A court gave AIMA seven days — after a two-year wait ended in deportation
Kauê Matos, 19, waited two years for AIMA to schedule the handover of his residence document under family reunification. Returning from an Erasmus term, he was held four days at Lisbon airport and deported to Brazil. A Lisbon court then accepted an action compelling AIMA to schedule the appointment and gave the agency seven days. AIMA replied it will act once formally served by the court. A separate case reported the same week: a five-year-old with cerebral palsy still without her residence card after being seen in early 2026.
Why it matters for your move
This is what the silence costs when nobody forces the file to move. It also shows the remedy works: a court can order AIMA to act, and did. If your own case has passed the legal deadline, that route exists before things reach an airport.
This is Re-locant.com’s own brief, written to explain what the update means for people moving to or living in Portugal. For the full original report, see the source below.