Portugal has been very proactive during the Coronavirus pandemic; from launching measures to protect businesses, housing, and manage loans; Portugal did not lose sight of its immigration procedures and included foreigners who are in Portugal during the pandemic in its plan.
The most fascinating measure is allowing residents in Portugal to have access to the national health care system and obtain medical care to who needed it during this extremely difficult time for free, a privilege to be treated as a Portuguese citizen
While on the other hand, SEF, the entity that is responsible for processing entry and stay applications for foreigners, recently announced several procedures to manage and process all current applications on hand. Among the most important is grant legal temporary status (only during the pandemic) to foreigners who have lodged their applications to SEF, so investors who have an application submitted can relax as their applications are being processed if they simply confirm application submission or their scheduled appointment documents, as for applicants who have missed their appointments, they will be contacted for a rescheduled appointment starting the 1st of July 2020.
Portugal was hit hard by this Pandemic, yet not as hard as other European countries, which comes in huge part to acting faster, learning from the mistakes of neighboring courtesies and applying sturdy safety measures and procedures which gave the right effect due to the discipline and cooperation the Portuguese people portrayed during this time.
Now the government of Portugal has approved the plan to slowly reopen the economy, and now May 4 is the day that marks the official reopening of Portugal’s economy and the end of the emergency state.