The June 6 First Round and What AIMA Actually Did
On Saturday June 6 2026 AIMA ran the first round of a dedicated weekend operation, the força-tarefa, to hand-deliver residence cards that had been printed and posted by the Casa da Moeda and the CTT but were returned to the agency because the addressee could not be reached at the address on file. The agency announced the operation through Público's Público Brasil section on June 3 2026. Público reported: "A Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (AIMA) decidiu fazer uma força-tarefa para entregar os cartões de residência devolvidos. Neste sábado, 6 de junho, será a primeira rodada para a devolução presencial dos documentos tão esperados pelos imigrantes."
The protocol announced for the June 6 round was unambiguous. Three lojas were opened exclusively for the operation: the Lisboa loja at Avenida António Augusto Aguiar, the Porto posto de atendimento at Avenida de França, and the Vila Real loja. No other AIMA services were rendered at any of the three sites on the day. AIMA's own framing was explicit: "Essas lojas estarão abertas exclusivamente para a entrega presencial de cartões devolvidos." Only applicants who had received an email convocation from AIMA in the days preceding the Saturday round were attended. Walk-ins, applicants outside the convocation window, applicants seeking other AIMA services, and applicants whose cards were not in the returned-by-CTT pool were all turned away. The agency stated it would repeat the força-tarefa on subsequent Saturdays but published no calendar of dates, leaving the next-round timing to be communicated through the convocation email pipeline rather than by public schedule.
The Email-Convocation Rule and Why Walk-Ins Are Refused
The convocation-only rule is the operational core of the force-task. AIMA's standing-loja capacity cannot absorb the volume of CTT-returned cards through ordinary daytime queuing — the existing Anjos system in Lisboa already runs at 70 daily tickets — and Saturday rounds are designed to clear specific named cohorts of returned cards in batches. The agency identifies the names from its internal returned-card register, sends the convocation by email three to five working days before the Saturday round, and processes the named cohort on the day. Anyone who is not on the convocation list for that specific Saturday is, by design, not attended. The point of the rule is to prevent the Saturday round from collapsing into a generalised queue.
The implication for applicants is that the convocation email is the operational document, not the card itself or the AIMA approval letter. The email confirms that the card has been issued, that it has been returned to AIMA by the CTT, that AIMA has placed the applicant's case in the specific Saturday round, and that the loja indicated in the email expects the applicant on that date. Applicants who have not received a convocation but who believe their card has been returned should check the spam, junk, and promotions folders of the email address registered with AIMA at the time of the original residence application. The convocation arrives from an @aima.gov.pt sender domain and is filtered out of inboxes under standard mail-filtering rules with high frequency. If no convocation is in any folder, the appropriate next step is the contactenos form — not a speculative loja trip. Our piece on the weekday CTT-returned-card pickup system at Anjos in Lisbon covers the parallel daytime route, which operates under different rules from the Saturday força-tarefa.
The Three-Loja-Only Geography
The geographic concentration of the Saturday operation at three lojas is meaningful and constraining. Lisboa, Porto and Vila Real together do not cover the country. Applicants whose primary residence is in the Algarve, in the Centro region (Coimbra, Aveiro, Leiria), in the Alentejo, in the Açores, or in Madeira cannot collect their card on a Saturday round without travelling to one of the three open lojas. The Lisboa loja at Avenida António Augusto Aguiar is the central Lisbon location used for the Saturday operation; it is distinct from the Anjos loja that operates on weekdays for CTT-returned-card pickup under the 70-tickets-a-day system. The Porto posto at Avenida de França serves the Norte region. The Vila Real loja serves the interior northern districts.
The travel-cost implication for applicants outside the three loja catchments is real. A return rail journey from Faro to Lisboa on a Saturday is approximately 60 to 80 euros and four-and-a-half hours each way; from Funchal or Ponta Delgada it is a flight at substantially higher cost. The Saturday operation does not provide any travel reimbursement and AIMA has not indicated whether future Saturday rounds will be staged in additional lojas (Faro, Coimbra, Funchal, Ponta Delgada) to broaden geographic coverage. The procuração workaround discussed below is therefore particularly important for applicants outside the three loja catchments who cannot justify the Saturday travel cost. For applicants whose convocation specifies a loja that requires significant travel, the calculus is between the travel cost and the procuração fee plus the cost of a trusted local representative.
