Brazilians may obtain residence in Portugal through the internet

Brazilians living in Portugal can obtain a residence permit online starting this Monday (Mar. 13). The document will be released within 72 hours, as announced on Friday (Mar. 10) by the Portuguese government.

The measure is part of a mobility agreement between the CPLP countries (Community of Portuguese Language Countries) from July 2021.

In parallel, Portugal announced, in June last year, a package of changes to reduce queues in obtaining visas.

The new rule will benefit citizens from the CPLP, a group formed by 9 countries with Portuguese as the first language.

Besides Portugal and Brazil, these countries include Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor.

Before, those who left Brazil without a visa and entered Portuguese soil as a tourist had a complicated path to regularize their situation and obtain a residence permit.

The process took, on average, about two years.

According to SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service), the Portuguese organ that regulates the permanence of foreigners in the European country, there are about 150 thousand residence authorization processes of citizens from CPLP member-states pending.

The government estimates that approximately 60% of the total are Brazilians.

Portugal also has another 150 thousand requests from immigrants from other places, but no solution has been presented for these cases.

The new system is available on the SEF website and the eportugal.gov.pt portal.

At first, CPLP migrants who lived in the country and filed a residence request with SEF in 2021 or 2022 will have access, in addition to those with CPLP visas issued after Oct. 31.

It is not valid for situations involving people under the age of 18.

In a second phase, the online application will also be available for CPLP citizens with visa applications submitted after Jan. 1 this year and those who have entered the country regularly but have not yet applied for a residence permit.

The document will cost €15 (about R$84 at the current exchange rate). It will be valid for 1 year and renewable for 2 successive periods of 2 years.

According to the Portuguese Minister of Internal Administration, José Luís Carneiro, the measure “is an essential step in building common citizenship and a shared living space for all citizens of the CPLP.

Brazilians who want to migrate to Portugal, but do not yet live in the country, will not be able to use the new system.

They must apply for a visa at a Portuguese consulate before leaving Brazil.

BRAZILIANS IN PORTUGAL

The number of Brazilians living in Portugal sets a record every year.

In 2021, there were 204,694 (29.3% of the total foreigners in the country), according to SEF’s latest report (6 MB). The increase was 11.3% concerning 2020.

This number is estimated to be much higher since it does not account for those who have citizenship of any EU (European Union) country or immigrants in an irregular situation.

In 2021 alone, 39,406 new residence permits were issued to Brazilians. Almost half (44.7%) were for work.

Then, family reunification (31.1%), study (10.8%), permanent residence card (9.3%), and others (4.1%).