{"id":2047,"date":"2024-12-25T13:50:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T13:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/?p=2047"},"modified":"2025-02-05T19:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:31:11","slug":"the-joy-of-aima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/25\/the-joy-of-aima\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of AIMA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Ponte Luis I – Iconic Bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2024 is drawing to an end.  It is sunny and warm in Porto.  And I have accomplished nothing.  Sure, I\u2019ve found every good Craft Beer bar in the city, more than a few cocktail bars, and a reliable source of Port wine, but who hasn\u2019t?  What I don\u2019t have is residency.  In January, I applied for a Portuguese visa to stay in Porto for two years.  It is Christmas, and I am still waiting for a Portuguese residency card.  Maybe 2025 will be more productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here\u2019s the story\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ponte Luis I<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I started my application in October 2023, but I couldn\u2019t get an appointment to submit it until January 9th<\/sup>, 2024.  It turns out that the agency responsible for immigration (Servi\u00e7o de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras, or SEF) was disbanded by the government.  It was replaced by a new and improved agency, AIMA (Ag\u00eancia para a Integra\u00e7\u00e3o Migra\u00e7\u00f5es e Asilo).  Word on the street is that nothing changed, but now they have a massive backlog of work from the period between SEF shutting down and AIMA starting.  As a result, the visa I anticipated in March was issued in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visa is good for 4 months and allows only 2 entries into the country.  No problems.  Where do I need to go?  The visa comes with an appointment with AIMA (although it said SEF, change comes slowly).  AIMA issues the 2-year residency cards.  My appointment was 10 days before the visa expired.  I\u2019d have to pack fast if they turned me down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, the appointment was in the morning at the office in Lisbon, 3 hours away.  Why would I want an appointment at the Porto office when I can have a fun getaway, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Christmas in Porto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Off to AIMA Lisboa!  Two hours and 200 dollars later, I had a receipt and a promise that my residency card would arrive in 60 days.  It wasn\u2019t clear whether that was 60 calendar days, 60 business days, or 60 birthdays.  So, 75 days later, I have an expired visa\u2026 which means I can\u2019t leave Europe without being accused of overstaying\u2026 no residency card\u2026 and no travel plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought I might buy the Comboios de Portugal Passe Ferrovi\u00e1rio Verde, that\u2019s the green rail pass from CP, the national rail company.  It costs just \u20ac20.00\/30 days of travel.  Really, just one round-trip per day, but that\u2019s a pretty good deal.  Unfortunately, I need a CP Card for that, which requires proof that I live in Portugal, which is entirely satisfied by the residency card, which is coming sometime in the next 3 weeks to 59 years.  Of course, I could use a different proof of residency, but I am not organized enough for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, I researched the United States Postal System\u2019s international mail services.  Guess what?  It works.  For $1.65, I can get a new bank card in only 2 weeks.  So, I\u2019ve got the going for me, which is nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s up in 2025?  First, I dedicate myself to speaking the local language.  I promise I have studied\u2014Portuguese no longer sounds like Russian\u2014but the Portuguese people speak really, really, really fast and swallow half their words.  Second, look into buying an apartment, or what the locals call an apartamento.  Maybe I\u2019m getting the hang of the language after all.  And I\u2019d really like to get a residency card. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2024 is drawing to an end.  It is sunny and warm in Porto.  And I have accomplished nothing.  Sure, I\u2019ve found every good Craft Beer bar in the city, more than a few cocktail bars, and a reliable source of Port wine, but who hasn\u2019t?  What I don\u2019t have is residency.  In January, I applied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2055,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions\/2055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}