Portuguese passports will be valid for 10 years

The Portuguese government has decided to double the validity of passports: from 5 to 10 years.

The country recently launched the “Simplification of processes and reduction of bureaucracy” program. The government wants to relieve citizens and make their lives easier in a variety of situations. As part of this program, they also decided to increase the validity of passports.

Additional reasons

In addition, to simple convenience, there are other reasons to introduce new biometric passports. Recently, law enforcement agencies and security services have reported an increase in the threat of counterfeiting of Portuguese passports, while the quality of modern fakes has increased significantly.

A package of government initiatives assumes that a unique identification number will be assigned to individual documents. This includes documents received by immigrants.

These documents include:

• Social Security Number (NISS)
• Taxpayer Identification Number (NIF)
  
• Individual Number for Use of the National Health System (NNU)
  

Passports issued by the Portuguese Ministry of Justice in 2024 allow Portuguese citizens to enter 175 countries without a visa. Among them are all EU countries, the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Japan and many others.

Features of passports in Portugal

In 2006, Portugal began issuing electronic passports (Passaporte Eletrónico Português – PEP), containing biometric data. Currently, all standard passports have such improvements.

There are currently five categories of Portuguese passports:

• The standard Portuguese Electronic Passport (PEP) for citizens, valid for 5 years
• The Diplomatic Passport (PD) for officials engaged in diplomatic activities
  
• The Migrant Passport (PCE), issued to stateless persons with the right to reside in Portugal, valid for two years
  
• The Passport (PES), issued to Portuguese officials engaged in public administration
  
• The Temporary Passport (PT), granted in special situations for a maximum period of 1 year
  

Other measures to reduce bureaucracy

In addition, the Portuguese authorities have previously decided to extend the validity of immigration documents and visas by one year, until 30 June 2025, in order to address the problems in the immigration field.

Why were changes introduced to migration rules?

This decision was taken with the aim of helping immigrants waiting for their documents to be processed. The new measures were introduced in response to the significant backlog of cases at the Integration, Migration and Asylum Agency (AIMA).

The new regulations will therefore help immigrants seeking to extend their residence permits in Portugal, work visas and visas for travel to countries where Portuguese is spoken.