Every immigrant who has been in Portugal for the last five and a half years is well aware of Decree-Law No. 10-A/2020, currently in version No. 85-B/2025. It is the famous decree that recognizes — or should recognize — expired residence permits as valid. Since 2020, more than five years ago, when Portugal and the world were facing the horror of the Covid-19 pandemic, This document has been a constant companion, whether in your pocket, wallet or cell phone.
The decree is always at hand to be presented in a possible approach by the Public Security Police (PSP) or the National Republican Guard (GNR). It is also him who the immigrant resorts when he needs to prove to a public or private institution that he is not in an illegal situation in the countrybut only irregular from an administrative point of view — as renewing residence permits has been a chronic difficulty for years.
Today, Wednesday, October 15th, after several extensions, this decree will cease to exist. The Government of Luís Montenegro, in power since April 2024 (re-elected in May in early elections) decided that The time has come to close this chapter, which had been successively prolonged since March 13, 2020.
This was the date of the first publication of the decree-law in the Official Gazette (DRE). At the time, the scenario was different: pandemic, confinements and uncertainty about the future. Keep documents valid for that period it was a decision by then Prime Minister António Costa, to ensure the rights of immigrants at a time when in-person services were impossible and the online renewal system did not yet exist.
Part of the national and even international press erroneously reported the decree as a mass regularization of immigrants during the pandemic. Initially, it would end on June 30, 2020, but ended up being renewed due to the continued pandemic. Even after the beginning of the return to normality, the decree continued to be extended, although with fewer articles, but always maintaining the validity of expired documents.
Still in 2020, the former Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) had created a website for renewal onlinewhich ceased to function after the entity’s extinction. On November 24, 2023, another extension of the decree came. The justification changed: in addition to the pandemic, the need to “precaute the transition of administrative competencies within the scope of the restructuring of the Portuguese border control system” was added, which led to the creation of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).
At the time, the SEF had been replaced by AIMA less than a month ago, and the renewal process was already beginning to present confusion. The service, shared with the Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN), proved to be ineffective over time. Another determining factor was the change of government: the departure of the Socialist Party (PS) gave way to the current executive of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). This last renewal of the António Costa Government It was valid until June 30, 2024.