“The balance is very positive”, the president of AIMA, Luís Goes Pinheiro, told Lusa, highlighting that there has been “a great demand from several thousand citizens who used the portal to request the regrouping of members of their household”.

For these requests to be processed, the household needed to have an element that was no more than 9 years old.

“It was with emotion that I saw the joy of people who saw their processes finally moving forward”, said Goes Pinheiro.

On February 10th, these requests were first processed. On that first day “428 people were attended to” and “432 people are scheduled for February 24th”, said an AIMA source.

Each request is based on the situation of the minor, but AIMA then proceeds to regularize the rest of the family.

This new model of in-person service after online registration allows “testing new methodologies” that will be used in the future, explained Goes Pinheiro.

The overall objective remains the same as what was announced when the institution was created, on October 29, 2023, “to make all of AIMA’s main services available online, preferably by the end of this year”.