Book an Appointment
Brazil’s Ambassador to Portugal, Raimundo Carreiro, has called on Portugal’s government to swiftly regularise Brazilians in Portugal.
He said the government of Brazil believes that Portugal should make more progress in regularising the thousands of Brazilian nationals awaiting assistance from the Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum (AIMA) and called for faster long-term visa processing, Schengen.News reports.
Citizens of Brazil planning to travel to Portugal for study or work purposes and stay within the country for more than 90 days in any 180-day period must hold a long-term visa. However, these applicants are often subject to long waiting times in order to receive their visas.
Carreiro told Publico that immigrants with pending documentation are subject to difficulties when accessing employment, healthcare, and education.
Out of nearly 450,000 backlogged cases at AIMA, over 200,000 are from Brazilians.
Brazil’s Ambassador to Portugal also said that in regard to the three Brazilian consulates general in Porto, Lisbon and Faro, he has been monitoring cases of discrimination, racism and other forms of intolerance that have been reported by Brazilians in Portugal.
Based on a recent survey, five out of every ten Portuguese people want to reduce the number of Brazilian nationals in Portugal. However, the ambassador believes that Portugal and Brazil have strong bilateral relations.
The ambassador added that Brazilian investments in Portugal have been increasing at a rate of 8 per cent per year, stressing that they could continue to increase further with the expected ratification of the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.
Portugal Aims to Issue Work Visas Within a Month
In December 2024, the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, António Leitão Amaro, said that Portugal aims to grant work visas to immigrants in less than a month.
The Minister’s comments came following long delays, which immigrants are subject to when planning to obtain a visa in this country.
Waiting times for foreigners interested in obtaining a Portugal visa increased significantly, particularly for Brazilian nationals, reaching up to six months in some cases, according to some media reports.
However, in spite of long visa waiting times, including for work purposes, Portugal needs about 100,000 foreign workers each year in a bid to better manage labour shortages noted in several industries.
Extended waiting periods for obtaining a visa were also driven following the abolishment of the Expression of Interest program in June 2025, which allowed all persons who reached the country as tourists to apply to work legally in Portugal.
Source: https://schengen.news/portugal-needs-to-process-long-term-visas-for-brazilians-faster-ambassador-says/
