A new category for appointment requests has appeared on the AIMA portal: Pedido de Agendamento para Cidadão Altamente Qualificado sem Visto. The change was first spotted by the Easy Steps channel.
The category is intended for highly qualified professionals already living in Portugal without a residence visa who want to obtain a residence permit without leaving the country.
Two documents are required to submit a request: a scanned copy of the applicant’s passport and an employment contract or confirmation from the employer that the person is engaged in highly qualified work.
Until now, these professionals had only a general application route. In December 2025, AIMA launched an appointment request form for both university students and highly qualified professionals without a visa. However, the form primarily checked university enrolment, and applications not confirmed by a university were automatically rejected. Back in autumn 2025, DN Brasil reported that professionals could not find their category in the appointment form, while appointments that had been scheduled were postponed or cancelled without warning.
Who is eligible?
This is one of the few remaining ways to regularise your status from within Portugal without obtaining a separate visa through a Portuguese embassy.
The requirements are:
- You must have entered Portugal legally.
- You must have an employment contract with a Portuguese company.
- Service contracts, freelance work and self-employment do not qualify.
- Your contractual salary must be at least €2,800 per month.
What to watch out for
Pavel Novikov, a partner at PassPortU, told Xpat.Land that the situation could, unfortunately, repeat what happened with family reunification. Earlier this year, AIMA opened appointment requests under that category. A few weeks later, applicants received payment notices for the administrative fee, but, according to Novikov, no one has received an appointment invitation yet.
“People have paid the fee and are just sitting there waiting. The same thing could happen here,” Novikov says.
At the moment, the most reliable way to secure an appointment is to take AIMA to court by filing an administrative lawsuit requiring the agency to schedule one. However, it now appears that applicants may also need to attach proof that they submitted a request through the new form.
It is not yet clear how long applicants will have to wait for an appointment. Novikov still recommends submitting a request now: “You have to try.”
