In 2024, the Portuguese Government started prioritizing the family release of couples with children from 5 to 10 years
João Gabriel de Lima – In 2023, when he lived in Switzerland, where he was in a master’s degree, Pernambuco lawyer Hugo Silvestre received an invitation to work in Portugal. He got a work visa at the Lusitanian country consulate in Geneva.
He moved shortly afterwards with his family-the wife and a couple of underage children-for Cascais, a municipality of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area known for the sunny beaches and upscale residences.
The Democratic Alliance Program, a victorious center-right coalition in the May elections this year, provided changes in the immigration law to prioritize the entry of workers with a consular visa, already with a definite and highly qualified employment.
Silvestre, 45, meets the three requirements. This did not prevent him from facing a bureaucratic Calvary in search of legalization in Portuguese territory, which culminated in the deportation of his wife on Wednesday (20).
“It was a humiliating situation. It was only missing her. My 6 and 8-year-old children, who had never been away from her mother, don’t stop crying,” says Silvestre.
Specializing in International Tax Law, the lawyer has postgraduate courses at the Georgetown and Miami American Universities. There, he worked for Greenberg Traurig, one of the top ten in the United States.
In Brazil, after an MBA at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, he made a career at Veirano Advogados Associados, a São Paulo office focused on business law.
Silvestre and family arrived in Portugal in 2023, at a time when the agency for integration, migrations and asylum (AIMA) ceased to account for requests for residence authorization, which generated endless queues.
He decided to use the simplest way: to ask for a residence permit for residents of the Portuguese -speaking community (CPLP), which could be obtained over the internet.
In 2024, the Portuguese government began to prioritize the family release of couples with children aged 5 to 10 years. “It was my case, so I quickly filed a request,” he says.
Silvestre says he soon received an invitation to attend AIMA headquarters in Figueira da Foz, a city 200 kilometers north of Lisbon. Due to the size of the line in the capital, the agency had been relocating interviews for regional branches.
“My wife and I lost a day at work, the children lost a school day, and when we got there we were informed that our name was not on the list, although we had received a confirmation email,” says Silvestre. “They claimed system failure.”
The lawyer decided to go to court in February this year and got an injunction that required AIMA to respond to the request for family regrouping in a maximum of seven days. The answer never came.
As the family had a vacation trip to Recife scheduled for July, Silvestre decided to file a travel request with AIMA, attaching work visa, visa CPLP and judicial authorizations.
Despite the care, in the return of Recife the family was barred at the airport. Silvestre’s wife was taken to the custody room. “She was incommunicado until eight at night, when there were no more legal institutions working,” says the lawyer.
“We placed a reconsideration request and she slept at the airport. The next day, even before the refusal came, I received it in the application [companhia aérea] Tap a call to the boarding of my wife, which shows that they had already reserved the return passage. ”
On Thursday (21) representatives of Itamaraty and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Portugal held a meeting by Zoom, in which “some topics of major concern of the Brazilian community were discussed in Portugal, especially the legislative changes in progress in the migratory area”.
The meeting was preparatory for the annual session of the Subcommittee on Consular Affairs and Circulation of People, with the participation of diplomats from Brazil and Portugal, which will be held in September.
“The measures and actions that were taken in this case cannot be seen just as a chance,” says Ana Paula Costa, president of the Lisbon House of Brazil, an organization to support Brazilian immigrants. “It’s symbolic to happen right now. It’s not impossible to be intentional, designed to convey a message.”
“I’m sure the law has not prevailed in this episode, but issues that have to do with the current political environment,” says Silvestre. “We are acclimated in Portugal, and our children study in Portuguese school. We came here to add resources, not to drain.”
