19/01/2025
‼️Why AIMA is rejecting the residence permit ‼️
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🟡 After 90 business days since the start of immigrant services at the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) task force centers , the first residence permits began arriving by mail this week. However, many citizens have nothing to celebrate, because instead of good news, they received notifications by email that their residence applications in Portugal had been rejected. At least 108,000 people were rejected by AIMA and are still waiting for a new chance.
🟡Lawyer Célio Sauer emphasizes that a denial is not a total rejection, since AIMA gives immigrants a period of 10 days to attach the required documents again and pay the fees that were not paid within the stipulated deadlines. In other words, there is a second chance, which, in his opinion, should be taken advantage of.
🟡For Sauer, it is sad to receive notification from AIMA that the residency applications have been rejected, but there is a positive side to this process: it means that AIMA has resumed analyzing the applications, which was not the case until September, when the mission centers were launched. "Again, the rejection is not a rejection, as there is a deadline to complete the process," he emphasizes.
🟡There are several reasons why AIMA has rejected applications for residency in Portugal by foreigners. “There are cases in which the agency asks for the rental agreement to have notarized signatures. A rental agreement does not need notarized signatures,” he says. He explains that rental agreements must be registered with the Tax Office, which is the responsibility of the property owners, not the tenants. “I believe that they ask for the signatures as evidence against the owners,” he suggests.
🟡Transfer to Social Security
Another requirement made by AIMA, which is not in the law, is proof of residence in addition to that issued by the parish council. “Sometimes 30, 40 or 50 people appear with the same address registered by a parish council. When the processes were analyzed with more time between them, this sometimes passed, but now that everything is being analyzed at the same time, the agency sees this,” explains Sauer.
🟡There is also the issue of non-payment to Social Security. “There is the case of a young man who received a notice of rejection of his residence application because the company he works for deducted the amount from his salary but did not pass it on to Social Security. In these cases, AIMA is left with its hands tied, and the immigrant's path is to seek an agreement with the company so that the payment to Social Security is made. If this is not possible, he will have to file a lawsuit against the company. AIMA would have to give time for the matter to be dealt with,” he points out.
🟡 Sauer says that a positive development promoted more recently by AIMA was in the process of submitting documents for the residence permit process. “When people are notified by AIMA about the rejection of their application, everything can be answered on the AIMA portal itself. Immigrants have a user number and a password , gather the documents and write what they intend to do for a new submission of the process. There is no need to hire a lawyer for this”, he describes.
🟡 While many are having problems with AIMA, those who have obtained a residence permit are celebrating . “I have a client who was seen during the second week of operation at the Hindu Temple center and has already received a residence permit,” celebrates lawyer Adriana Ayala.
🟡 “I was at work and a friend came to tell me that I had received a letter from AIMA,” says Algerian Houcine Deba, 27, who lives in Cuba, in Alentejo. He had been trying to legalize his status in Portugal for two and a half years. “I arrived in the country in May 2022 and expressed my interest on June 27,” he recalls. At the time, he was working in the cleaning sector, later moving to the construction sector.
🟡 Deba explains why she chose Portugal to live in, rather than Spain or France, countries where the Algerian population is larger. “It’s a calmer country, with less stress. There are no problems with the police and the people are friendly,” she says.