Portugal’s minority AD government has presented its ‘watered down’ version for changes to the Foreigners Law, following the majority veto by the Constitutional Court during the summer.
In effect, the new version reduces time scales for family reunification – but insists on certain provisos: the immigrant living legally in Portugal and requesting that his family join him must be able to prove that he lived as a couple with the woman he says is his wife for a full year “immediately before entry into Portuguese national territory”.
If he can do this, the family reunification can take place within under two years. And if the immigrant can prove that his female partner is looking after a disabled child, the family reunification can take place ‘immediately’: there is no need for any delay.
In fact, in the bill that the PSD and CDS parliamentary groups submitted to parliament last night, the executive “goes even further”, reports Observador. It stipulates that: “so that there can be no doubt, the government and the political majority that supports it have introduced a general consideration clause, which enables the member of the government responsible for migration to waive, in duly justified exceptional cases, the two-year waiting period for access to family reunification, taking into account the nature and strength of the person’s family ties and the effectiveness of their integration in Portugal”.
The diploma that will now move forwards to discussion in parliament also requires that any marriage claimed by an immigrant is ‘legal and unforced’. There can be no marriages with minors, or polygamy, says the document.
Immigrants living legally in Portugal applying for family reunification will equally have to prove that they have suitable accommodation guaranteed, and “means of subsistence sufficient to keep all members of the family group without resorting to social benefits”.
As for the ‘demand’ that immigrants become integrated, the revised diploma explains that knowledge of Portuguese, Portuguese culture etc., are not expected prior to the arrival of family members – and that the time that requests can be decided has been reduced from the original stipulation of 18 months, to nine, which can be extended in “exceptional circumstances associated with the complexity of analysis of the request”.
Presenting the changes today, minister of the presidency António Leitão Amaro said it was not the law that the government initially hoped for, but the new version still ticks the relevant boxes of bringing immigration under control.
source material: Observador
