The services of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) in Madeira are now able to renew residence permits requested by foreign citizens who are in the Region. Until now they had to go to the mainland.
According to Pedro Portugal Gaspar, there is an estimated response time of May or June for the approximately 700 requests registered so far.
The President of the Agency showed his intention to strengthen the human resources allocated to the services in Madeira, although the 15 employees at the moment can serve about 60 people a day.
Pedro Portugal Gaspar’s visit to the Region is part of a tour by AIMA’s Board of Directors to its services spread throughout the country. To journalists, he noted the intention to redesign the organic structure of the Agency, which may also touch the autonomous regions.
The cooperation between the Regional Directorate for Communities and External Cooperation and the Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum (AIMA) has allowed the streamlining of the resident permit renewal processes for foreign citizens residing in Madeira.
“We had a protocol established with SEF a few years ago, that continued with AIMA, which has allowed the services to be faster here in the Region, because we, the Regional Directorate, make the appointments and then people are served by the administrative services, by the AIMA service. This allows foreigners residing in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, to go from scheduling to attending an appointment within a month,” stressed Sancho Gomes.
The Regional Director for Communities and External Cooperation, who accompanies the chairman of the AIMA Board of Directors to the Region, stresses the efficiency of this service is unparalleled at a national level.
5% of residents in Madeira are foreigners, equating to 14 thousand people, from 123 nationalities.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
