The Portuguese government has recently announced its plan to revise the national Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) to change the way that public services deal with immigration.
The idea is to promote a “more humanistic and less bureaucratic” approach to attract skilled foreigners to the country and boost the country’s economic and demographic development.
The programme, approved in the Assembly of the Republic, therefore plans to simplify immigration procedures to attract regular labour in various fields, cutting the red tape involved in the process and ensuring improved conditions for immigrants in Portugal.
One of the proposed changes to SEF is to establish a clear separation between policing and administrative functions in relation to the authorisation and documentation of immigrants. In this way, the government hopes to:
- streamline entry processes;
- remove the current job quota regime;
- bring forward the short-term temporary permit that allows immigrants looking for jobs to enter Portugal;
- promote and modernise social security conventions;
- simplify the mechanisms that regulate residency status;
- implement programmes for the regularisation of foreign nationals.
As well as revising the Golden Visa scheme (announced last week), the government will also look into the introduction of a foreign citizen’s card, similar to the ‘cartão de cidadão’ held by Portuguese nationals to avoid any unnecessary duplications of documents.
“Without adversely affecting our operations in fighting human trafficking networks or in preventing terrorism, we must reconfigure the way in which public services deal with the phenomenon of immigration,” said the programme released last week.
If you have any questions about buying property in Portugal, please consult our buyer’s guide here, or contact Algarve Home Sales directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
