What Changed on July 1, 2026
On July 1, 2026, AIMA retired the contactenos form as the submission channel for two specific application types under Lei 37/2006 — the law governing EU citizens' right of residence in Portugal. The Portugal News reported on July 4, 2026: "As of 1 July, AIMA has made the application process for issuing permanent residence certificates and cards for EU nationals and their family members available on its Renewal Portal." AIMA's own official statement described this as "part of the modernisation and digitisation process of AIMA's services, with the aim of centralising, simplifying, and making them more accessible."
The change is not just an option to use the portal — it is a mandatory channel migration. AIMA's announcement specifies that "the Renewal Portal will therefore become the channel for submission and management of all requests" for these two document types. The contactenos form, which EU citizens and their family members had been using for these applications, is no longer the correct route. Any advice, guide, or legal service still directing applicants to the contactenos channel for EU permanent residence applications is now out of date as of this date.
This is the same pattern AIMA has used for other document categories over the past 18 months — consolidating submission channels onto the Renewal Portal as the agency's digitalisation programme advances. The portal already handles third-country national permit renewals expiring in designated cohort months. Adding EU permanent residence applications represents a significant expansion of the portal's scope into the EU-citizen population, which previously had a less structured submission experience.
Which Applications Are Now Portal-Only
The July 1 channel migration covers exactly two application types under Lei 37/2006: the permanent residence certificate for EU nationals (Article 16) and the permanent residence card for family members of EU nationals or third-country nationals (Article 17). These are the documents that grant permanent residence status to EU citizens and their families who have completed five years of continuous legal residence in Portugal.
Article 16 applies to EU nationals themselves — citizens of any EU member state, plus EEA nationals (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) and Swiss nationals, who have been residing legally and continuously in Portugal for at least five years. Article 17 applies to non-EU family members of those EU nationals — typically spouses, registered partners, dependent children, and dependent direct relatives in the ascending line (parents, grandparents) — who have also resided in Portugal for five continuous years alongside the EU national sponsor.
It is important to note what is not covered by this change. Regular EU residence registration — the Certificado de Registo that EU nationals obtain when first establishing residence in Portugal — is not affected. That first-registration process remains separate. What this change covers is the conversion from temporary to permanent status, which becomes available after five years of continuous residence and represents a qualitatively different document with stronger legal protections against expulsion and without any renewal requirement.
How to Submit Through the Renewal Portal
The Renewal Portal is accessible at portal-renovacoes.aima.gov.pt. To submit an Article 16 or Article 17 application, you will need to create or log into your account on the portal using Portuguese digital authentication — either the Cartão de Cidadão (if you have obtained Portuguese citizenship) or, for EU nationals, the Chave Móvel Digital or an authenticated session linked to your existing AIMA registration number. The portal is in Portuguese; if you are not comfortable in Portuguese, navigating it with a browser-based translation tool is feasible for most steps, but document upload labels may require care.
Once logged in, you will need to select the application type corresponding to Article 16 (permanent residence certificate for EU nationals) or Article 17 (permanent residence card for family members). The portal will then display the document upload requirements and the applicable fee. Payment is made through the portal's integrated payment system, and all document submission occurs in the same session. You receive a submission confirmation that serves as proof of your pending application.
AIMA's announcement specifies that "payment of the respective fees and submission of the necessary documents are also made through the portal." This means the portal handles the complete process — you do not need to make a separate bank transfer, mail physical documents to an AIMA office, or attend a preliminary in-person submission appointment. The portal submission is the application. Biometric data may still be required in person depending on whether AIMA already has your biometrics on record from previous interactions, but the submission itself is digital.
If You Were Already Mid-Process Using the Old Channel
If you submitted an Article 16 or Article 17 application via the contactenos form before July 1, 2026 and have not yet received a decision, your submission is on record at AIMA and should be processed through the existing queue. The channel migration applies to new submissions from July 1 onwards; it does not retroactively invalidate submissions that were correctly made under the procedure that existed at the time.
The risk area is applicants who began but did not complete a contactenos submission. The contactenos form was not always straightforward to submit — some applicants reported difficulty attaching all required documents, receiving auto-responses without confirmation that the file was complete, or being unsure whether their submission was registered. If you are in this position — you submitted something via contactenos but are not certain it was received or complete — the safest course of action is to contact AIMA using the contactenos form to ask for confirmation of receipt and the status of your file, and to then use the Renewal Portal for any outstanding documents or a fresh submission if AIMA confirms the original was not registered.
