António Leitão Amaro attended the fifth meeting of the National Council for Migrations and Asylum, held in Lisbon, where he presented a new proposal to amend the Immigration Law. In statements to journalists, he acknowledged that “the law that will be voted on tomorrow [Tuesday] does not have to be exactly the same as the proposal submitted last Wednesday.”
“What is happening is a dialogue between the different parliamentary groups, and it is normal that, in the context of the dialogue, all parties express their opinions on these laws,” said the Minister of the Presidency, adding that “it is part of the process that adjustments can be made.”
Leitão Amaro emphasized the need for serious dialogue and expressed his belief that by Tuesday morning, “the parties may have some sense of wanting to contribute to the solution of regulating immigration, including Chega, including the PS.”
Shortly before the meeting of the National Council for Migrations and Asylum concluded, Chega leader André Ventura set a condition for reaching an agreement on the Immigration Law: making foreign nationals’ contributions mandatory for five years to receive social benefits.
“I appeal to the Prime Minister on this absolutely sensitive point. Do you agree or not that immigrants arriving in Portugal must have at least five years of contributions before they can access social security subsidies?” he questioned. He also warned, “If you do not agree, we have no agreement. Because for us, this is a decisive point.”
The president of Chega asserted today that for an agreement on the immigration law, the new legislation must require that immigrants have five years of contributions to receive social benefits.
Lusa | 13:25 – 29/09/2025
On the government’s side, Leitão Amaro considered that this demand is unrelated to the Immigration Law. “If someone wants to talk about matters that have nothing to do with it, they may just be introducing topics to confuse. But that does not contribute to any solution,” he said, adding that mixing topics is “an attempt to excuse oneself and exit” the debate.
The new proposal to amend the Immigration Law, presented last week, retains the two-year residence requirement for applying for family reunification but allows for several exceptions, including for spouses.
Last Thursday, António Leitão Amaro explained that although the general two-year term indicated in the draft rejected by the Constitutional Court is maintained, this term will be reduced to one year for spouses who lived with the family reunification applicant in the year before this person immigrated to Portugal.
The official also stated that the proposal, submitted to the Assembly of the Republic by the parliamentary groups of PSD and CDS-PP, extends the possibility of an immediate application, already foreseen for minors, to adults incapable under the immigrant’s care and to the father or mother of their child.
As in the initial version, highly qualified professionals or those with a residence permit for investment will also be exempt from any deadline for applying for family reunification.
