The Portuguese Government has determined the replacement of SEF (Foreigners and Border’s Service), which will henceforth have a new denomination: SEA (Foreigners and Asylum’s Service). The Government’s Resolution has been published on Wednesday, April 14.

This decision does not have immediate effect, until the publication of a Decree-Law.

Nevertheless, this new structure will not affect the processing of “Golden Visa” (GV) applications, as well as other types of residency applications.

The Government Program also foresees an organic separation between the police and administrative functions of SEA, i.e., the main difference from the previous scenario is the separation between policing duties and the relationship with migrants.

SEF’s powers will be distributed to different authorities: GNR (National Guard) will be in charge of patrolling the marine and land borders; PSP (Public Safety Police) will be in charge of the airport border and cruise terminals; PJ (Judiciary Police) will investigate crimes related to illegal immigration and human trafficking. SEA will have administrative duties such as the implementation of policies in migratory matters, in the areas of documentation, database management, relationship and cooperation with other institutions and external representation, namely within the scope of the Schengen Area and with European Agencies. The Institute of Registries and Notaries (Instituto dos Registos e Notariado, I. P. (IRN, I. P.)) will be responsible for the issuance of passports and renewal of residence permits.

We are on top of this subject and as soon as the Decree-Law is published we will provide a more detailed note on this matter.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to inform you that within the scope of the 3rd phase of lifting COVID-19 restrictions which started on Monday, April 19th, SEF has reopened and began accepting new appointments for July, August and September 2021.