300,000 residency requests still pending at the end of SEF in portugal

300,000 residency requests still pending at the end of SEF

Almost 300,000 expressions of interest to obtain a residence permit in Portugal are still pending at SEF, leaving "a heavy legacy" that the new migration agency will have to take on.

According to a presentation made by the Foreigners and Borders Service, which will be abolished on Sunday, there are 292,000 expressions of interest which have been formalised with SEF by foreign citizens in order to obtain a residence permit in Portugal.

SEF states that the daily average for submitting an expression of interest on the SAPA portal is 1,000 requests.

The data were presented with the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA) being just days away from taking office, which will succeed SEF in the administrative functions of issuing documents for foreigners.

SEF director, Paulo Batista, acknowledged SEF's "heavy legacy", but highlighted the work done this year, stressing that "there have been as many new residence permits issued".

This year, SEF issued 306,000 new residence permits to foreigners.

According to data, the most representative foreign community in Portugal is Brazilian (400,759), followed by Ukrainian (77,680), the United Kingdom (56,921), Angola (55,983), Cape Verde (54,335), India (47,558 ) and Italy (39,914).

In September, SEF informed Lusa that almost one million foreign citizens with residence permits reside in the country.

SEF replacement details to be announced “this week”

The Minister of the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, has stated that the statutes of the new Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA) will be published before the deadline, later this week.

This timeline was shared by Mariana Vieira da Silva at a press conference, at the end of the Council of Ministers, following a hearing proposed by the PSD in which it is alleged that, just a few days before this agency takes office, there are still “no statutes or headquarters”.

The PSD considers that there is “great confusion surrounding the process of abolishing the Foreigners and Borders Service” (SEF), highlighting that AIMA “works in a very sensitive area”.

For the PS, deputy Susana Amador defended that this is a “very complex and comprehensive reform” that cannot be resolved “from one day to the next” and indicated that minister Ana Catarina Mendes has already said that “in the next few days the statutes and the headquarters will be announced”.

The vice president of the PS Parliamentary Group refused to “create any type of panic, alarm or say that it is confusing” and asked for “calm and serenity”.

On Monday, the Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, who is in charge of this area, stated that the statutes of the new Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum will be published “in the next few days” and that the location of the headquarters has been decided and will be announced soon.

“I can reassure you that everything will be ready and, in the next few days, we will obviously have published the statutes and things will be working, with the certainty that there is a lot of work to continue doing, and we will be here to do it, with serenity”, emphasized the minister responsible for AIMA, following the end of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).

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