Spanish
The Government of Portugal (center-right) warned this Thursday that the modification of the Foreigners Law, which was enacted today by the president of the country, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and which limits, among other things, family reunification, will not be the last immigration reform.
With the enactment of the new version of this legislation, today is "a very important day for the country, it is a very important chapter of change in immigration policy, now regulated, with more control, more security, but also with more dignity for those who arrive", said the Executive's spokesman, António Leitão Amaro, in a press conference after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers.
He warned that this "is not the first chapter nor the last of this change in immigration policy" and recalled that last year the Government already ended the "open doors" of the so-called "manifestation of interest", a system that allowed to apply for residency and legalize the situation of foreigners who had at least one year of contributions to Social Security.
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Regarding the upcoming measures, he anticipated that next week the change to the Nationality Law "will be approved", also promoted by the Executive of Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, and which is currently being evaluated by Parliament, which has not yet set a date to debate it in plenary or to vote on it. Some modifications to that proposal are to end birthright citizenship and increase the minimum legal residency period to apply for citizenship from 5 to 7 years for nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries and 10 years for citizens of other places. On the other hand, Leitão Amaro added that in November "the conditions will be met" to analyze another governmental initiative to modify the regime for deporting foreigners from the country who are in an illegal situation. The new Foreigners Law, enacted this Thursday and approved in Parliament at the end of September with the support of the far-right party Chega, among others, limits the family reunification of migrants in general, in addition to establishing restrictions for obtaining temporary residency for foreigners from Portuguese-speaking countries. Regarding this latest alteration, Leitão Amaro detailed that from now on, to obtain temporary residency, nationals in those Portuguese-speaking countries must arrive with a residency visa requested in their country of origin. "It is not enough to come to Portugal for tourism and then we'll see, to come with a visa waiver and then we'll see", pointed out the spokesperson, who added that to travel to Portugal to reside you have to "come to work or study". He added that the new text also puts an end to "the indiscriminate job search visa, that of going to Portugal to look for work and then we'll see, that's over." "The work (visa) is reserved only for professions, functions, with high qualification where there is an obvious and necessary job offer for the national economy," he said. Rebelo de Sousa promulgated today the amendment to the Foreigners Law after having sent a first version to the Constitutional Court, which ended up seeing a risk of unconstitutionality in some points, so the Executive had to introduce some changes, especially regarding the exceptions in family reunification so that the same thing does not happen again.
