The Brazilian lawyer André Lima responds every week to a question from DN Brasil readers about immigration.
This week, a DN Brasil reader wrote saying that he lives in Portugal, works under a permanent contract and has already requested the renewal of his CPLP residence permit at AIMA. His question is straightforward: can having a debt in Finance lead to the renewal being rejected?
Lawyer André Lima responds:
When we talk about renewing a residence permit based on employment (employment contract), the practical rule is the following: if subsistence is proven by the employment relationship – that is, with an employment contract, salary receipts and deductions made by the employer itself – it is not, as a rule, required to present certificates of no debt to Finance and Social Security.
This requirement gains additional weight in other types of title, as is the case with requests based on independent professional activity or as a company manager, in which AIMA normally requests, expressly, certificates proving regularized tax and contribution status. In these cases, yes, active debts can prevent the granting of a residence permit or even its renewal, precisely because the law requires the applicant himself to be up to date with his obligations to carry out the activity.
In the reader’s scenario (CPLP residence, with a subordinate employment relationship), the existence of a debt in Finance, in itself, does not automatically mean that the request will be rejected. Especially because many of the information crossings between AIMA, Tax Authority and Social Security are already done electronically, without the foreigner having to gather all the certificates on paper.
More rigorous AIMA
However, there is an important point of caution here. In recent months, we have seen more rigorous action by AIMA, with additional requests for documents and a closer analysis of processes. This means that, even when the debt-free certificate does not immediately appear on the list of mandatory documents, a supplementary request may arise, or the tax situation may be checked through an internal consultation.
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Therefore, the practical guidance I usually give is:
• If there is already debt in Finance, the ideal is not to “push with your belly”;
• Whenever possible, the applicant should seek to regularize or, at least, conclude an agreement to pay in installments;
• As soon as the first installment of the agreement is paid, it is generally possible to obtain a certificate indicating that the debt is covered by an authorized installment plan, which is, in many situations, sufficient to demonstrate a “regularized” tax situation before public entities.
In other words, the debt is not, in itself, a sentence of rejection. But facing the problem head on, negotiating a payment plan and getting your tax situation in order is always the safest path – especially at a time when immigration in Portugal is under increasingly tight scrutiny.