AIMA has a new problem: Portugal's lawyers

Portugal's lawyers have now formally said what thousands of immigrants have been saying for months. It's Sunday, 23 August. Twenty-eight degrees. Air quality: 34 (Good). Here's what you need to know.

🗞️ PORTUGAL'S BAR ASSOCIATION CONFIRMS AIMA IS FAILING IMMIGRANTS

The Ordem dos Advogados (OA), Portugal's Bar Association, has formally warned that staff shortages, inadequate digital systems and inconsistent procedures at AIMA, the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, are obstructing lawyers and undermining immigrants' right to an effective defence. The findings follow a delegation visit to AIMA's Lisbon office in Anjos on 19 August.

Bar Association president João Massano said the visit had confirmed "point by point" the difficulties lawyers have been reporting for months. These include long queues and what Massano called "disproportionate waiting times," with lawyers arriving in the early hours and remaining at AIMA offices for entire days. AIMA currently tops the Bar Association's list of most-criticised public bodies, ahead of the national registry offices. The OA has launched a formal online complaints channel to collect feedback from lawyers and forward it to AIMA in batches.

The timing sharpens a separate problem. In an attempt to reduce pressure on its Lisbon and Porto offices, AIMA has been decentralising appointments to smaller cities. But Jornal de Notícias reported this week that appointments are being allocated by availability, not by proximity to where the applicant lives. One immigrant living in Almada was given an appointment in Carregal do Sal, in the Viseu district, and ended up paying €300 for a private car after finding no viable public transport from Coimbra. A couple was given three separate appointments in three different locations for the same process. Consultations reportedly lasted just a few minutes.

This comes against a wider backdrop. AIMA has cleared more than 525,000 pending cases and carried out 763,000 appointments since the government launched its extraordinary regularisation operation. Complaints against the agency rose 37% in the first quarter of 2026. In July, the government approved the creation of specialised immigration courts to relieve the Lisbon administrative court, which handles the overwhelming majority of AIMA-related lawsuits, with an average resolution time of 861 days and a clearance rate of just 48%. The Migration Technicians' Union (STM) called that a surface fix, arguing that the real problem is an agency that produces decisions that are "late, poorly prepared and legally fragile."

For anyone in Lisbon currently dealing with AIMA, whether for a renewal, a first permit, or a family reunification, none of this is news. What is new is that Portugal's own legal profession is now formally on the record saying the system is not working.

Bottom line: AIMA's problems are no longer just an immigration story. They are now a rule-of-law story, and the people whose job it is to defend your rights in the system are saying the system won't let them.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Fill up before Monday if you can. Fuel prices are rising again from tomorrow, with diesel up roughly 3.5 cents per litre and petrol up about 2.5 cents. The government has increased its discount on the ISP, the tax on petroleum and energy products, by 0.11 cents per litre on diesel and 0.43 cents on petrol. But the discount does not come close to covering the increase. The accumulated ISP discount now stands at 19.9 cents per litre for petrol and 18.8 cents for diesel. It is now difficult to find fuel at under €2 a litre anywhere in Portugal. The ongoing instability between the United States and Iran continues to push oil prices higher.

Three patients at a Lisbon hospital are taking part in a trial of a personalised cancer vaccine. The treatment, developed by Moderna and Merck using the same mRNA technology behind Covid vaccines, works differently from a preventive jab. It uses genetic information from a patient's own tumour to train the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells. The three patients at the Instituto Português de Oncologia (IPO) in Lisbon have melanoma, one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer. Moderna and Merck announced this week that their Phase 3 trial met both of its primary objectives, showing a statistically significant improvement in recurrence-free survival. In an earlier trial, 15 out of 102 patients with advanced head and neck cancers saw their tumours disappear completely.

Portugal is planning a €20 million luxury hotel train using restored railway carriages. The Valverde Train project, backed by promoter Alva Rail, would take disused carriages belonging to national railway operator CP and convert them into a boutique sleeper train inspired by the Orient Express and Belmond services. Around half the budget, €9.8 million, is covered by EU funding. Routes have not been confirmed, but the concept is built around "slow travel" through lower-density parts of Portugal, with guests sleeping on board and taking part in regional food, wine and cultural experiences along the way. The project is based in Nelas, in the Viseu district, and is expected to create 35 jobs.

Practice Portuguese — The Learning Platform That Actually Teaches the Portuguese You Hear

Most language apps teach Brazilian Portuguese. This one doesn't. Practice Portuguese is 100% European Portuguese, built by Rui (from Portugal) and Joel (from Canada, who moved here over a decade ago and couldn't find a single decent resource for learning the language people actually speak in Lisbon).

The platform covers complete beginner through to advanced (A1 to B2) with a structured path of over 100 units. But the reason it works for expats living here is the content around the lessons: hundreds of audio and video episodes recorded by native Portuguese speakers, with synced translations, filterable by level and topic. Grammar guides written by people who know exactly where English speakers get stuck. A verb conjugation trainer for the moments when you can't remember whether it's "estive" or "estava." Personalised flashcards that adapt to how you're actually performing. And a members forum where you can ask the questions your Portuguese teacher never had the time for.

The whole thing is self-paced, available on web and app, and built by a team that combines native speakers who know the language inside out with learners who remember what it felt like not to.

Special offer for The Lisbon Letter readers: 60% off your first month.

→ Start learning European Portuguese with 60% off

We only partner with businesses we think genuinely help our community. If this is useful to you, or if you know someone still stuck at "bom dia," every click and every share goes a long way to keeping this newsletter free every morning.

🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

VEGAN JUNKIES (AVENIDA DA LIBERDADE)

Vegan Junkies is Lisbon's oldest vegan burger house, tucked into a small ground-floor space at Rua Luciano Cordeiro 28 with faded-pink walls, a handful of tables and a terrace out front. It opened in 2019 with a simple pitch: vegan comfort food that tastes like the real thing. Seven years on, it is still delivering.

The menu runs to burgers, tacos, BBQ wings, nachos and shareable plates, all plant-based, all built to satisfy rather than impress. The portions are big, the sauces are good, and the whole thing works in the way that comfort food is supposed to: you stop thinking about whether it is vegan about two bites in.

It is open for lunch and dinner, though it is worth checking live hours before you go. Booking is not essential but the space is small, so it is worth checking availability on TheFork if you are going at peak times. A meal runs around €15 per person without drinks.

→ Find them here ←

Insider tip: the tacos are the thing to order. Three come in a serving, and the seitanitas filling is the one most people go back for.

📅 WHAT'S ON

See you tomorrow morning.

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