"Bearing in mind the extremely urgent situation of regularising many thousands of pending residence permit processes, the President of the Republic promulgated a specific diploma which, respecting the situations existing to date, avoids overloading ongoing regularisation processes with new expressions of interest, admitted in previous legislation", reads a note published on the Presidency's website.

The Government has announced the end of the exceptional regime that allowed a foreigner to enter Portugal, and only then apply for a residence permit and has announced the creation of a mission structure to regularise pending processes, estimated at 400 thousand.

The Action Plan for Migration, approved by the Council of Ministers, states the “end of the exceptional regime that now allows entry without rules, extinguishing the designated procedure for expressions of interest”, considered an “open door and source of a great part of pending issues”.

From now on, it will no longer be possible for a foreigner with a tourist visa to regularise their status in Portugal, requiring an employment contract or another solution previously dealt with in the Portuguese consular network.

In the note published three hours after the Prime Minister's announcement, the Presidency informed that the head of State "promulgated the Government diploma that amends Law No. 23/2007, of July 4, in its current wording, which establishes the conditions and procedures for entry, stay, exit and removal of foreign citizens from Portuguese territory, as well as the status of long-term residents".


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The plan also includes “strengthening the response and processing capacity of consular posts identified as a priority”, with the reinforcement of 45 elements in 15 countries, a list that includes all countries in the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).

The repeal of articles 88 and 89 of the Foreigners Law, which allowed the legalisation of foreign tourists in Portugal, will be followed by a “revision of the [general] law in parliament” in the coming months.

However, all requests already submitted will be processed, as long as they “have been instructed correctly” or have “more than one year of social security discounts”.

The approved plan includes the creation of a “mission structure, with additional human, material and financial resources, made possible by extraordinary hiring measures, which integrates AIMA employees, inspectors from the former SEF [Foreigners and Borders Service] and others professionals to recruit”.

Among the 41 measures foreseen in the plan, there is also the transformation of the current mobility visa for CPLP immigrants into a community visa (Shengen), which allows movement around the European Union, and the creation of a Foreigners and Borders Unit (UEF) in the PSP to monitor the presence of immigrants and to create emergency care centres.