Reviewed by Jane Katkova, Founder & Licensed CICC ConsultantPortugal's Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) opened its online renewal portal, the Portal das Renovações, to golden visa holders on 16 February 2026. AIMA announced the change in January. Holders of an Autorização de Residência para Investimento (ARI) and their family members under family reunification now submit the renewal request and pay the renewal fee online instead of at an AIMA counter.
The change is administrative. It does not alter the qualifying investments, the stay requirement or the validity of the cards issued under the Portugal golden visa.
How ARI renewals work on the portal
- Who uses it: the main applicant and each reunited family member renewing an ARI residence permit.
- What is done online: the renewal request, the supporting documents and payment of the renewal fee.
- Biometrics: an in-person appointment is required only where the biometric data AIMA holds is no longer valid. In that case AIMA schedules the appointment itself after reviewing the portal file and notifies the applicant of the date and time. Appointments already booked for biometrics should be kept.
- Investment evidence: unchanged. Fund-route investors still file subscription records, participation certificates, the fund manager's declaration and bank transfer confirmations showing that the €500,000 minimum is maintained.
Processing context at AIMA
The portal addresses renewals, where the appointment queue had been the main obstacle. It does not by itself clear first-time applications. We continue to quote 18 to 24 months as a typical AIMA timeline for a new golden visa application, and we treat faster outcomes as a bonus.
Because the portal file is now the record, administrative errors carry more weight than before. A missed notification, an out-of-date email address, an unreadable scan of an expired card or missing proof of payment can each stall a renewal.
What this means for applicants
For US and Canadian investors who do not live in Portugal, the portal removes the hardest part of a renewal: finding an appointment and flying to Lisbon or Porto for it. Most renewals can now be prepared and lodged from abroad by your Portuguese lawyer, with travel needed only if AIMA calls you for fresh biometrics.
Timing matters more since the Nationality Law changed on 19 May 2026. Naturalisation now requires ten years of legal residence, so an unbroken sequence of valid cards is the evidence on which a later citizenship application rests. We explain the count on our Portugal citizenship timeline page. File each renewal within its window, keep a copy of every portal submission and payment receipt, and confirm that the seven-days-a-year stay requirement is documented for each period.
If you hold a Portuguese golden visa and want a second opinion on your renewal file, or are deciding whether to start an application, book a consultation.