Pedro Portugal Gaspar is leaving his position as president of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo or AIMA). He has been selected to serve as a board member for the Competition Authority (Autoridade da Concorrência or AdC). His appointment is currently under review by the Assembly of the Republic's Committee on Economy and Territorial Cohesion.
AIMA president to step down for new government role
Monday, 21 September 2026AI summary
Context & Explainers
The AIMA (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo—Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum) is Portugal's immigration authority responsible for managing residence permits, visa processing, asylum, and immigrant integration.
History: AIMA replaced the dissolved SEF (Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras) on October 29, 2023, following a 2021 Assembly decision. SEF's dissolution was motivated by reform needs, administrative inefficiencies, and a 2020 scandal involving a Ukrainian national's death in custody. SEF's responsibilities were redistributed: security functions to PSP/GNR/PJ, and administrative immigration matters to AIMA and IRN.
Expat Interface: Expats contact AIMA for residence permit applications and renewals (D7 passive income, D8 digital nomad, Golden Visa), family reunification, asylum requests, and visa extensions. AIMA operates 34 service counters nationwide, requires complete document submission (mandatory since April 2025), and processes cases that typically take 6-18 months. The agency inherited 300,000+ pending cases from SEF, with government funding allocated to clear backlogs.
The Competition Authority (Autoridade da Concorrência), commonly called AdC, is Portugal's independent regulator that enforces competition law and advises policymakers. It is pushing for measures like an independent switching entity and IBAN portability to make it easier and cheaper for customers to change banks, which the AdC says would boost competition and lower fees.
