One of the readers of The Portugal News shared the manifesto, which highlighted the issue of immigrants who “have been left in limbo as SEF has stopped giving appointments for family reunification.” Most of these families already have “sufficient income” and have been waiting for “a long time and calling SEF every day, but they are not receiving any information or answers.”

The families feel frustrated with this treatment, as most of them are eligible to be regrouped with their families and have Portugal residency. In the note, people are complaining about the numerous calls that are being made to SEF only to find that “are no appointments available throughout the whole country.”

In the note, it is claimed that the issue “is a matter of human rights and should be treated as such”, because while immigration may be a complex topic, it “requires consideration from both the people and the government.”

The Portugal News contacted SEF regarding the situation and were told exclusively by SEF, through an e-mail, that it “has been mitigating the consequences on scheduling capacity resulting from the very significant increase in requests for residence permits”.

SEF mentioned that using the online functionalities will make bureaucracy easier and faster, and added that in 2022 they were filed about 96,000 requests for various issues, including family regroupings, which represented 9,432 processes.

Author

Deeply in love with music and with a guilty pleasure in criminal cases, Bruno G. Santos decided to study Journalism and Communication, hoping to combine both passions into writing. The journalist is also a passionate traveller who likes to write about other cultures and discover the various hidden gems from Portugal and the world. Press card: 8463. 

Bruno G. Santos