Bit by bit, the government’s attempts to control immigration are inching their way towards the statute books.
Tomorrow should see the definitive vote on the amended Foreigners Law.
Speaking in Lisbon today, minister for the presidency António Leitão Amaro said: “the draft law that will be voted on tomorrow does not have to be exactly the same as the proposal that was submitted last Wednesday”.
Leitão Amaro stressed the need for serious dialogue, in the context of various statements by CHEGA which he accused of “raising issues to confuse things”.
The reality is that CHEGA leader André Ventura has said that he wants foreigners to be unable to receive social security support before having paid into the system for a full five years. “For us this is a decisive point”, he said – while Leitão Amaro appeared not to consider this aspect should be written into this particular law.
Iniciativa Liberal meantime has indicated that it will be voting to approve the amended law tomorrow.
PS Socialists – the only political bloc other than CHEGA that can ease this law through, appears also to be generally in favour, albeit leader José Luís Carneiro says it has some suggestions for improvements, and stresses there has been no dialogue yet with the government.
The new proposed amendment to the Foreigners Law, presented last week, maintains the two-year period of valid residence required to apply for family reunification, but allows for several exceptions, including for spouses. (For our report on the changes, click here).
As in the initial version of this draft law, highly qualified professionals and/ or those with a residence permit for investment will also be exempt from any deadline for applying for family reunification.
Source material: LUSA
