Lilian arrived in Portugal in 1987 to study piano and eventually became a teacher at the Escola Artística de Música do Conservatório Nacional, cherishing fond memories of her colleagues and students.
Initially entering as a tourist due to challenges in securing a student visa from the Portuguese Consulate in São Paulo, she started anew by repeatedly entering Portugal as a tourist and applying for residency authorization from the SEF.
Although she presented both her passport and residency application, these were insufficient for official processes like legalization with the Caixa Geral de Aposentações, given her position as a public institution teacher.
She eventually resolved her residency status through the Brazilian Embassy in Portugal, allowing her to obtain proper residency authorization.
“At that time, there were only four or five Brazilians here, and I approached the Brazilian ambassador, who helped me get the residency authorization,” she stated, noting that two years later she secured permanent residency.
This authorization is renewable every five years, and Lilian managed to do so until January 2020. Her authorization expired on January 15 this year, and despite her efforts to renew it, she has yet to succeed.
Despite numerous attempts, responses from AIMA to earlier requests caused a backlog. Upon learning that requests for expired authorizations in 2025 were being processed, she contacted the services and discovered that “there is no resident card with that number.”
“They say it doesn’t exist,” she explained, noting that she resubmitted her request three times, always receiving the same response. “My number doesn’t exist,” she lamented.
Her persistence was such that she can no longer make requests using her email.
“From ’88 until 2020, every five years, I renewed my authorization. Yet now, I can’t,” she expressed, adding that calls to AIMA go unanswered, just like her emails.
The result of her expired authorization is a lack of access to services like banking applications, being repeatedly reminded of her invalid documentation.
“This affects everything. You know, for anything you need to provide your identity document. If it’s expired, they ask for the expiry date, find it’s expired, and the document is considered invalid. It was one thing after another. First, it was the Caixa Geral de Aposentações, then the lease contract, also without a valid document, making explanations difficult,” she stated.
Despite the Government’s extension of residency authorization deadlines, hers remained valid until June 30 and then until October 15. Currently, she is unable to renew her documents as, according to immigration services (AIMA), her authorization does not exist.
Feeling “a hostage to AIMA,” Lilian fears traveling since while such delays are known in Portugal, other borders may not be accommodating.
Lilian, a mother of two Portugal-born children with Portuguese nationality, expressed exhaustion over the hostile environment for immigrants in the country.
Feeling uncomfortable in “this anti-immigration environment,” she feels like an immigrant even after living 40 years in Portugal and working 37 of those years for the state.
“I’m very grateful to Portugal, because I raised and educated my children here in a very calm environment, without the violence and crime of São Paulo.”
“Before the emergence of a party institutionalizing racism, like Chega, things were different, as people might have had those sentiments but lacked an outlet for such violent expression,” she noted.
Recalling Brazil’s experience with leaders like Bolsonaro, she ponders her future, contemplating a return to her home country with cherished memories of “wonderful students” and the artists she collaborated with.
“These are the things I will take with me, not what is happening now. I made many friends and was fortunate to meet people who, in many ways, helped me feel more included,” she concluded.
