Over 93,000 Portuguese-speaking immigrants – mostly from Brazil – obtained residency permits in Portugal during the first operational month of the new automatic immigration and border service (SEF) portal, according to an assessment published on Tuesday.
The platform for obtaining a residence permit in Portugal for citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) began on 13 March and is intended for Portuguese-speaking immigrants with processes pending at the immigration and border service until 31 December 2022 and for those who have a CPLP visa issued by Portuguese consulates after 31 October 2022.
In a statement summarising the situation, SEF said that it had received 114,131 applications for residence permit certificates from CPLP citizens since 13 March.
Of the 114,131 requests made on the CPLP portal, SEF issued over 103,572 documents with a reference for payment, of which 97,631 were settled and resulted in granting 93,209 residence permits, according to the security service.
The service said that nationals from Brazil accounted for 86.5% of CPLP residence permit requests, followed by citizens from Angola (3.8%) and Sao Tome and Principe (3%).
SEF data shows that the foreign population residing legally in Portugal increased in 2022 for the seventh consecutive year, totalling 757,252. The Brazilian community was the one that grew the most, as well as being the most numerous.
At the end of last year, 233,138 Brazilians were living in Portugal.
(Lusa.pt)
Source: euractiv.com
