Portugal reforms AIMA immigration agency and court handling of lawsuits

The Portuguese Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) has added a new online portal, embedded in its contact form, that lets immigrants track every stage of their residence permit applications—from submission and decision to card production, issuance and postal delivery. The system provides a tracking code for the final card shipment and is currently in a testing phase. Officials say the tool should cut down the large volume of phone calls, emails and in‑person visits that have created long queues at AIMA offices.

In parallel, the government approved a proposal in the Council of Ministers to redistribute administrative lawsuits against AIMA to courts throughout the country, ending the current concentration of cases in Lisbon. The trade union representing public servants warns that the measure only tackles the symptom, not the cause, noting that AIMA suffers from chronic understaffing, lack of a dedicated career path for its technicians and operational weaknesses that have led to delays of up to 861 days and a 48% resolution rate.

Both steps aim to improve the migration system, though critics argue that deeper reforms within AIMA are still needed.