Portugal: SEF promises to issue delayed residence permits for students this month
The Residence Permits (ARs) of foreigners living in Portugal, delayed since August, will be acquired this December. Confirmation is from the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), who failed to comply with the legal deadline for submission after 60 days of renewal, as stated in the country’s law.
To Now Europe, the body states that the documents are being sent to the Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, responsible for issuing the cards: “We hope to conclude this process by the end of this year”, guarantees the SEF. Once printed, the ARs will be mailed to the immigrants’ address.
The agency’s justification for the delay is “adaptations within the scope of issuing residence permits for higher education students”, due to changes in the law this year. From now on, the validity of the document will be three years and not more than one year. In practice, it means that the renewal process no longer needs to be carried out by students.
If the duration of the course in which the foreigner is enrolled was less than three years, the visa will be granted for the entire term of the university activity. For example, if a Brazilian is approved to attend a two-year course in Portugal, that will be the validity period of the document and not just one year, as occurred before the legislative violation.
Currently, the renewal is carried out through the SEF online portal, a measure integrated in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The opening of the service on the website occurs quarterly. This year, two delays have already been registered, one of three months and another of almost 30 days🇧🇷
As of 2023, the details of how the procedures will be are still undefined. The government’s prediction is that the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN) becomes responsible for renewals🇧🇷
Situation frustrates Brazilian students
The delay, which has already lasted four months, leaves Brazilian students living in Portugal frustrated: “My feeling is really one of a lot of confession, as if I felt worthless, because it took me four months to get regularized in the country, it’s really frustrating ”, vents Marina Garcia, 33, who is studying at the University of Minho, in Braga.
Without a valid document in hand, immigrants are at risk of losing scholarships and job opportunities, for example. Another consequence is the impossibility of leaving the country, a situation that gets worse with the proximity of the end of the year recess, in which, traditionally, many students travel to visit family at Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
This is the case of another Brazilian interviewed by the report, who has not seen her family for three years: “I feel trapped in the country, impotent and wronged”, laments the woman from Minas Gerais who attends the University of Porto.
Still according to the university, lack of responses to emails and phone calls makes immigrants even more worried: “They could answer us at least or put a statement on social networks explaining the reason and giving at least a forecast”, suggests the Brazilian.
According to the latest Immigration and Asylum Report, in 2021, 10,919 Residence Permits were granted to students. Of these, 4,255 were for citizens of Brazil, being the third reason that most lead Brazilians to request the document in Portugal. First is work and second is family reunification. Data for the year 2022 are disclosed only in the next year’s report, in June.