禁漫天堂

Yes. My wife got a response to her email several months after she sent it.聽 Totally unhelpful response! It said you can go online and renew your residencia. The website said (once again)聽 " Your residence permit does not allow automatic renewal"聽 Then the email went on to say "Caso n茫o consiga efetuar a renova莽茫o no Portal AIMA, dever谩 efetuar um agendamento para atendimento presencial junto do Instituto dos Registos e Notariado (IRN)." So we went in person to the nearest IRN office and the nice lady there helped us go online and check for in-person appointments at other IRN offices since they did not do those at her office. She found out there were no openings for online appointments anywhere she checked including Lisboa. Another wild goose chase.聽 Each time they try to kick the can down the road instead of dealing with the problem, it just creates a lot more work for the applicants AND other people in government who are trying to be helpful - not to mention the ill will it creates by having us chase around uselessly.

I've been trying to contact AIMA since before my residence card expired, but I couldn鈥檛 reach them or do anything. So, I went to the SIGA website to book a renewal appointment at IRN. Can you believe how ridiculous it was that when I got to IRN, the officer said that ever since SEF was transitioned to AIMA, even though the information on SIGA is still there, the services no longer exist. They keep that option on the website just so it doesn't look empty! I was so stressed because my card was about to expire, but the service was unavailable even though I had an appointment. I decided to go to IRN, where AIMA is, but even the staff couldn鈥檛 find a solution or provide an answer. They didn鈥檛 seem to know that booking an appointment wasn鈥檛 possible and just told me to keep trying to call. The staff at the counter seemed to be just there for show, not really busy. Initially, I wanted to contact them about changing my nationality, but I don't think anything will happen soon鈥攋ust renewing my residence card is already exhausting. In the end, my husband helped by calling, and finally, someone answered. They told me to send an email to AIMA鈥檚 center with a specific subject line they provided. Hopefully, I鈥檒l get a reply within 2-3 months. I鈥檓 so tired of waiting.

This will not resolve any issues with a lack of response from AIMA however it may help relieve stress caused by concern over having a visa that has expired. I got this from our immigration lawyer yesterday. Note it refers to any type of visa that expires after Feb 2020!

"all visas were extended until the 30th of June 2025 as per this information set by AIMA:

[link under review]

My guess is that the Gov. hope to clear the backlog by mid 2025 but who really knows if they will. I understand there are 10's of thousands of expired visas. There is a "rumour" that some types of visa will start to be renewed automatically via online submission but again who really knows if that is true or just wishful thinking.聽

FYI, also I've read of people who want to start the process before their visa's expires hoping it will help to get the renew before it expires, our lawyer says that will do nothing and the process can only be started once the visa has expired, in our case Feb next year.聽

Good luck

Hi All

Is it not time to take to the streets maybe to the AIMA offices to protest about this? Is there someone out there to organise a day of protest? I know we are guests in the Country, however like a lot of people on the site we are paying taxes to the Government, this sitting around filling in emails, calling the phone number and visiting the AIMA offices! Without a response from anyone to tell us what is happening, no one has managed to advise me that I鈥檓 in the queue and your number 200, or I鈥檓 300,691 and your appointment is next year, the not knowing is unbearable? What do other people聽 think?

dave

/forum/viewtopic.p 鈥� 75#5934656

(Post #11)

Hi All Is it not time to take to the streets maybe to the AIMA offices to protest about this? Is there someone out there to organise a day of protest?-@daviejamieson03

If such day of protest makes you feel better, go for it. However, it will change nothing with regards to the problem. The latter is known for years and I wouldn't hold my breath that a solution is near.

Hi Tg

We will never know politicians don鈥檛 tend to stand with you until they see a benefit from it, this is not about feeling better. It鈥檚 about doing something other than sitting on our hands, I like most have spent days visiting offices in Tavira, spent 7 hours in Faro office only to get to the desk for the lady behind the counter to say 鈥� nothing we can do you will have to be patient and wait until they contact you鈥澛� I鈥檓 fast approaching a year now to try and achieve a appointment. I ask for contact from them a email from them to say we are aware you are on our radar and will be in contact with you soon. Not much to ask? I like most would then leave them alone no phone calls to make, emails to send or visit to AIMA offices to do, I could just leave all of it behind and then wait no problem. Basic

DJ

@daviejamieson03,

What specifically do you want from AIMA?

