AIMA Appointment Speeds Up Permit Backlog

The communication primarily targets individuals who applied for renewals or first-time residence permits online, including those under the D7 (passive income), D8 (digital nomad), and family reunification categories.

According to crowdsourced reports from Facebook groups and Reddit forums, the emails originate from official addresses such as convites@aima.gov.pt and notificacoes@aima.gov.pt. They give applicants a strict 15-day calendar deadline to appear at a designated AIMA branch, with appointments being scheduled across the country in cities like Lisbon, Porto, Faro, and Braga.

Failure to attend or reschedule within the given timeframe, the emails warn, will result in the application being frozen.

Relief tempered with caution

The news has been met with a wave of cautious optimism. While the communication provides a clear path forward, it has also sent hundreds scrambling to gather fresh documents. Online forums have become vital hubs for sharing information, with users exchanging tips on everything from the quickest way to get a new declaration of address to which AIMA offices have the longest queues, or what exactly AIMA asked during the in-person appointments.

This collective intelligence has also raised an important security warning: reports have surfaced of sophisticated phishing scams using fake email domains (aima-gov.com) to target anxious applicants. The community advises everyone to verify the sender's address ends in @aima.gov.pt and that the email contains personal identifiers like their full name and application number.