According to the document, at the end of December 2024, 1,546,521 foreign citizens were registered in Portugal, a figure that “should be corrected upwards, predictably by another 50 thousand”, when the processing of regularisation requests under the ‘transitional regime’ created by the Assembly of the Republic is completed.

This regime opened the door to the regularisation of those who were already in national territory before 3 June 2024, the date on which the expression of interest figure was eliminated, a legal resource that allowed those who had tax discounts to obtain a resident card, despite having entered with a tourist visa.

“It is estimated that, with this review, the number of foreigners in Portugal in 2024 will be around 1,600,000”, says the report, highlighting that the work of the Mission Structure for the Recovery of Pending Processes at AIMA implied “a statistical correction to the number of foreign citizens in Portugal in the years prior to 2024”.

From “1,044,606 to 1,293,463 in 2023, which represents an increase of 248,857 compared to the number presented in the Migration and Asylum Report for 2023”, the document reads.

According to the report, since 3 June of last year “there has been a 59% reduction in the flow of foreign citizens entering Portugal with a view to obtaining a residence permit”.

In addition to these figures, 61,648 citizens are registered as residing “under the regime of temporary protection for displaced persons from Ukraine”.

According to the Government document, the expressions of interest, which had an “occasional and extraordinary nature”, now “constitute a general regime for obtaining residence permits without the need for the same, with the online computer registration” of the appropriate documents being sufficient for this purpose.

With several legislative changes, “the possibility was opened for a foreign citizen to remain in national territory, even if he or she had entered and remained in the country irregularly”, contributing to “the significant growth in requests for residence permits”.

“At the same time, profound organic transformations were carried out in the public immigration services (including the extinction of the Foreigners and Borders Service), jointly impacting the capacity to process these requests”, states the report.

In total, in June 2024, “there were 446,921 expressions of interest processes” pending.

The Mission Structure began operating in September 2024 and, according to the Government, “it was possible to respond to foreign citizens on hold, assess the number of foreign citizens who are in national territory, collect their biometric data, criminal records and carry out other security checks and the contribution and professional status of these citizens”.

Regarding pending expressions of interest, 261,101 cases were scheduled and 177,026 processes were notified for termination, as can also be read in the document.