The AIMA (Agency for Migration and Asylum) has accelerated processing of Golden visa applications significantly reducing the backlog in 2025. AIMA has revealed only 45,000 to 50,000 golden visa applications waiting to be reviewed, instead of backlog of 400,000 pending cases a year ago.
The Portugal Government has implemented several measures to accelerate processing of residence applications such as increasing the staff and service capacity of AIMA centres to 6000 appointments a day. The whole application process has been digitized until biometric stage removing hurdles. Once the biometrics has been done in person, it just takes 60-90 days to receive residence permits. AIMA has requested to resubmit all expiring documents, eg. criminal record certificate through online portal to speed up processing times. Criminal record, Birth and marriage certificates must be certified and apostille for use in Portugal. No translation needed if presented in English, Portuguese, Spanish and French.
New Measures
Important measures taken to protect immigrants’ rights and promoting their social well-being
- Government committed to clear backlog to zero, latest by June 30, 2025
- AIMA was allotted nearly 6 million euros to decentralise services, increase resources – staff, biometric machines and training.
- Extended validity of all expired residence visas and permits till June 30, 2025
- Waiting times count towards 5 year citizenship time.
- Relaxation of rules for documents provided eliminating paper formats.
A large number of GV investors took legal action against AIMA seeking faster processing, who have been waiting for biometrics for more than 2- years. It was found that more than 46,000 court cases have been pending in Lisbon court as a result of creation of AIMA.
The backlogs and slow processing times has discouraged many foreign investors lose interest applying for golden visa program. The Closing down of real estate route have also contributed to the less interest.
Portugal’s golden visa program once has been a favourite among US, UK and Asian investors, is seeing renewed interest after Jan 15, 2025. AIMA has promised 90 day processing for newly submitted applications for Golden visa investors.
The First steps of opening bank account in Portugal and obtaining National Tax number are the main requirements to start the golden visa application which can take 2-3 months.
The measures taken by authorities shows Portugals true commitment to restore confidence among investors in Portugal. By mid-2025, once the current backlog is cleared out, we expect the average processing times to fall back to normal of 4-6 months.
