AIMA Castelo Branco (Castelo Branco) — Offices, Wait Times & Legal Help

AIMA Castelo Branco is the Beira Baixa region's dedicated migrant service point, at Rua Prof. Dr. Faria de Vasconcelos 6, R/C, 6000-266 Castelo Branco. It is one of AIMA's smaller inland offices and operates strictly by appointment — biometrics, document submission and card collection all need a scheduled slot, and the counter keeps limited hours (mornings 9am–12:30pm, afternoons 2–4:30pm). The office does not publish a direct public phone line, so the national AIMA number 300 003 990 (weekdays 9am–7pm) is the way in. If Castelo Branco has no slot for your service type, the booking system may route you to Guarda or another inland counter — availability, not the office nearest your address, decides where you are scheduled.

Castelo Branco and the wider Beira Baixa run among the shorter first-appointment waits in the country — roughly 5 to 10 months in 2026 — because the inland caseload is small compared with the Lisbon–Porto axis. That is an average, not a guarantee: cases caught in AIMA's national renewals and decision backlog can still stall far longer with no appointment offered at all. Since 11 September 2026, Lei 62/2026 ended the rule that treated a renewal as approved when AIMA missed its 60-day deadline, so a pending case no longer resolves itself through silence. If your application has sat beyond the legal decision window with no response, an administrative court action (intimação) filed at the Tribunal Administrativo e Fiscal de Castelo Branco is the standard remedy and usually compels AIMA to schedule or decide within weeks of the court order rather than months.

Castelo Branco's caseload leans toward family reunification cases, D7 retirees and remote-income residents attracted by the low cost of living in the Beira Baixa and Serra da Estrela foothills, plus a growing number of CPLP nationals regularising their status under the 2026 rules. Because the office is small, it also serves applicants from surrounding municipalities such as Fundão, Covilhã and Idanha-a-Nova who can establish a local connection. Whatever your permit type, the 90-day decision deadline and the right to force a decision apply in Castelo Branco exactly as they do in Lisbon — if AIMA has gone silent on a pending case, a court injunction is the lever that moves it.