AIMA (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo) replaced SEF (Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras) in October 2023 and is the agency responsible for issuing and renewing residence permits. Applicants typically get an appointment either automatically (scheduled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when a consular visa is issued, or by AIMA for applications already submitted online) or by requesting one themselves through AIMA's online portal. AIMA has been operating under a severe, publicly acknowledged backlog for several years; the government created a dedicated "Mission Structure" to work through pending cases, which formally concluded its mandate on 31 December 2025, having processed roughly 1 million pending cases of various types after inheriting around 450,000 pending "manifestação de interesse" cases. AIMA's own 2026 activity plan sets backlog-reduction targets (e.g. 25% reduction in pending ARI and family-reunification requests) — a tacit admission that large backlogs persist into 2026.
For most applicants, the AIMA appointment — not the consular visa — is the real bottleneck: long waits leave people in legal limbo, unable to fully exercise residence rights (e.g. banking, travel documentation, family reunification timing) until the appointment happens and the physical card is issued.
Key Facts
Scheduling channels: appointments can be requested online through AIMA's portal, automatically triggered when a consular D-visa is issued, or (for older/legacy processes) via the former SEF phone contact centre — though AIMA's own guidance cautions that pages referencing the old SEF process may be outdated since SEF was abolished in October 2023.
In-person scheduling itself is free; AIMA has publicly warned about scams involving paid "appointment booking" services and states that only AIMA or the applicant may make a valid booking.
Backlog scale: the government's AIMA Mission Structure inherited approximately 450,000 pending "manifestação de interesse" cases and, over its intervention period, additionally handled other case types amounting to roughly 1 million pending processes combined, before formally concluding on 31 December 2025.
AIMA's Plano de Atividades 2026 explicitly sets a backlog-reduction indicator, including a targeted 25% reduction in pending investment residence (ARI) requests and 25% reduction in pending family-reunification requests during 2026 — meaning substantial backlogs are officially expected to still exist through the year.
Residence-card validity has been administratively extended multiple times to cope with the backlog: a decree extended validity for cards/documents expiring between 22 February 2020 and 30 June 2025, with those now accepted as valid until 15 April 2026. Always check the current AIMA validity-extension notice, as these dates have moved more than once.
Applicants requesting renewal whose residence authorization is still valid, or expired less than 6 months ago, may be eligible for automatic online renewal through AIMA's portal; those without a permit, or whose permit has been expired more than 6 months, must apply in person at an AIMA counter.
General right-of-residence rule during the gap between an expired card and renewal: Portuguese regulation (Decreto Regulamentar n.º 84/2007) provides that the underlying right of residence does not lapse until 6 months after the card's formal expiry date — but this is a general regulatory provision, not a guarantee tied to any specific applicant's paperwork; treat it as background law rather than personal legal advice.
Steps
Get on the schedule — Non-EU applicants entering with a D-visa should receive an automatically triggered appointment; if not, or for other request types, apply for an appointment via AIMA's online portal ("Marcações"/services portal).
Prepare your file — Bring the residence-permit application documents required for your specific route (see visa-types.md and family-reunification.md), your passport, and proof that tax and social-security situations are in order — AIMA guidance notes applicants must have these "regularized" before certain renewal/appointment steps.
Attend the in-person appointment — At the AIMA appointment (or "EMAIMA" space), biometric data (photo, fingerprints) is collected where required, alongside document verification.
Track your case while waiting — Given publicly acknowledged multi-month to multi-year waits, keep your appointment confirmation/proof of submission — it is the evidence of your pending legal status while the file is processed. Watch official AIMA news pages for extensions to document/card validity, since these have been issued repeatedly to bridge backlog delays.
Timelines
Mission Structure backlog-clearance mandate: ran through 31 December 2025, after which regular AIMA operations continue backlog reduction per the 2026 activity plan
2026 official target: 25% reduction in pending ARI requests and 25% reduction in pending family-reunification requests (implies substantial backlog remains at start of 2026)
Recent card/document validity extension: expired cards/documents (originally due to expire 22 Feb 2020–30 June 2025) accepted as valid until 15 April 2026 per the latest extension notice — reconfirm this date against AIMA's current news page, as it has been extended before
Common Mistakes
Assuming a fixed, predictable wait time — AIMA has not published a single reliable per-applicant wait-time figure; the agency's own materials speak in terms of backlog-percentage-reduction targets, not day/week estimates, so treat any specific "X months" figure from third-party blogs with caution.
Paying a third party for "priority" appointment booking — AIMA has specifically warned this is a common scam vector, since booking itself is free and only doable by AIMA or the applicant.
Letting a card expire and assuming automatic online renewal always applies — it only applies if the permit is still valid or expired less than 6 months; beyond that, an in-person counter application is required.