More than 113,000 Portuguese-speaking immigrants, mostly Brazilians, have obtained residence permits in Portugal in about two months of operation of the SEF portal for citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).
In an assessment made to the Lusa news agency, the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) said that the portal made available for granting residence permits to CPLP citizens has granted more than 113 thousand of these permits in about two months, with Brazilians representing almost 83% of the new immigrants regularized in Portugal.
The platform for obtaining a residence permit in Portugal for CPLP citizens went live on March 13 and is aimed at Lusophone immigrants with processes pending at SEF until December 31, 2022, and for those who have a CPLP visa issued by Portuguese consulates after October 31, 2022.
SEF reports that, since March 13, it has received more than 131,000 requests for residence permit certificates from CPLP citizens.
Of the 131 thousand requests made on the ‘CPLP portal’, accessible on the websites www.SEF.pt and www.ePortugal.gov.pt, the SEF issued more than 119 documents with reference for payment, of which almost 116 thousand were settled and resulted in the granting of more than 113 thousand residence permits, according to that security service.
According to SEF, Brazilian nationals represent, so far, 86.8% of the CPLP residence permit requests, followed by Angolan citizens, with 5.5%, and São Tomé and Príncipe, with 4.3%.
SEF underlines that in the scope of this process, security consultations are made to the databases, “having already detected more than seven thousand situations, which have determined new and more detailed security consultations in progress.
SEF also stresses that this new, exclusively digital model is aimed at CPLP citizens with expressions of interest submitted by December 31, 2022, and those who hold the new CPLP consular visas issued after October 31, 2022, providing access to education, health, social security, professional activity, vocational training, and justice.
According to SEF, these residence permit concessions are automatic and “exclusively ‘online’, with no need for any other type of interaction with the service or physical displacement to a service station.
However, in the case of minors involved in the legalization process, it is necessary to go “at a later date to a SEF service station.
The residence permit for immigrants from the CPLP costs 15 euros and it generally takes 72 hours for this document to be made available in electronic form.
This residence permit in Portugal for CPLP citizens is granted under the mobility agreement between the member states of the organization.
Besides Portugal, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor are members of the CPLP.
The residence permit under the CPLP mobility agreement is initially valid for one year, renewable for two successive periods of two years.
