Portugal’s new Family Visa laws aim to streamline the process.

Portugal introduces new rules to facilitate the family reunification process for non-EU nationals. The Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum explains that changes are “the assumption of the institution’s digital services portal”. Measure that will facilitate requests for family reunification.

In the first quarter of 2024, it was planned to launch actions with municipalities and local immigrant support offices to resolve pending processes, allocating more resources to resolve existing cases.

This Wednesday, the President of the Republic promulgated the new regulation of the legal regime for the entry, stay, exit, and removal of foreign citizens from the national territory, a measure that will facilitate requests for family reunification.

The Government diploma, now promulgated by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, contemplates the changes to the Regulatory Decree of the Foreigners Law, adapting it to the restructuring of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and “proceeds to the modernization and simplification of administrative procedures” to that “the processes relating to the stay of foreign citizens in the national territory can be carried out promptly and with increased security requirements”, says the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).

Created on October 29, 2023, AIMA received, to date, 347,000 cases, and the priority would be to regularize, by the end of the year, family reunification cases, something that was not accomplished.

In response to Lusa, AIMA indicates that these changes are “the assumption of the institution’s digital services portal”, which will be launched soon through “residence permit applications for family reunification”.

“In the days following the entry into force of this normative instrument there will be news on this matter”, says the institution, which merged part of the functions of the extinct SEF and the High Commission for Migrations (ACM).

What “we intend is for the new Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum to have a new paradigm that focuses on what should be digitalization, greater efficiency, and more human resources”, the Deputy Minister and Parliamentary Deputy Minister then explained to Lusa, Ana Catarina Mendes, highlighting that the objective is “not only to improve its technological service but also to respond more easily to the needs of citizens”.

“Issues of family reunification are essential”, highlighted the minister.

Umer Rasib, the immigration advisor mentioned in talk with visa-guru.com that these changes will indeed support non-EU nationals willing to sponsor their families from abroad. Unlike other developed and rich EU countries, Portugal might be the only country to take into account the seriousness of family reunification of foreign nationals. Families are important as we know and when you have your partner or children beside you, every problem can be solved in a better manner. This will indeed increase not only legally migrated foreign nationals in Portugal but also vast the tax network of newly integrated family members.

Following are the number of Foreign nationals living in Portugal till 2021 reports.

Files from visa-guru.com, Statistica Portugal, and SEF Portugal.