The President of the Republic has issued a new regime for the entry, stay, exit and deportation of foreign nationals from Portugal, which includes measures to facilitate applications for family reunification. The Government diploma includes changes to the Regulatory Decree of the Foreigners` Law, adapting it to the restructuring of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and "proceeds to the modernisation and simplification of administrative procedures" so that "the processes relating to the stay of foreign citizens in national territory can be carried out in a timely manner and with increased security requirements", says the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA). AIMA indicates that these changes are "the assumption of the institution's digital services portal", which will be launched soon through "residence permit applications for family reunification". "In the days following the entry into force of this normative instrument there will be news on this matter", says the institution, which merged part of the functions of the extinct SEF and the High Commission for Migrations (ACM). Created on October 29, 2023, AIMA inherited, to date, 347,000 cases and the priority is to regularise, by the end of the year, cases of family reunification, something that was not accomplished. What “we intend is for the new Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum to have a new paradigm that focuses on what should be digitalisation, greater efficiency and more human resources”, said Ana Catarina Mendes, highlighting that the objective is “not only to improve its technological service, but also to respond more easily to the needs of citizens”. “Issues of family reunification are absolutely essential”, highlighted the minister. In the first quarter of 2024, it was planned to launch, together with municipalities and local immigrant support offices, actions to resolve pending processes, allocating more resources to resolve existing cases.