Why Cards Get Returned to AIMA in the First Place
Three causes account for the vast majority of CTT-returned residence cards. The first and most common is that the address on file with AIMA at the time of card issuance was outdated. Applicants who moved between filing the residence application and the card being printed and posted — a window that has stretched to 8 to 14 months in many cohorts during 2024 and 2025 — did not update the morada-de-residência field with AIMA. The Casa da Moeda printed the card to the obsolete address; the CTT attempted delivery; the addressee was not at that address; the card was returned. The frequency of this cause is high because the application-to-issuance window has been long enough that ordinary residential moves in Lisbon and Porto are not exceptional during it. The second cause is unsuccessful CTT delivery despite the address being correct: no answer at the door, no neighbour to sign, no concierge at residential addresses, missed station-redirection notices within the CTT retention window. The third cause is building mail infrastructure that is not compatible with registered post — older buildings in central Lisbon and Porto with shared lobby mailboxes that the CTT cannot register a delivery against.
Updating the morada-de-residência via the AIMA portal does not retrieve a card that has already been returned. Once the card is in the returned-by-CTT pool the only retrieval path is the email convocation followed by either personal collection at one of the three Saturday lojas or the procuração route below. Applicants who change address after submitting the residence application but before the card is issued should update the morada-de-residência immediately to avoid the issuance-to-obsolete-address failure mode; this is the only preventative step that meaningfully reduces the probability of the card ending up in the returned pool. Once the card is in the returned pool, retroactive address corrections do not redirect the existing physical card; the card is at the AIMA loja and must be collected from there.
The Procuração-Cartório Workaround for a Future Round
The Saturday operation explicitly permits collection by an authorised representative under a notarial procuração. Público's June 3 article quotes AIMA directly on the workaround: collection in person is the default, but applicants who cannot attend may execute a procuração at a cartório and have a representative collect the card on their behalf. The procuração must be a formal notarial instrument, not a private letter of authorisation. It must specifically authorise the named representative to collect the residence card belonging to the named applicant from AIMA, and it must identify both parties by full name and Portuguese tax number where available. Same-day issuance at a Lisboa or Porto cartório notarial is normal; the fee range is 50 to 120 euros depending on cartório and on whether translation between Portuguese and another language is required.
The representative must arrive at the designated loja on the convocation date carrying the original procuração (not a copy), their own identity document, the applicant's email convocation either printed or shown on a mobile screen, and a copy of the applicant's passport. AIMA reserves the right to refuse collection if any of these elements is missing or if the procuração's scope does not clearly cover residence-card collection. Where the applicant is outside Portugal, the procuração must be executed either at the Portuguese consulate with jurisdiction over the applicant's location, or at a local notary public with subsequent apostille certification under the 1961 Hague Convention; non-apostilled foreign notarisations are routinely refused. The procuração route is the only practical option for applicants who are abroad on the convocation date or who cannot travel to one of the three lojas; it adds 50 to 120 euros of cartório fees and one to three days of cartório turnaround time to the card-retrieval timeline.
The Next-Round Calendar Gap and What to Do This Week
AIMA has stated only that the força-tarefa will be repeated on subsequent Saturdays. No calendar of further dates has been published. On the spacing of the June 6 first round the most plausible next date is Saturday June 13 2026, followed by June 20 and June 27 if the agency maintains weekly cadence. None of these dates is confirmed. The operational implication for applicants is that the date is communicated through the convocation email pipeline, not by public schedule. Applicants whose card has been CTT-returned and who have not received a convocation by the Wednesday preceding a plausible Saturday round should treat that as a signal that their case is not in that round's batch and should not stage a speculative loja trip.