AIMA has not published a specific transition protocol for in-flight contactenos submissions for these application types. The general principle of Portuguese administrative law, under the Código do Procedimento Administrativo, is that submissions made through a channel that was valid at the time of submission retain their procedural validity. However, this principle does not guarantee processing speed, and applicants whose submissions predate the portal migration may find that AIMA's internal tracking is cleaner for portal submissions than for contactenos submissions of this type.
Documents and Fees in the Portal
The standard document requirements for an Article 16 permanent residence certificate are: a valid EU identity document or passport, evidence of five years of continuous legal residence in Portugal (see the FAQ section below for what AIMA typically accepts), and a Portuguese criminal record certificate (Registo Criminal) dated within three months of the application. EU nationals applying under Article 16 do not need to demonstrate income or housing independently — the five-year continuous residence is the operative qualifying condition under Lei 37/2006.
For Article 17 family member applications, additional documents are typically required to establish the family relationship to the EU national sponsor — marriage certificate, birth certificate, or registered partnership documentation as applicable — and evidence that the family member has been residing in Portugal continuously for five years alongside the sponsor. The sponsor's own Article 16 certificate or evidence of ongoing EU residence rights is also required. All foreign-language documents must be accompanied by a certified Portuguese translation.
AIMA's fee schedule for permanent residence documents under Lei 37/2006 is set out in the relevant portaria. As of 2026, the permanent residence certificate for EU nationals carries a fee of around €30 to €50 depending on document type, and the Article 17 card fee is higher at around €80 to €100, though these figures are subject to change by portaria. The portal will display the current applicable fee at the time of submission. Payment by Multibanco reference or MB Way is the standard method through the portal.
Why AIMA Is Centralising Onto One Portal
The shift of EU permanent residence applications to the Renewal Portal is part of AIMA's stated strategy to centralize all application management into a single digital infrastructure. This strategy has been underway since 2025 and reflects the agency's stated goal of reducing the parallel processing channels that existed under the former SEF framework — where different application types flowed through different systems, generating fragmented case tracking, inconsistent processing, and difficulty in monitoring overall workload.
The practical motivation is also resource efficiency. When all submissions flow through a single portal, AIMA's case management system can distribute incoming work across available officers regardless of application type, apply uniform document-completeness checks before a file enters the processing queue, and generate statistics on pending volumes and processing times that are consistent across categories. The contactenos form produced unstructured submissions that varied significantly in format and completeness, making automated pre-processing difficult.
The migration also reflects the reality that the Renewal Portal, initially launched for third-country national permit renewals, has proven operationally stable. The portal processed several cohort openings through 2025 and early 2026 without significant reported failures. Extending it to EU permanent residence applications is a lower-risk expansion than launching a new system would be. From the applicant's perspective, using a system that has been running for over a year is also preferable to the contactenos route, which offered no application tracking, no structured confirmation, and limited ability to monitor the status of a submitted file.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do EU citizens now apply for permanent residence in Portugal?
As of July 1, 2026, EU citizens applying for a permanent residence certificate (Article 16 of Lei 37/2006) must submit through the Renewal Portal at portal-renovacoes.aima.gov.pt. The contactenos form channel has been retired for this category. You log in to the portal, select the permanent residence certificate application type, upload the required documents, pay the applicable fee, and submit. AIMA confirmed that the portal becomes "the channel for submission and management of all requests" for this document type.
What is the Article 17 permanent residence card and who needs to use the portal for it?
The Article 17 permanent residence card is issued to non-EU family members of EU citizens who have lived legally in Portugal for five continuous years alongside the EU national sponsor. It gives permanent residence status to the family member without requiring them to independently qualify under national immigration rules. As of July 1, 2026, applications for the Article 17 card must also go through the Renewal Portal.
Can I still use the contactenos form if I already started my application that way?
If you submitted via the contactenos form before July 1 and received a complete submission confirmation, your file should be in AIMA's queue. If you started but did not complete a submission through the old channel, use the Renewal Portal going forward and contact AIMA to confirm whether the earlier attempt was received.
Does the July 1 portal change affect regular EU residence certificates (not permanent)?
No. The change covers only permanent residence (Article 16 and 17 under Lei 37/2006). First-time EU residence registration — the Certificado de Registo — is not affected by this migration.
What proof of five years of continuous residence does AIMA typically require for Article 16?
Commonly accepted documents include your original EU residence registration certificate, IRS tax declarations filed in Portugal over the relevant years, social security contribution records, employment contracts or income records, Portuguese lease agreements or utility contracts, and SNS health records. Gaps in any of these may generate an information request from AIMA.