How to book an AIMA appointment and renew your residence permit in Portugal

First work out whether you need a renewal or an in-person appointment

If you already have a residence card and your next card is due, that is usually a renewal. For many types of residence permit, renewal goes through the AIMA portal rather than the usual in-person application.

If you hold a national D visa with a date already set, or you need not a renewal but a first in-person appointment at AIMA, then it is a matter of booking an appointment. The procedure changed in 2025–⁠2026: the old routes through SEF no longer apply, and some requests now go through AIMA's new portal and forms. So first check what your category actually requires: an online renewal or an in-person slot.

Log in to the AIMA portal and check whether renewal is available for your card

To renew, you usually need an AIMA personal account and access to the renewal service. By the end of August 2026, applications had already opened for cards expiring in August, September, October, November and December. Even so, check your own card on the portal: access may depend on the type of residence permit and on the data in the system.

If the system lets you in, check your details: address, type of grounds, and whether there are any flags for errors or debts. If you see the wrong residence permit category, odd statuses or missing messages, don't panic: the portal is patchy. In that case it is best to save screenshots and, at the same time, write to AIMA through Contactenos AIMA or to the general addresses if the matter is urgent.

Check your address and personal details before you apply

Before renewing, it is especially important that AIMA's system has your current address. Otherwise the card may go to the wrong place or even be sent back to AIMA.

To prove your address, it is now best to get a Certidão de Domicílio Fiscal (tax residence certificate) from the Portal das Finanças in advance. It is free, usually needs to be recent — no more than 30 days old — and the address on it must match the one you give AIMA. According to recent reports, AIMA no longer accepts documents from the Junta de Freguesia (parish council) as proof of address. If your name is not on the tenancy agreement, also prepare a declaration that you actually live there.

If the address won't update through the portal, people sometimes get it changed through Contactenos AIMA. For some, updating their details at a Loja do Cidadão (citizen's shop) through the ‘three numbers’ service — NIF, NISS, NUSS — also worked. This is not an official, guaranteed workaround, but in practice it has sometimes helped.

Apply for renewal or confirm the slot you have already been given

If renewal is open for your card's expiry date, apply straight away: after that the system usually generates a payment or the next steps. If you already have an in-person appointment, AIMA may ask you, before the visit, to follow the link in the email, pay the fee and upload documents online.

Don't put off paying. From real experience, things sometimes move noticeably faster for those who pay quickly. AIMA's emails can be rather unclear, though, so keep everything: emails, receipts and upload confirmations.

Pay the fee exactly to the cent and keep the confirmation

After you apply, or before a slot is issued, AIMA may send payment details or a payment link. Check the amount very carefully: even underpaying by a few cents can hold up the process.

As soon as you have paid, save the receipt, the PDF and a screenshot. If the system asks, send the confirmation back. When handing out returned cards in separate campaigns, AIMA charged a separate collection fee.

If your slot is too far off, ask to reschedule through the form or the portal

A very common story now is being given an appointment many months away, sometimes almost a year. But recent experience shows that moving to an earlier date can be done: through the AIMA form/website you are sent a payment email, and once you pay, a new slot much sooner may be set.

You usually can't choose the office freely: AIMA itself often assigns the location. But if a family's appointments are scattered across different towns or offices, it is sometimes possible to ask for them to be brought together in one place.

If your family's appointments are in different places, try to combine them

If the main applicant and the accompanying family members have been given different Ponto AIMA (AIMA service points) or different dates, it is worth going to the nearest AIMA office and calmly explaining the situation. In practice, staff sometimes contact the central system, and the family's appointment location is moved so they can apply together.

This is not an automatic rule and AIMA is not obliged to do it, but there are recent cases like this. It is especially useful when a spouse and children are involved.

Gather the documents for your grounds and bring more than the minimum

The set of documents depends on the article and type of residence permit. But you almost always need: your passport, your current residence card or visa/proof of status, your NIF (tax number), proof of address, proof of income or of your grounds for residence, insurance if your category requires it, and documents relating to your work/studies/self-employment.

For the Digital Nomad visa in 2026, people were asked, for example, for a contract with a client or employer, bank statements, Portuguese recibos verdes (self-employed invoices), NISS, a tenancy agreement and housing receipts. Even if a document is not formally on the list, it is better to have it with you: on the spot you may be asked for a declaration from your landlord or extra proof of address.

At the AIMA appointment, check which article you are being registered under

At the appointment, check that the officer has recorded the correct grounds for your residence permit. This matters for your next renewal, for family procedures and sometimes for counting how long you have lived here.

Recent experience shows that AIMA may switch your case to a different article on the spot if it decides your type of studies or grounds does not fit the category you chose. If you notice a wrong article after applying, it is better to write to AIMA straight away rather than wait for the next renewal.

After applying, keep proof that your renewal is in progress

Once your old card expires, you should still have confirmation that your renewal application has been submitted. In practice people have either a paper or a confirmation with a QR code.

Keep this confirmation together with your passport and old card. You may be asked for it when returning to Portugal, and by banks and other institutions as proof that your status is being renewed. According to recent experience, Caixa accepted precisely the combination ‘expired or nearly expired residence permit + renewal paper with a QR code’ and extended access to the account for 6 months. The bank might not accept the paper for a first application.

Track your card and check whether it has gone back to AIMA

Once approved, the card is usually sent by post. But quite often the letter doesn't arrive, the tracking number doesn't work, or the card goes back to AIMA. Then you need to check the status and, if necessary, collect the card in person at the office indicated.

In 2026 AIMA ran separate handovers of returned cards by invitation, including on Saturdays. If you get an email saying your título de residência (residence card) has been returned to AIMA, take the email and a valid passport and go to the place indicated.

If everything has stalled, escalate: emails, CLAIM, court

If AIMA hasn't replied for months, you can try several levels: repeated emails to the general addresses, the Contactenos AIMA form, a complaint through the Livro de Reclamações (complaints book) / CLAIM, and in drawn-out cases, going to the administrative court through a lawyer. This is no longer an everyday step but a way to get a stalled case moving.

According to recent experience, CLAIM sometimes works faster than ordinary requests. And going to court has in some cases led to approval within a few weeks after the usual waiting period ran out. Meanwhile, the general address geral@aima.gov.pt remains unreliable: since May 2026 its handling has been passed to a contractor, but complaints about unanswered emails continue all the same. So it is better not to stop at a single email.