Last Friday, the “Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras” (SEF), the governmental entity in charge of the Golden Visa process, updated its portal to allow the automatic renewal of residence permits that expire between April 1st and June 30, 2022.

It should be noted, however, that the functionality of automatic online renewals of residence permits can only be adopted in some cases.

As specified on the SEF website, automatic renewals do not apply to (i) secondary school students, (ii) those who provide volunteer services, (iii) victims of human trafficking or illegal immigration assistance; (iv) those who have a residence permit for investment activities; (v) those who have permanent residence; (vi) registration certificate holders; (vii) holders of a permanent residence certificate; and (viii) holders of a residence card (family member of a european union citizen).

In these cases there is no automation of renewals because the peculiarities of the conditions of residence permit and presentation of documents must be observed, so the interested party must obtain an online appointment to later go to the SEF service desk.

The automatic renewals measure is an exceptionality that aims to minimize the large volume of face-to-face appointments accumulated after the health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.