A petition filed this week in Parliament asks that all applications for visa-free residence permits can be made “objectively, through a form system or any other means”. The creator of the initiative is the Brazilian lawyer Priscila Nazareth Ferreira.
Although the law provides for several articles that deal with this type of authorization, There is currently no direct request mechanism. Portuguese legislation establishes a series of hypotheses in which a residence permit can be requested without the need for a prior visa.
In articles 91st, no. 4, and 92nd, no. 3 and 4the law allows higher, secondary, professional or technical students to obtain a residence permit without a visa, as long as they have legally entered the country and meet the academic requirements.
O article 122.º establishes a residence visa exemption regime for specific situations, with emphasis on minors born in Portugal, young people who attend the national education system, children of legal residents and people who have lived in the country since childhood. Already the article 123.º provides for an exceptional regime, which makes it possible to grant a residence permit for national interest, humanitarian reasons or public interest, even when the general legal requirements are not met. Finally, the article 124 protects foreign minors, guaranteeing them a residence status equivalent to that of their parents or legal guardians.
Given the lack of direct access to this type of request in official systems, In practice, the assistance of a lawyer becomes necessary for the exercise of this right. “Today, immigrant citizens need to use a lawyer to request a right that is provided for by law, but to which the system does not give them access. This reality ends up harming the courts themselves, which start to be triggered by artificial demands, expanding the problem and generating costs for the State by transferring to the Judiciary an issue that should be resolved efficiently by the Executive”, says the lawyer.
Administrative courts face overload of lawsuits related to the topic. The demand is so high that the Superior Council of Administrative and Fiscal Courts (CSTAF) opened 50 vacancies in an extraordinary competition to carry out the processes. The petition can be signed here.
Second petition
The other petition, created by the same lawyer, seeks to remove from the law the article that provides for the criminalization of employers who hire an immigrant in the process of obtaining a residence permit. The proposal requests the amendment of Art 185-A and Art 198-A of Decree-Law 23/2007, based on eight other articles of legislation. “Article 185-A, as written today, prevents employers from being free from the shadow of a prison sentence and a fine if they employ an immigrant who does not yet have a residence permit. Even though a series of residence permit articles with visa exemption are defined by law, such as 89, 90, 91, 92, 98, 122, 123 and 124”, highlights the lawyer, quoted in a statement.
According to the professional, the petition gains special relevance in the current context of the country, which needs labor for reconstruction after the wave of storms. “The change would also benefit Portuguese businessmen who will be able to hire necessary labor, without being held hostage by a system that can criminalize them”, he highlights.
Priscila explains that the logic of the article is not this, but it can be applied in this way. “The formal hiring of an immigrant awaiting his residence permit interview is not the logic of the article, which aimed precisely to criminalize the illegal exploitation of immigrants, and not their integration into the country”, he highlights.
Priscila reinforces that “a law cannot conflict with other provisions of the current text, nor with norms that are superior to it, as is the case with the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic itself”. According to the lawyer, “it is obvious that the construction industry wants these articles to change, it is obvious that the restoration industry wants these articles to change and the Immigrant also wants to remain calm and serene”.
amanda.lima@dn.pt
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