What's happening
The government is drawing up plans to create specialist immigration and asylum divisions within Portugal's administrative courts, aiming to spread the tens of thousands of lawsuits filed against AIMA across the country instead of funnelling almost all of them through Lisbon. The proposals are part of a wider reform of Portugal's administrative and tax courts under discussion in the Council of Ministers, following a European Commission warning over the deteriorating performance of the administrative justice system.
If you're one of the tens of thousands of foreigners still waiting for a court to force AIMA's hand on a residence permit, renewal or expulsion challenge, this is the reform to watch. It won't speed up your case tomorrow, but it's the government's answer to a genuine crisis in the courts, not just the agency.
Why Lisbon is the bottleneck
Under the current system, legal actions against AIMA are concentrated at the Lisbon Administrative Court. That single court has been absorbing nearly every intimação (court order compelling AIMA to act) filed nationwide, regardless of where the applicant actually lives. The reform under discussion would allow migrants to bring cases before the administrative court covering their area of residence, easing pressure on Lisbon's severely congested system.
The numbers explain the urgency. Pending AIMA-related cases at Lisbon's Tribunal Administrativo do Círculo (TACL) climbed from roughly 50,000 in mid-2025 to over 133,000 by October 2025, and remained above 128,000 through May 2026. A task force of 28 judges, working the cases alongside their regular duties since April, has made a dent: it resolved 18% of the total lawsuits filed by immigrants against AIMA, with the Superior Council of Administrative and Tax Courts issuing rulings for 22,436 cases over a three-month period, representing the clearance of approximately one-fifth of the total backlog, which stood at 124,000 cases when the special group began its work in April. That still leaves roughly 100,000 cases in the queue.
The EU pressure behind it
From 22 May 2026, Portugal is bound by EU Directive 2024/1233, which imposes a maximum 90-day deadline for decisions on residence and work permit applications from non-EU nationals. A Portuguese legal commentator summed up the underlying dysfunction bluntly, noting that when a state agency generates mass litigation through missed deadlines, the courts alone cannot be treated as the remedy — a point echoed in ongoing debate over whether Lisbon's specialist courts fix the cause or just the symptom.
The president of the Supreme Administrative Court has described the situation inside the system in stark terms. Jorge Aragão Seia states that the institution is in "total panic," paralysed internally after an avalanche of judicial decisions. During a special operation to process pending immigration cases, over 12,000 orders and around 7,000 judgments flooded the agency in only a month and a half, an overwhelming surge that crippled AIMA's response capacity.
Not everyone thinks new courts alone will fix it
Migration workers inside AIMA itself are sceptical. The technicians' union representing AIMA staff, STM, acknowledges that distributing cases geographically could relieve pressure on the Lisbon court, but argues the government is treating the consequences of AIMA's difficulties rather than their cause, since much of the litigation results from an agency producing decisions that are "late, poorly prepared and legally fragile." The union warns that creating specialist immigration courts "does not correct the origin of the problem," and that without more resources, internal reorganisation and better-qualified personnel at AIMA, the judicial reforms risk being merely cosmetic.
There's a precedent worth noting: a legislative change restricting who can sue and when already cut new filings dramatically. A legislative change limiting court actions against AIMA produced immediate effects, with new cases in administrative courts registering a reduction of 78% since the new law took effect. That slowed the inflow, but it didn't touch the six-figure backlog already sitting in the system.
What this means if you're waiting on a ruling
If your lawsuit is already filed in Lisbon, don't expect an automatic transfer the moment this reform passes — implementation of new court divisions and geographic redistribution takes time, staffing, and likely a parliamentary vote on the wider judicial reform package. For now, cases already before the courts continue under existing rules, while the task force keeps working through the backlog on a renewable three-month mandate.
If you haven't yet filed and are stuck waiting on AIMA, the one-year deadline to bring a court action still runs from when AIMA's legal decision deadline expires — don't let it lapse while watching this reform unfold. Check our visas hub for the current AIMA renewal and appointment process, and consult a lawyer before deciding whether to sue or wait.
What to watch next
The Council of Ministers discussion is the first formal step; the actual creation of specialist divisions will need legislation and judicial appointments, likely stretching into late 2026. Watch for whether the government extends the 28-judge task force beyond its current mandate, whether AIMA's own internal reorganisation (demanded by STM) materialises, and how Portugal squares its backlog with the EU's 90-day decision deadline now in force. For anyone with a case pending, that gap between EU law and Portuguese court capacity is the story that matters most.