The Council of Ministers of Portugal approved this Wednesday (15) a series of changes to the granting of visas, including the creation of a special modality for those looking for work in the country.
There is no forecast for the project to be evaluated in Parliament, but the proposals should be approved without difficulties, since the ruling Socialist Party have a majority in the Assembly of the Republic.
One of the visa models will allow foreigners to seek employment for a period of 120 days, with the possibility of extending it for another 60 days. The government also announced the creation of a special authorization for citizens of the other member states of the CPLP (Community of Language Countries Portuguese): Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, São Tomé and PrÃncipe and East Timor.
The mobility agreement between the members of the bloc was approved in July 2021 and provides that each nation is free to create its own rules on visas. The Portuguese Parliament has already ratified the pact, and now all that remains is the creation of specific legislation to implement it.
“In addition to honoring the historic relations with the CPLP countries, the change is fundamental in the organization of regular, safe and orderly migration flows, as well as for the fight against illegal migration and human trafficking”, said the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs. , Ana Catarina Mendes.
The socialist also reinforced the importance of immigration to the Portuguese economy, stating that the changes will allow “to respond to the country’s urgent human resources needs”.
Portugal also promises to simplify the process of family migration, with the possibility of visas and residence permits for those accompanying relatives. “Up until now, a foreign citizen came first and only later, when his process was regularized, was it possible for his family to come. Now, this barrier is eliminated, and the whole family can come to Portugal”, said Mendes.
The granting of residence visas to higher education students will also be simplified, with the elimination of the need for an opinion from the SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service) to students enrolled in Portuguese universities. The government also announced the creation of special permits for digital nomads. The idea is that professionals who provide services to companies outside Portuguese territory – as self-employed or employees – also have a specific type of authorization.
The change in the visa regime, although without a date to be approved, was celebrated by associations supporting immigrants. Permission for job seekers in Portugal was an old demand of these entities, which defend a legal gateway for immigrants in the country.
Today, most immigrants arrive as tourists and start working illegally, resorting to a long and bureaucratic process of regularization. In addition to the possibility of paying a fine for undue stay, undocumented migrants are more vulnerable to all types of exploitation.
“It is very positive, because now there can be a greater fight against the exploitation practiced while the migrants are not able to regularize themselves”, says Cyntia de Paula, president of the NGO Casa do Brasil in Lisbon.
Due to the overload of the SEF, the immigration agency, the regularization processes have taken between two and three years to be completed, if there is no problem with the required documentation.
Specialist in immigration law, Raphaela Souza, from consultancy Portugal for All, emphasizes that it is necessary to wait for the official publication of the bill to make a concrete analysis of what has been announced, but indicates that the changes are significant for the legal security of migrants. “Not to mention that the decision shows the importance of immigrants in the demographic and economic context of the country.”
On social media, the decision was celebrated. Less than an hour after the announcement, the profile Vou Mudar para Portugal, dedicated to migration to the country, had 3,000 simultaneous hits in a live broadcast on the topic. The number of Brazilians in Portugal has been growing for five consecutive years and reached, in 2021, a record 209,072 people, an increase of 13.6% compared to 2020.
Brazilians are in the lead as the largest immigrant community in Portuguese territory, representing 29.2% of all foreigners in a regular situation in the country. The real numbers, however, are higher, since official data do not count as Brazilians those who have dual citizenship from Portugal or from another European Union country. People in an irregular migratory situation in the country are also left out of the statistics.
The Itamaraty estimates that there are 300,000 Brazilians living in Portugal. Associations that support immigrants say they believe the real number could be as high as 400,000.
