Migration Backlog Overwhelms Lisbon Courts, Rippling Across Daily Life

Lisbon’s main administrative court is wrestling with a caseload that has ballooned beyond imagination: more than 133,000 individual lawsuits target the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA). The avalanche, fuelled by day-to-day frustrations over residence cards and interview slots, is now hobbling both the immigration system and the judiciary. Judges warn that, unless the tide is stemmed quickly, everyday disputes in urban planning or public tenders will be pushed even further to the back of the queue.

Why the backlog matters to people living in Portugal

When an immigrant cannot renew a residence card, an employer cannot legally keep that worker on payroll; when parents wait months for a biometric appointment, their children risk losing school support or abono de família. The ripple effects touch Portuguese landlords who cannot register leases, start-ups that depend on foreign tech talent and universities that fear losing international students. Court congestion, administrative paralysis and lengthy waits for basic documents therefore translate into higher costs for businesses, lost tax revenue for the state and a hit to Portugal’s reputation as a welcoming hub.

Anatomy of an administrative collapse

The root problem is not a litigious society but an agency unable to keep pace with demand. AIMA inherited roughly 400,000 unfinished files from the now-defunct SEF and has since faced fresh surges following the abolition of the manifestação de interesse pathway in 2024. Staff describe antiquated software, shifting legal criteria and a phone line that even after a recent upgrade still tops out at 3,500 answered calls a day. Six of the Lisbon Administrative Court’s 35 judges now handle virtually nothing but AIMA cases, yet roughly 500 new lawsuits arrive every 24 hours.

Government remedies: patch or cure?

Faced with public outcry, Lisbon introduced a patchwork of fixes. A June decree extended expired residence cards until mid-October, buying a few months of breathing room. Two separate online portals now handle renewals—one run by a Estrutura de Missão for older cases, the other by AIMA for newer ones—allowing about 90,000 users to avoid queuing outside offices. Parliament meanwhile passed a new Foreigners Law that forces AIMA to decide most cases within nine months and tightens the criteria for suing the agency. Critics counter that deadlines are meaningless without more staff, modern IT and coordination with consulates that are themselves overwhelmed.

Judges ring the alarm bell

Portugal’s judicial union, ASJP, has fired off letters to cabinet ministers accusing the state of creating “artificial litigation.” Judges argue that simple administrative tasks—issuing an appointment, correcting a typo, confirming a payment—should never land in court. They fear that the torrent of filings will soon swamp other socially vital disputes, from environmental permits to hospital tenders. Some magistrates suggest forcing AIMA to notify the bench each time it solves a case, so judges can close files automatically and free up time for more complex matters.

Lawyers and migrants live the gridlock daily

Immigration attorneys describe Kafka-esque loops: clients receive e-mails directing them to portals that crash, or hotline operators who cannot see documents already uploaded. AIMA’s no-document-no-service rule—refusing in-person help unless every paper is perfect—has been branded illegal by several practitioners. Community associations add that delays erode integration; language courses and housing support often require a valid residence permit. The result is a rising tide of judicialisation, with lawyers filing summonses simply to extract a predictable timeline from the agency.

What comes next?

The government says its Plano de Ação para as Migrações will cut the backlog to routine levels by mid-2026, thanks to new hires, longer office hours and tighter intake rules. Observers are sceptical: the court docket tripled last summer alone, and confidence will be hard to rebuild unless the daily inflow of 500 lawsuits slows dramatically. For Portugal’s economy—and its image as an open, modern country—the stakes could hardly be higher. Fixing AIMA is no longer an immigration issue; it is a national priority that sits at the crossroads of justice, labour and social cohesion.