Portugal
New procedure to expedite processing of pending expressions of interest
The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) is changing the procedure to schedule the service needed to obtain a residence permit, to speed up service scheduling and enact the new rules that were introduced in early 2024.
All foreign citizens who have submitted an expression of intention in the old SAPA Portal prior to 30 April 2023 will receive an e-mail from AIMA. Asking them to change their password in a new service platform. This is necessary because many users may no longer have the password used to create an account in the dedicated web portal.
Next, they will be asked to generate a Single Billing Document (DUC), in order to pay the fees, which will have to occur within the following 10 days. Having paid the fees, they will receive a scheduling proposal within the next 20 business days, indicating day, time and place.
After scheduling, and before the scheduled date, they user will receive a link by email that will allow them to resubmit all the updated information and documentation, in order to speed up the process and simplify service.
This procedure implements the new rules that came into force in early 2024, where it is stipulated, among other things, that the payment of the fees shall occur upon submitting the request, and not after a final decision is granted. This is applied to both new and pending requests.
This procedure was designed to give answer as quickly as possible to the hundreds of thousand requests submitted that await decision.
With the new procedure, the applicant will receive a scheduling proposal after paying the fee.
The new procedure aims to be:
- Simpler and more accessible, because it runs solely on the internet until the moment the scheduled service happens.
- Safer, because it assures that all communications are made in a safe environment and because and, by anticipating the payment of fees, it does not require cash
- closing operations in the front office (which also enables a faster and more efficient service).
- More agile, because it allows for the submission to be analysed under the most recent information. Because some expressions of intention were presented a considerable time ago, it is possible that some of the submitted documents are out of date. Thus, the service provided will be made simpler and a final decision will be granted faster.
- More effective, more efficient, because it makes it possible to eliminate some applications that no longer correspond to the interests of the person who submitted them – they may have moved to another country in the meantime. In this way, it will be possible to make vacancies available to more people and more quickly.
The fees are the same as those charged previously by SEF, with the annual update due to inflation.
For example, the fee for Expression of Intention is EUR 56.80 for nationals of Brazil and Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP), or EUR 397.90 for all other cases (resulting from the application of the 25 per cent discount on the EUR 530.50 fee). This fee is exactly the same as the one that was charged over the counter and is the result of an update in line with inflation, under the terms of article 3 of Ministerial Order 307/2023 of 13 October.
It should be noted that in the previous procedure, the user could receive an appointment in a very short period of time (within one, two or three days, for example) and have to pay the fees at that time. This situation could be more inconvenient than having to pay the fees within the 10-day period now granted after receiving the e-mail.
United Kingdom
Automatic granting of settled status
The Home Office has announced the introduction of a new process to automatically convert eligible pre-settled status holders to settled status, without the need for them to make a further EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) application.
The EUSS allows EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members to continue living and working in the UK following its departure from the European Union.
Successful applicants to EUSS receive ‘pre-settled status’ or ‘settled status’:
- pre-settled status is limited leave to enter or remain, usually granted if the applicant has been resident in the UK for less than 5 years
- settled status is indefinite leave to enter or remain, usually granted if the applicant has been resident for at least 5 years.
Pre-settled status holders currently need to make a further application to the EUSS after they’ve completed the required residence in the UK (usually 5 years) in order to obtain settled status.
Under the new process, the Home Office will email pre-settled status holders who are approaching the expiry of their status to inform them that they may soon be considered for an automated conversion to settled status. The government expects to issue the first grants of settled status under this process from late January 2025. Pre-settled status holders will not need to do anything, and will be informed if they cannot be granted settled status.
The Home Office will automatically check pre-settled status holder records against government-held information, for example to ensure they have remained resident in the UK, and to check for any evidence of criminal conduct. These checks are the same as the checks undertaken when the person first applied to the EUSS and will ensure they are eligible for settled status before it is granted.
Later in 2025, the Home Office intends to expand this process to enable more eligible pre-settled status holders to benefit from it. The Home Office is also considering the appropriate next steps for cases where a pre-settled status holder no longer meets the conditions of their pre-settled status, for example because they have not remained continuously resident in the UK. Further information will be provided in due course.
The Home Office already extends pre-settled status by 5 years for people approaching expiry of that status, to ensure that nobody loses their rights because they did not make a further EUSS application.
Pre-settled status holders don’t need to wait to be converted to settled status. They can still apply for it as soon as they are eligible at www.gov.uk/eusettlementscheme. The introduction of this automated process will not prevent people from doing so.
These changes will support the Home Office implementation of the High Court judgment in the judicial review brought by the Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements (IMA) concerning pre-settled status holders under the EUSS.
