AIMA in chaos as Golden Visa applications take over a year to process

 In AIMA, Golden Visa, Immigration/Emigration, News, Public administration

“It’s more chaotic than ever” the office manager of a leading multinational citizenship consultancy dealing with Golden Visa residency applications with an office in Lisbon confides to me over lunch.

“The backlog and delays at AIMA (Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum) are so bad that it can take well over a year and even up to three for non-EU overseas citizen applicants to get their Golden Visas” she admits, referring to a programme that offers residency status in Portugal, the opportunity of unfettered travel within the Schengen zone, and the possibility of eventually getting Portuguese citizenship and a Portuguese passport after around five years in exchange for a minimum investment of €350,000.

And the news coming out of the new Portuguese immigration department AIMA last week couldn’t be worse with several Portuguese media outlets, including CNN Portugal, claiming that staff at the agency are living in a “climate of despotism and nepotism”, that processes are “badly done and badly planned” since the former immigration bureau SEF (Serviços de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras) was dissolved in 2023.

Part of the problem says a union representing staff, is that the organisation of the hierarchy at the agency is rotten to the core.

“There is no type of competition (when applying for jobs and selecting suitable candidates), and there is no taking into account (an applicant’s) capacity to do the job, while they have created a model that has retained the administrative tradition of the former immigration and borders agency SEF,” says Manuela Niza representing the union STM (Migration Workers Union) which met last week with AIMA representatives.

Another issue, says the union representative, is that AIMA has largely maintained the same management hierarchy as the former SEF which was wound up in October 2023.

“Leaving (the original SEF) people in management positions is like shooting the actual institution in the foot”, says Manuela Niza, who adds that it has created a situation of nepotism and despotism at AIMA which has suffered a badly planned transition from SEF to AIMA, one in which there has been “no kind of competition to take into account the ability of managers and staff to actually do the job”, and has “created the same administrative tradition” of the former SEF, and which amounted to chaos.

Nevertheless, according to a report from Get Golden Visas, AIMA has communicated with Golden Visa applicants to inform them that the application process for this scheme is experiencing significant changes, with the main goal of streamlining the application procedure.

The application process has been updated with a more digital and chronological approach to prioritise the older applications. Electronic submissions are required for everyone.

The recent changes include:

* All applicants are required to upload documents electronically through the ARI portal.

* From January 15, 2025, biometric appointments will be booked automatically, considering application upgrades.

* Residence permit fees will be paid at biometric appointments. (Certified documents cost €6,045.20 per application, while uncertified documents cost €8,060.20. Payments must be made by card)

Applicants with pending cases on Portugal’s Golden Visa program who have been inactive for a period of six months risk having their requests marked as abandoned. It means that they would be required to apply again under the new rules.

The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) has launched a new portal for immigrants who have Expressed Interest in living in Portugal until April 30, 2024, but were not part of the list of over 400,000 people called to regularise their document situation in Portugal.

According to a report from news source Publico, immigrants who submitted an Expression of Interest by June 3, 2024, will receive an email asking them to change their password on a new platform.

The agency believes that the recent changes will streamline the process and will be simple and functional. Appointments are expected to be made more quickly after the government has set a goal of abolishing all pending cases by June 30, 2025.

About 15 per cent of the total 6,000 daily services from AIMA are not carried out after applicants fail to show up, limiting the system’s response.In a debate on “New migrations and talent attraction” the leader of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, Pedro Portugal Gaspar, said that AIMA, together with municipalities and partners, allowed it to go from processing 1,000 thousand per day to 6,000 in terms of response to users, aiming to regularise 400,000 pending cases.

Are you working for a Golden Visa consultancy or are you a lawyer dealing with Golden Visa applications? If so, Essential Business would like to hear about your experiences dealing with AIMA and how long it takes your clients to receive their residency from initial submission of applications. Mail me at: [email protected]