The current government is trying to resolve by June 2025 an immigration situation left by the previous government that was a disaster for 8 years. From the open door immigration policy, to the dismantling of SEF, to 400,000 pending applications, to thousands of family reunifications pending for years, etc... a complete disaster. Let's give the benefit of the doubt to the current government, which is sorting out this heavy inheritance until june 2025...

And forget emails, no one will answer that. Keep calling, with insistence you'll get through.

Hi johnnyPT

What I want I鈥檝e previously said, I like many more have carried out all the necessary paperwork in my own country, went to a interview in our own country was given a temporary visa and told that we need to contact the AIMA in Portugal when I arrived to achieve the full status. Basically should be a rubber stamp not difficult I would have thought? How many more claimants are like me and can鈥檛 even get in contact with them why? I鈥檓 retired and I鈥檓 being told if I leave even just to go on holiday out of the country I may not get back in and would have to re start the application. I feel we should be just getting on with our retirement not worrying about the poor admin? I hear what you say about giving them time to see if they do what they say they鈥檙e going to do, but do we have another 8 months of stagnation??

DJ

@wordsmith555

We have a lawyer working on this. I don't know if you saw in the paper last week, but AIMA has a backlog of 400k cases. Even our lawyer can't get through. I doubt email will work, but apparently calling daily could get through eventually.

Good Morning all

i have called to the AIMA 300 calls in one afternoon did get through a few times but the answer is we are experiencing high volume and it鈥檚 not possible to provide this service please call back later. not word for word but same sentiment.Johnny Pt says give them the benefit of doubt meantime that鈥檚 what I鈥檓 going to do, we are supposed too get satellite stations set up to deal with this but don鈥檛 see them yet! I tried the lawyer but was told it鈥檚 better to hold on as they can鈥檛 do anything with AIMA

dj

Bom dia, I have been encouraged by several recent FB postings that emails to AIMA have resulted in residence permit appointments. The most recent successful applicant got an appointment after 9 months of trying. Applicants have been contacted via email and phone. So someone is reading emails to AIMA. I have been emailing AIMA since late June 2024. I just sent email #120 this morning. I started including the number of the email in my header.

What exactly is happening in the new additional AIMA offices that are set up, or are being set up, throughout PT? Is this additional space for newly hired additional AIMA personnel to conduct in-person residence interviews and advise about other AIMA matters?

@wordsmith555

Here's the answer. The new centres will only solve the 400,000 cases pending until June 2025. They call people with pending cases. They don't attend those who go there without an appointment.

So I finally got an AIMA appt for my initial residency visa after almost 6 months of emailing AIMA. But my friend and I finally got appts NOT because we emailed (she in fact had only arrived early November and had never emailed or called AIMA), but because we hired someonewho called us 3 weeks after we hired her to tell us we had appts Jan 7 in Aveiro and Jan 8 in Lisbon. BUT it seems a lot of appts were released in early November for January, and I heard a report that the new centers opened in Porto and Lisbon were conducting many more interviews.

@wordsmith555

As for AIMA, things are getting much better now. They've gone from 800 appointments a day to 5000/day. And with 400,000 cases pending, they've already processed half of them. So things are getting better...

This person you've hired is probably one of those who has several ( = many) mobile phones calling continuously throughout the day...

@JohnnyPT

I don't know her method, but she delivered. And my appt is only an hour from home.

Several people have reported that they have gotten TWO appts, for different dates, cities, and times. How can that even happen? Two different people can schedule appts for the same person and the AIMA system doesn't detect something like that?

@wordsmith555,

I find that very weird. What I've heard is that it's possible for couples. One has an appointment in one place and the other in another.

Hi all

can anyone tell me if or when one of these satellite hubs will be set up in Faro? Or anywhere in the Algarve, i find it strange that things are improving up north but still going through the process calls and emails with no availability here

dave J

@wordsmith555

That's awesome. Would love to get the contact of the person. Can I send you a dm pls?

@MAGZJM

Did you get any response?

None.

@JohnnyP

The people who got appointments on different days were only requesting appointments for themselves, not additional family members. One person was given appointments (for only himself) in Porto and Aveiro on the same day, but at different times!!