What Is Changing From October 2026
From October 2026, AIMA is expanding the availability of family reunification appointments and letting immigrants with minor children register on its portal to request a reunification slot directly. This is a specific, targeted move rather than a vague promise of faster service: the agency has singled out family reunification as an area for concentrated effort, with priority for cases involving minors. AIMA president Pedro Portugal Gaspar described it as "an action to be developed with great emphasis and commitment on the part of AIMA," signalling that reunification scheduling is being pushed to the front of the queue rather than left to drift.
For families who have spent months separated — a spouse or child abroad while the process sits frozen at AIMA — this is the first genuinely favourable operational shift in some time. The reason reunification cases stall is almost never the merits; it is the absence of an appointment slot to move the file forward. By deliberately releasing more reunification slots and routing minor-child cases through the portal, AIMA is attacking exactly the bottleneck that keeps these families apart. The change does not rewrite the law on who qualifies for reunification; it changes how quickly a qualifying case can actually get in front of the agency.
It is worth being precise about what "from October" means in practice. This is a rollout of expanded scheduling capacity, not an instant clearance of the backlog. The slots open gradually, priority is weighted toward minors, and demand is enormous, so the sensible reading is that your odds of a portal slot improve from October — not that a date lands in your inbox automatically. The rest of this guide explains the capacity behind the announcement, who benefits first, how to use the portal, and how to weigh waiting against the court route that has forced AIMA's hand in tens of thousands of cases already.
The Capacity Numbers Behind the Announcement
The expansion is credible because it rests on a real increase in throughput. AIMA has reported processing around 1,000 consultations per day, with the separate transitional "mission structure" handling roughly 800 more. Officials expect the combined figure to reach approximately 2,000 consultations per day. That near-doubling of daily capacity is the engine that makes a family reunification push possible: you cannot prioritise a category of appointment without spare capacity to allocate to it, and the staffing build-up through 2026 is what created that headroom.
The context that makes these numbers meaningful is the scale of demand AIMA is working against. Over the past year the agency has handled more than 600,000 appointments and issued over 500,000 residence cards. Against that volume, an extra 1,000 daily slots is significant but not limitless, which is why prioritisation matters — AIMA is choosing to direct part of the new capacity specifically at family reunification rather than spreading it thinly across every process type. If you understand where your case sits in that allocation, you can judge realistically how quickly the ramp is likely to reach you.
The same reporting places this expansion against a stark legal backdrop: the courts have already imposed around 17,000 appointments on AIMA for missing its deadlines, with Gaspar acknowledging "a great delay on the part of the administration." In other words, the voluntary expansion is happening in parallel with sustained court pressure. Those two forces — more slots released voluntarily, and courts ordering slots where AIMA failed — push the same direction, and applicants can use either or both. We cover the litigation route in depth in our guide to the 17,000 court-ordered appointments.
Who Benefits First: Cases Involving Minors
The clearest winners from the October expansion are reunification cases involving minor children. AIMA has said that immigrants with minor children can register on the portal and request appointments, with priority reporting pointing to coverage of minors up to age 18. If your reunification case is to bring a child to Portugal, or involves a child already here whose status depends on the process, you are in the group AIMA is explicitly moving to the front. That is a meaningful advantage worth acting on promptly rather than assuming the priority will find you.
The emphasis on minors reflects the underlying policy aim, which AIMA frames in terms of integration: reuniting families quickly so that already-regularised immigrants can settle properly, with children in school and households intact. For applicants, the practical takeaway is that a case with a minor child is likely to see a portal slot sooner than an adult-only reunification, so if that describes your situation you should be checking the portal actively from October and be ready to book the moment a slot appears. The age boundary matters too: children approaching 18 are time-sensitive, because a reunification route framed around a minor can be affected once the child ages out, so do not sit on a case that is close to that line.
If your reunification case does not involve a minor, the expansion still helps — the overall increase in slots eases the whole system — but you should temper expectations about being prioritised. Adult reunifications, such as a spouse abroad with no children in the process, benefit from the general capacity increase rather than from a dedicated priority lane. For those cases the wait-versus-litigate calculation, covered below, is more finely balanced, and the court route may still be the faster path to a dated appointment. Understanding which group you fall into is the first step in choosing a strategy, and our overview of the minor family reunification submission rules is a useful companion for child-based cases.
How to Use the Portal for a Reunification Slot
To use the expanded scheduling, register on AIMA's portal and request a family reunification appointment through it once the October capacity is live. Have your key information ready before you log in: your own residence details and process reference, the identity and relationship documents for the family member you are reuniting with — for a minor, birth certificate and proof of the parental relationship — and any prior correspondence or receipts tied to your reunification request. Slots for prioritised categories can appear and be taken quickly, so preparation is what lets you book in the moment rather than losing a slot while you hunt for a document.
Treat the portal as something to check frequently rather than once. Newly released slots are absorbed fast in a system with this much pent-up demand, and the applicants who succeed are generally those watching regularly and willing to accept the first workable appointment rather than holding out for an ideal date or a closer office. If the system offers you a slot that is inconvenient in location or timing but real, the strong default is to take it: a booked appointment restarts a frozen process, whereas waiting for a better one risks the slot going to someone else. Our guide on what to do when an appointment is assigned far from your home walks through that trade-off.