The right operational posture this week is: check email folders including spam and promotions for any @aima.gov.pt convocation arriving between today (Sunday June 7) and Wednesday June 10; if a convocation arrives, decide between in-person collection and procuração based on the loja location relative to current whereabouts; if no convocation arrives by June 10 and the card is known to have been issued, file a contactenos via the AIMA portal asking for confirmation that the card is in the returned-by-CTT pool and that the case is queued for a subsequent round. For applicants whose card has not yet been issued, the Saturday força-tarefa is not relevant — the card needs to reach the Casa da Moeda print queue, be printed, be posted by CTT, fail delivery, and be returned to AIMA before the Saturday operation applies. Our piece on the 525,000-decision backlog clearance and the renewals-versus-first-time split covers the broader print-and-issuance pipeline that produces the cards now flowing into the Saturday operation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the AIMA Saturday força-tarefa on June 6 2026?
AIMA ran the first round of a dedicated Saturday operation to hand-deliver residence cards that had been issued and posted by the CTT but were returned to AIMA because the addressee could not be reached at the address on file. Three lojas were opened exclusively for this purpose: Lisboa Avenida António Augusto Aguiar, Porto Avenida de França, and the loja in Vila Real. No other AIMA services were rendered on the day and walk-ins were refused. Only applicants who had received an email convocation in the days preceding were attended. AIMA stated it would repeat the força-tarefa on subsequent Saturdays but did not publish a calendar of dates.
I never received the email convocation — what should I do?
Check the spam, junk, and promotions folders of the email address you registered with AIMA when you filed your residence application. The convocation arrives from an @aima.gov.pt domain and routinely lands outside the inbox under standard mail-filtering rules. If no convocation is in any folder, your card may not yet be in the CTT-returned pool, or AIMA may not yet have processed your file into the force-task queue. The appropriate next step is to file a contactenos form via the AIMA portal specifying that you believe your card was issued and may have been returned by the CTT, and asking for confirmation of the card's status. Do not show up at a loja without a convocation: the protocol on Saturday rounds is strict and walk-ins are turned away.
Can someone else pick up my card on my behalf?
Yes, but only with a notarial procuração — a formal power of attorney executed at a cartório notarial (or its equivalent abroad, then apostilled). The procuração must specifically authorise the representative to collect the residence card from AIMA. The representative must present the original procuração, their own identity document, the applicant's email convocation, and a copy of the applicant's passport. The cartório procedure typically costs 50 to 120 euros depending on the cartório and the language combination, and same-day issuance is normal in Lisboa and Porto cartórios. If the applicant is abroad, the procuração must be executed at the relevant Portuguese consulate or notarised locally and apostilled under the 1961 Hague Convention before it will be accepted by AIMA.
When is the next Saturday round?
AIMA has not published a calendar. The agency stated only that the força-tarefa would be repeated on subsequent Saturdays. The June 13 2026 Saturday is the most plausible next date by spacing, but applicants should rely on the email convocation rather than predicting the date themselves. The convocation typically arrives three to five working days before the round. If your card has been CTT-returned and you have not received a convocation by June 10 2026 it is appropriate to file a contactenos asking whether your card is in the next-round queue. Do not stage a backup trip to a loja on speculation; the Saturday rounds operate strictly off the convocation list and no exceptions are made.
Why was my card returned by CTT in the first place?
Three causes account for the vast majority of CTT-returned cards. First, the address on file at AIMA was outdated because the applicant moved between application filing and card issuance and did not update the residential address with AIMA. Second, the CTT delivery attempt was unsuccessful (no answer at the door, no neighbour to sign, no concierge) and the redirection-to-station notice was missed during the CTT retention window. Third, the building's mail infrastructure does not accept registered post (some older Lisbon and Porto buildings still have CTT-incompatible postboxes). Updating the address with AIMA via the portal's morada-de-residência field will not retrieve a card that has already been returned — for those cards the only path forward is the email convocation and the loja-pickup or procuração route.