Some Brazilians have expressed their concerns related to the long waiting times they face to obtain Portuguese residence cards, leaving them unable to take up employment in the country.
According to a report from O Globo, some Brazilians have been waiting for their residence cards to arrive since last year, Schengen.News reports.
The deadline for delivery of the card is up to 60 days. Without obtaining such a document, automatic access to banking applications is restricted.
The analysis and conclusion of authorisation and renewal requests are carried out by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), which has over 400,000 pending processes, according to the same source.
After AIMA finalises work, the issuing as well as the production of the cards will be handled by the National Press/ Casa da Moeda (INCM). The agency told O Globo that there are no backlogs of any personalised identification documents at INCM.
Video editor Ingrid Magalhães told O Globo that she managed to review her residence permit before her title expired in May, but it is September, and she still has not received the residence card. She said that without the card, she couldn’t even find a job.
Large companies do not accept expired authorisations, even though the government has decreed automatic validity. Every interview I go to and am selected for, I am denied hiring because they do not accept expired documents.
Brazilians Subject to Delays for Portugal’s Work Visa
In Portugal, Brazilians account for a total of 25 per cent of the foreign population. The increasing interest of Brazilians in Portugal is often hampered by significant visa delays as well.
In particular, delays in Portugal’s work visa processing have brought obstacles to nationals of Brazil who already have job offers.
Jonas Gutemberg da Silva told Public Brazil that he received the visa on June 26, in spite of the work visa application being submitted on February 20.
It took 127 days for everything to be sorted out after I submitted the documents to the Portuguese consulate for the work visa. I submitted the application on February 20 and received the visa on June 26.
Based on the figures from Portugal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the first eight months of this year, Portugal granted 7,200 work visas to Brazilians.
The Ministry’s figures show that there was a total of 20 per cent increase in the number of work visas granted to Brazilians for a period from January to August 2024 compared to the figures from the same period last year.
