Portuguese consulates around the world issued 70 thousand work visas in 2025, an increase compared to previous years. The information was provided by Minister António Leitão Amaro, this morning, February 11, in a hearing in Parliament.
At the same time, 60% fewer residence permits were granted compared to 2023. In 2022, for example, 14 thousand work visas were granted. “By limiting flows, by changing entry rules, there was a significant reduction in flow, but within legality”, explained Amaro, at the Committee on Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.
With the change in immigration policy, especially with the end of expressions of interest, there was a reversal of the scenario. “In 2023, requests were made and granted 328 thousand residence permits; in 2024, this number fell to around 220 thousand; and in 2025 it fell to less than 60% of the value recorded in 2023”, said Leitão Amaro.
The numbers are in line with the new “reorientation of the flow towards the consular system”to the detriment of entry without a visa and requesting documentation already in national territory. According to the minister, these changes are also reflected in other areas.
“Social Security registrations, which had a monthly rate of 42 thousand entries in 2023, rose to just over a quarter of that value last year”he said. According to Leitão Amaro, “there continues to be entry: people are entering where they should enter”, that is, with “an employment contract”.
About the regulated labor migration program, António Leitão Amaro reported that 3,200 visas were requested by a total of 110 companies. “The regulated immigration protocol is now an effective alternative for those who need labor and want to get it from other parts of the world”, he said.
In the minister’s view, the market cannot be based on cheap labor without accountability. “We cannot and do not want to tell those who employ that they can and should live in a labor market paradigm in which immigrant labor is used at lower costs, without assuming responsibilities and without participating in an immigration process that is also costly”, he explained.
National integration plan
Just like the DN already anticipated, a national integration plan will be presented in the first half of the year. The objective is to promote “integration based on a logic of rights, of being treated as a person, of having access to public services and social protection with dignity, but also of duties: duty to integrate, duty to learn the language and duty to participate in Portuguese society”, he added.
According to the minister, “there is a place for the expression of communities of origin and ethnic communities, but always without jeopardizing the constitutional values of the Portuguese Republic”. A recent report by the Migration Observatory warns of the need for specific public integration policies in interior locations with a high concentration of immigrants. The consequences of the lack of attention to these public policies represent a problem for the rights and living conditions of immigrants, but also for the population in general, with the risk of “social tensions” arising in municipalities.
*With Lusa
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