Foreign students can now renew residence permits online

Foreign students attending higher education in Portugal can automatically renew their residence permits online as of this week, the Foreigners and Border Service (SEF) announced on Wednesday.

The new feature is available on SEF’s website (www.sef.pt) and covers around 22,000 students whose residence permit meets the conditions to be renewed digitally according to that service.

In the “Personal Area” of SEF’s portal, students from universities and polytechnics can now access the “Automatic Renewal” functionality of the residence permit.

“This way, they will not need to go to a reception desk, just by confirming the renewal request in SEF’s portal”, it said.

Afterwards, SEF will do “all the security searches to confirm the suitability of the applicant”, as well as the searches to the necessary databases to check they meet the required requirements. Once the fees have been paid, the student receives the Residence Permit at their address.

In July, SEF launched the new feature of automatic renewal of the residence permit for citizens who are working and 66,000 residence permits have been renewed this way so far.

Visas and documents related to the permanence of foreign citizens in national territory that expired from February 24 are accepted until March 31, 2021.