Working With AIMA

Who AIMA is

AIMA (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo) replaced SEF in October 2023, inheriting a backlog of around 400,000 pending cases. It handles all residence permits, renewals, family reunification, and the legacy Manifestação de Interesse pipeline. Two years in, the agency is still under-staffed and most processes lag.

How appointments actually work

Slots are released without warning on the AIMA portal — usually weekday mornings. There's no waiting list. You compete with everyone who hits refresh at the right second.

• Set up the AIMA portal account before you need it (notification email enabled)
• Browser alert tools (Distill Web Monitor, Visualping) catch slot drops automatically
• Accept any city you're willing to travel to — Évora and Beja open more often than Lisbon
• Have all PDFs ready before booking; some flows time out after 10 minutes

When nothing comes

Your visa entry stamp itself is legal proof of your right to stay while AIMA processes you — even past the 4-month visa validity, as long as you can show booking attempts.

• Screenshot every login attempt with timestamp visible
• Save every email AIMA sends, even auto-replies
• Keep proof you tried to call the helpline (010, ext. 5)

Walk-in and Centro Nacional de Apoio

Walk-ins are no longer accepted at standard AIMA offices. The CNAIM (national support centres) in Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Coimbra do still help with non-permit issues — language, employment, family integration. Bring NIF and ID.

Renewals vs. first issuance

Renewals follow a separate online flow and are usually faster (a few weeks). First-issuance biometric appointments are the bottleneck — once you're in the system, you stay in.