Portugal Expands Visa Appointment Availability

Starting July 12, appointments for specific types of visas in Portugal, including work visas will be available daily, the Portuguese Embassy in Cape Verde has announced.

This change will apply to national visas for residence, temporary stay, and family reunion, VisaGuide World reports.

According to the Portuguese Embassy, this move was taken in a bid to enhance the accessibility of slots.

“In order to improve the availability of slots for scheduling national visas for residence, temporary stay, job search or family reunification in Portugal, it was decided to change the frequency with which slots are made available on the VFS Global scheduling website,” the embassy said.

The Portuguese Embassy further noted that this update does not apply to appointments made at the Common Visa Centre for short-stay visas.

Prior to this announcement, the Portuguese government had introduced a new Action Plan for Migration, aiming to tighten migration rules to the country, among others.

Under the new changes, non-EU citizens can no longer move to Portugal without a job contract.

This implies that foreigners wishing to enter the country must find employment and sign a work contract.

By implementing such a policy, Portugal aims to prevent excessive system abuse, as the country’s Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, stated in June 2024.

As further revealed by authorities, the Action Plan for Migration is focused on four main areas including regulated immigration, attracting foreign talent, human integration that works, and institutional reorganisation.

The decision to tighten migration rules may be linked to the increased number of foreign residents in Portugal.

According to the Portuguese Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), the country registered more than one million resident migrants in 2023, a 130 percent increase from the previous year and the highest figure ever recorded.

Referring to the AIMA’s preliminary data, Diario de Noticias reports that 392,000 more people received residence permits in 2023 compared to the previous year.

AIMA, as cited by Diario de Noticias, revealed that 92,000 more individuals obtained residence permits in 2023 compared to 2022.

The preliminary data showed that the foreign population in Portugal nearly doubled over the past five years.

As a result of the high number of foreign arrivals, Portugal is facing a backlog of regularisation applications.

At present, there are about 400,000 regularisation applications that need to be processed, according to authorities.