Document everything you do on the portal. Screenshot each step — the appointment request, any confirmation, the reference numbers, and the dates — because this record is exactly what you will need if you later have to escalate. If the portal will not let you complete a reunification request, throws an error, or shows no availability past the legal deadline, that evidence converts directly into the basis for a court action. The portal and the courts are not separate worlds: a clean paper trail of a portal request that AIMA failed to honour is the raw material for forcing a slot, which is the subject of the next section and of our guide to forcing a decision when reunification is delayed.
Wait for a Slot or Force One Through the Courts?
The central decision for a stalled reunification case is whether to wait for the October expansion to deliver a slot or to force one through the administrative courts. The deciding factor is how overdue your case already is. Portuguese law requires AIMA to schedule appointments within 90 days; once that window has passed without a valid slot, you have grounds to file an intimação para prestação de facto — an urgent court order compelling AIMA to schedule. These actions succeed at very high rates precisely because AIMA concedes the delay, and they deliver a dated, enforceable appointment rather than a hope.
If your case is well past the deadline and your family is separated, litigation gives you certainty and control that a capacity ramp cannot. The court sets a fixed period for AIMA to comply, often backed by a daily financial penalty (sanção pecuniária compulsória) for each day it fails, which is what turns a paper order into a real appointment. Against months of open-ended separation, the one-off cost of a standardised court action is, for most families, clearly worth it — and Portugal's legal aid scheme (apoio judiciário) can cover representation and court costs for those who meet the means test, including foreign nationals whose status is itself stuck at AIMA.
If you are earlier in the process, or you have a minor child and fall into the priority group, the calculus tilts toward the portal: a voluntarily offered slot is faster and cheaper than court, and the October expansion is specifically built to deliver those. The two paths are not mutually exclusive. A reasonable strategy is to register and monitor the portal from October while keeping the court option ready, and to file the intimação if the deadline passes without a slot materialising. Whichever route produces an appointment first, the underlying reality has shifted: applicants no longer have to wait indefinitely, and our guide to the 17,000 court-ordered appointments sets out the litigation route step by step.
What to Do This Month While the Ramp Rolls Out
Do not treat the period before October as dead time. Use it to get your file into a state where you can act the instant a slot opens or a court action becomes worthwhile. Assemble and check your reunification documents now: your residence details, the family member's identity and relationship evidence, translations and apostilles where required, and every reference number and receipt from your existing request. A case that is document-ready is one you can push through the portal in minutes or hand to a lawyer without delay — the applicants who lose out are usually those scrambling for paperwork when the opportunity finally arrives.
Confirm exactly where your case stands against the 90-day deadline, because that single fact determines your options. Establish the date AIMA became obliged to schedule your appointment and count forward: if the window has already passed with no valid slot, you are litigation-ready today and do not need to wait for October at all. If you are still inside it, note the date it expires so you know precisely when the court route opens. This timeline is not administrative trivia — it is the legal trigger for compelling an appointment, and keeping it documented is what makes any later escalation straightforward.
Finally, decide your track and prepare the corresponding step. If you have a minor child, plan to register and monitor the portal actively from October and be ready to book immediately. If you are an adult-only reunification well past the deadline, consider speaking to an immigration lawyer now about an intimação rather than waiting for a general capacity increase that may not prioritise your case. Either way, the message from the last several months of AIMA reporting is consistent: the system is moving, but it moves fastest for applicants who are prepared, know their deadline, and act rather than wait. For the broader menu of remedies when AIMA goes silent, see our guide to filing a lawsuit against AIMA.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AIMA changing for family reunification in October 2026?
From October 2026 AIMA is expanding family reunification appointment availability and letting immigrants with minor children register on its portal to request a reunification appointment directly. The agency's president has made it a stated priority, and it sits alongside a capacity increase pushing combined daily consultations toward 2,000. It changes how fast a qualifying case can be scheduled, not who qualifies.
Will my reunification case be scheduled automatically because of the expansion?
No. The expansion releases more slots and prioritises cases involving minors, so some applicants should see appointments open sooner, but there is a large backlog. Monitor the portal actively rather than assume a slot will appear, and if your case is already past the 90-day deadline, you do not have to wait for the ramp — you can force a slot through the courts.
How do I request a reunification appointment for my minor child?
From October 2026, register on AIMA's portal and request a family reunification appointment through it; priority goes to cases involving minors up to age 18. Keep your residence details, the child's identity and relationship documents, and your process reference ready, check the portal regularly, and book the first suitable slot rather than holding out for a better date.
Should I wait for a slot or go to court?
If AIMA has left you without an appointment past the 90-day deadline and your family is separated, an intimação para prestação de facto forces AIMA to schedule and gives you a dated outcome you control. If you are earlier in the process or have a minor child, the October expansion may deliver a slot faster and more cheaply. Watching the portal while keeping the court option ready is often safest.
How many appointments can AIMA handle per day now?
AIMA has reported roughly 1,000 consultations per day, with the mission structure handling around 800 more, for a combined figure officials expect to reach about 2,000 per day. That capacity, built on additional staff hired through 2026, is what makes the October family reunification push possible.