We landed in Portugal in May 2022 and got our temporary residency permits (TRP) in September 2022. There’s been a ton of uncertainty around residency renewals given the upheaval of SEF and transition to AIMA. So here’s our attempt to create clarity amidst the chaos. As we learn more, we will update this post. Let’s get into it!
CREATE A SEF PROFILE
Search for “Portugal residency renewal” > Click the Justiça.gov.pt link.
Click “AIMA online service.”
This will redirect you to the SEF website. DO NOT change the language to English. Click the first highlighted “aqui” in blue to register in the SEF Portal (if you don’t already have a login).
Enter your email.
For our kids, we used their individual Gmail accounts so that in the future we don’t have to deal with changing the emails attached to their profiles but you can use a parent’s email. Click OK. On the next screen you enter your resident number (the one consisting of letters and number in the top right corner of your card), date of birth, nationality, create a password, etc.
After you complete the fields and submit you’ll get the following screen asking you to confirm your email.
Go to your email provider. The email looks like this. Click the link to activate your profile.
When you click the link in your email you’ll be taken to the below page indicating you’ve successfully registered. Then you can login to your account – click Login in your window.
Once logged into your SEF account, in your Pedidos section, you will see “Renovação Automática” this is where you can request your renewal.
At the time of creating this post, our expiration date is too far in the future for us to complete the renewal process. When I attempted to renew online I received the below message saying that I couldn’t use the automatic renewal feature.
WHAT NEXT?
Our permits expire at the end of September 2024 so we will keep checking every week to see if we can renew online. Once we can, or if we can’t, we will update this post so be sure to book mark it and come back for more information.
PAYMENT
Our friends who have successfully completed the autmatic renewal process above say that they receive payment instructions, which cannot be completed until 48 hours after requesting the renewal online.
RECEIVING YOUR CARDS
The friends who have completed the online renewal process, and successfully made their payments 48 hours after submission, have not yet received their cards. Currently, they’ve been waiting one month for their cards.
GOVERNMENT EXTENDS PERMITS 1 YEAR
The latest news is that the government is extending permits until June 25, 2025 to give themselves time to catch up on the massive backlog of requests. I’m not sure what that means for international travel. In the meantime, we have our first trip back to the US planned for Christmas. Our visa specialist recommends making connecting flights in the US and not in another European country. So, we rebooked our flights to connect on the east coast before arriving home in Lisbon.
