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New immigration agency starts its operation in Portugal

The new Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) started its operation this Sunday (October 29) in Portugal. AIMA follows the restructuring of the Portuguese border control system, which will now be based on the separation between the exercise of police functions and the administrative functions in matters of migration and asylum, which until now were assigned to the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).

Among several other duties, AIMA is responsible for regularizing the entry and stay of foreign citizens in national territory, granting extensions of stay, residence permits, renewals of residence permits, residence cards and permanent residence cards of family members of European Union citizens who are third-country nationals, permanent residence certificates of European Union citizens and residence permits for beneficiary British citizens of the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU.

AIMA will also be responsible for the management of solidarity mechanisms and programmes and will be responsible for implementing the relocation and resettlement programmes for refugees welcomed in national territory.

AIMA starts its operations with a total of 347,000 pending cases. Substantially reducing this number will be one of the Agency’s priorities, with a particular focus on cases where family reunification is concerned. To this end, in the first quarter of next year, a mega-operation will be launched to recover pending issues.

Today, there are more than 1 million foreigners living in Portugal, corresponding to 10% of the population.