The 25,000 foreigners living in Portugal whose residence permits expire by June 30 can renew the document automatically through the SEF website, the security service announced today.
In a statement, the Aliens and Borders Service (SEF) said that the approximately 25,000 foreigners will be able to renew their residence permits (RA) automatically through the Automatic Renewal feature, available in the “Personal Area” of the portal.
The SEF states that the automatic renewal feature is part of the simplification of procedures and there is no need to go in person to a service desk, being guaranteed “compliance with security rules and mitigation of the consequences resulting from the health emergency situation.
This measure of automatic renewal of the residence permit, which lasts for two years, was implemented in July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 200,000 automatic renewals.
“The service has adopted exceptional measures with a view to recovering pending issues and efficiency in the management of foreign citizens’ documents, following Order No. 5793-A/2020 of May 22, 2020, which determined the implementation of a simplified procedure for processing applications for the granting of residence permits,” the statement reads.
SEF also indicates that among the initiatives to mitigate the consequences that resulted from the pandemic, the automatic renewal of residence permits is the one that has had the greatest impact, allowing “the recovery of pending issues and a gain in efficiency in document management of foreign citizens.