several months.  It was a form letter response that said renew it online.  If we wait much longer, we can just do the 5 year renewal.

I heard the other day that if your card expired before sep2024 you can walk into an AIMA office for a renewal schedule. Worth a try!

Just another suggestion...someone said if you haven't received your card within 3 months you're allowed to go to the office of your appointment and they might have it there.

I guess one should simply relax and accept that Portugal is ... Portugal. ***. It doesn't mean that it isn't a good place to live, but it isn't Dubai or the like. I am certain that there are many more disorganized places on this planet.

@stefano1966

I cannot change the address, let alone renew the residency card. I have made myself a reminder to e-mail AIMA every first day of month with an address change request. E-mailed them three times already but no one replies. March 1 will be my fourth try. Let's see. I hope that, if and when they do notify temporary residents to come for a renewal appointment (as they allegedly should), they'll do that through e-mail or SMS and not by regular mail.

Possibly a ray of hope I can share with those here... My residency expired September 15th 2024, and I received an email from SIGA two weeks ago, confirming an IRN appointment to renew on 24th April (2025).

That suggests a backlog of around seven months (or notification within around six months) . I suspect it didn't make a difference but I did send occasional emails to the IRN (and AIMA) over the past few months.

I'm not taking anything for granted in terms of everything being resolved at that appointment, but just the recognition is a huge relief I hope others here will share sooner rather than later.

@sr_ianbell

What are you here on? A D7? Thanks for your update that you got the email appointment.

@sr_ianbell

Yes. Recently, I've been to the AIMA office in Faro. They, and the IRN, Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado, which I visited a few days earlier, say that they are currently handling renewals for residencies that expired in September-October of last year. The very renewal process is managed by the IRN, not AIMA. A renewee gets notified by either e-mail or SMS to appear at a local IRN office (with all the required paperwork. Since mine expired "just" in early March, I have to sit tight and wait for the much coveted message for about another 5 months. Even though it's definitely a delay, that was a relief to know that at least they're progressing with some sort of a plan; and, with your example, the plan seems to be working (!). Kudos!

Same for a friend of mine. sep/Oct 2024 expiration. She got two emails to appear on Mar 24 (which she did) and was renewed. 🙂

@sr_ianbell

Thank you so much for the update. Would you be kind enought to maybe tell us what paper work or supporting documents someone needs to take with them ?

@daphnelavern

I only wonder what will happen if their e-mails go to 'spam'. 

@EstrellaGalicia

Check your spam/junk folder regularly 🙂. Since moving here, I check mine daily.

Yes, @Perpetual_traveler, I originally entered on a D7, although the process seems to be somewhat more generic at this point (i.e. at no point is the D7 mentioned and the documents do not seem to be visa-specific).

@James-M76, the documents listed in the email are exactly the same as those listed under Documentos gerais e comprovativos in the Renovação presencial nos serviços de Registo section of , except without the last one, which I believe will be presented to me for signature on the day.

In preparing the documents, I found some helpful links in the What are the documents and requirements to renewing your residence permit? section of . (I will confirm if I got anything wrong after the appointment (or try and remember what they actually looked at!)

For those worried about it arriving in junk, the email was received from and simply titled "Marcação de Atendimento", so you may want to add this to any safe senders lists you can find. (Mine arrived at precisely 09:00 WEST, which might imply that they are automated in batches FWIW?)

@sr_ianbell

Once again, huge thanks. Your posts have been invaluable!👊

@sr_ianbell

Thank you very much. That was really helpful.

Apologies for the delay, my appointment turned into a bit of a saga.

I won't go into anything that was likely to be specific to the particular office I went to and before I start the tale, just to say that by the day of the appointment, I had received three emails and an SMS from SIGA with the details, so it seems unlikely you will miss communications completely. (There was no requirement to confirm your attendance prior to the appointment.)

At the first appointment (Thursday 24th), the lady dealing with the application was friendly, we spoke mostly in Portuguese but when I didn't understand anything, she was happy to explain in English. I had to fill out a short form and we confirmed my change of address from the current card.

Neither this change nor the expiry of my residency more than six months ago were problems.

She asked immediately for my proof of work, and looked at a short letter from my employer (which was in Portuguese), my contract and pay/tax slips. Then she was interested in my proof of accommodation and checked the contract and its registration with AT. Most of these documents were scanned, though not the lengthy contracts.

The documents re: proof of regularised tax and social security circumstances I sourced via the links I gave above were also noted. (It was implied that a lack of Social Security number would not have been an issue, but it was good to have it nevertheless and they add it to your °Õí³Ù³Ü±ô´Ç.)

She wasn't interested in any bank account and never mentioned any rental or other passive income or assets.

I was charged 180 EUR and... then the problems kicked in as the application was not being confirmed so that I could walk away with the recibo comprovativo de pedido. (I realise now that these IRN staff are interacting with the AIMA/SEF software and  - in some cases - staff. The software is painfully slow, and on this occasion fell over completely.) The lady indicated I could wait for this to be resolved, or they could email the recibo on to me. I was happy to wait for a while, but after about 20/30 minutes, I was asked to provide some biometrics, have a new photo taken and provide a signature via their funky digital booths (so presumably lucky I didn't leave). I had to do this twice, then the lady asked a colleague to double-check through some of my documents and the on-screen application, and then concluded that they weren't sure what the issue was but that I would need to return on the Monday.

When I turned up on Monday, I assumed I would pick matters up with the same lady, but although she was at the next desk, I was processed by a second lady, who spoke Portuguese at the regulation machine-gun speed, would speak no English and was rude to the point where I was quite amused. It seemed that all information had been lost including the hard copy of the form I completed, and I had to fill that out again, much to my confusion (i.e. as if Thursday hadn't happened at all). There was very little interaction, but I believe she went through the same documents as before (but seemed to select different ones for scanning), but also scanned all of the bank statements from both Portuguese and UK accounts. She duly printed the recibo comprovativo de pedido and - literally - waved me on my way.

And three hours later, the outage ensued, so I was grateful to have missed a second interruption.

But make of that what you will. The only definitive conclusions are that:

(a) the AIMA/SEF software is painfully slow and unstable, compromising attempts of the staff to process as many applications as possible

(b) unsurprisingly, the exact approach varies from one member of staff to another

(c) notwithstanding (b), although they are understandably interested in proof of income and you ability to support yourself, the D7's insistence that this must include passive income is not issue.

Good luck everybody.

Hi All, it seems it is possible to book the appointment on your own in the IRN website.It´s in one of the FAQ for residence card renewal on their site. Why is there a need to wait for them to book it then contact us via email ?