In the case of lawyers, there were 2,592 applications and there are records of at least 750 solicitors applying for the competition to “provide services for the investigation of pending residence permit granting and renewal of residence permits”, which “are being processed by the Mission Structure of AIMA (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum)”.

The candidates will now be assessed to confirm whether they meet the criteria.

These services, provided remotely, will be provided by lawyers, trainee lawyers or solicitors, who “will be part of grants and teams to be formed according to the type of cases” assigned, as can be read in the competition.

The administrative procedures will be paid, each, at 7.50 euros and each lawyer will be responsible for up to 200 cases.

In the announcement in which they launched the competition, the two associations highlighted “the honour and privilege of being able to contribute to the resolution of such a serious problem, which currently affects thousands of people”.

In the regulations, AIMA safeguards the risk of incompatibilities raised by some unions, imposing strict rules on candidates.

Service providers are “prevented from having any interests or connections with the cases being processed or with the respective applicants” directly or indirectly, through law firms and colleagues with whom they share an office or with whom “they may have personal, family or professional relationships”.

Furthermore, service providers “are also prohibited from providing applicants with any service on their own, through the company to which they belong, through office colleagues or others with whom they may have personal, family or professional relationships, in the 12 months following the provision of the service”.

The requirements for registration will be verified by the respective Orders and include “attendance at a prior training course, to be made available by the Mission Structure for the Recovery of Pending Cases at AIMA”.

On 5 March, agreements were signed between AIMA and the two orders, but the protocol has only now been finalised.

The application period ended on Monday.

By the end of 2023, the Portuguese authorities estimated that there would be 400,000 immigrants with pending cases.

In June, the Government changed the law on foreigners, imposing new restrictions, including the end of expressions of interest, a resource that allowed a foreign citizen, with a tourist visa, to begin the regularisation process in Portugal.

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