On the same day that President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa promulgated the Foreigners Law, the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA) released the annual report with official immigration figures. The document arrives late compared to last year’s release, but this is not the only difference.
In previous reports, the numbers were shown absolutely by year, being more of a “service” report. This year’s version, which corresponds to data from 2024, provides more details that allow us to get a better idea of the immigration panorama.
The total number is not new: 1,543,697 foreign citizens with a residence permit in 2024. This figure had already been highlighted in an interim report released in April.
The document also shows what AIMA calls a “statistical correction to the number of foreign citizens in Portugal in the years prior to 2024”. The correction is upward: from 1,044,606 to 1,304,833 in 2023. The number represents an increase of 260,227 people in relation to the 2023 Migration and Asylum Report.
Regarding the total number, this year’s edition provides the details:
– 1.096.170 are citizens who are in possession of a residence permit valid after July 1, 2024. By law, the right of residence and renewal is maintained up to six months after its expiration date;
– 286.302 are the assistance already carried out by the Mission Structure in relation to the pending Expression of Interest processes that were awaiting the obtaining of a residence permit;
– 7.517 are foreign citizens who were in possession of an expired residence permit (titles with a validity prior to June 30, 2024) and who have already paid the administrative fees to be served by the Mission Structure;
– 92.341 are foreign citizens who had an expired CPLP residence permit and who have already been assisted by the Mission Structure;
– 61.242 are the beneficiaries of Temporary Protection;
– 125 These are foreign citizens admitted to national territory under long-term visas and who have expressed their intention to stay for a period of time longer than that initially authorized, and an extension of their stay has been granted.
The number of residence titles granted in 2024: 218,332 non-totalwith the indication that “the grant date may be very different from the citizen’s entry date into national territory”. In other words, many of these immigrants who obtained the document last year had entered the national territory years before and faced a long wait for a residence permit.