Note highlights the “extremely urgent situation of regularization” of thousands of pending “residence permit” cases.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has promulgated the government decree that introduces new rules for immigration to Portugal.
In an official note published on the website of the Presidency of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlights the “urgent need to regularize many thousands of pending residence permit cases”.
“The President of the Republic has promulgated a specific law which, while respecting the situations that have existed to date, avoids overloading the regularization processes underway with new expressions of interest, which were allowed in the previous legislation,” reads the official note.
In this way, the President of the Republic “promulgated the government decree amending Law 23/2007, of July 4, in its current wording, which establishes the conditions and procedures for entry, stay, exit and removal of foreign citizens from Portuguese territory, as well as the status of long-term resident”.
The government put an end to the exceptional regime that allowed a foreigner to enter Portugal and only then apply for a residence permit and announced the creation of a mission structure to regularize pending cases, estimated at 400,000.
The Action Plan for Migration, approved today by the Council of Ministers, includes the “end of the exceptional regime that allowed entry without rules, extinguishing the so-called expressions of interest procedure”, considered an “open door and the source of a large number of pending cases”.
From now on, it will no longer be possible for a foreigner with a tourist visa to arrange for their regularization in Portugal, requiring an employment contract or another solution previously dealt with by the Portuguese consular network.
The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, today rejected any link between immigrants and an increase in crime but said that Portugal had legislation that allowed for abuses in entry.
