In brief: Law 62/2026 of 10 September has been in force since 11 September. It sets ninety days, extendable by thirty, for the migration agency to decide residence permit applications, and reduces to a window of twenty to thirty days the period for voluntary departure from the territory. But the provision on application of the law in time preserves only procedures pending under the asylum law, and says nothing about those running under Law 23/2007. By 17 September no implementing order had been published.
The gap in the transitional rule
Article 10 of Law 62/2026, headed “Application of the law in time”, preserves applications and procedures pending under Law 27/2008 of 30 June, to which the previously applicable regime continues to apply. There is no equivalent provision for Law 23/2007. In other words, anyone with applications for the grant or renewal of a residence permit pending became, on 11 September, subject to the new law without express saving. This is the first point to raise in any pending challenge, administrative action or injunction, and it is worth raising it as a self-standing, reasoned argument rather than as a footnote.
The decision period
Article 82(5) of Law 23/2007, as amended by article 4 of Law 62/2026, provides that an application for the grant of a residence permit is decided within ninety days, extendable by thirty days in exceptional and duly justified circumstances, notably the complexity of the file, the applicant having to be informed of the extension. Paragraph 7 of the same article was repealed. Paragraph 8 requires that a refusal be notified with its grounds and with indication of the right of judicial challenge and the applicable period.
Why the period really matters
A statutory decision period is not merely a promise of speed: it is what allows non-compliance to be dated and, from there, a judicial claim to be built. Once the ninety days have run, or the hundred and twenty where an extension was communicated, there is an objective and datable fact to plead. Anyone with long-stalled files should therefore record precisely the date the application was filed and the date the period expires.
The duty to leave the territory
Article 138(1) now sets the period for voluntary departure at between twenty and thirty days. Paragraph 3 allows it to be extended by order of the national police director, having regard to the length of stay, children attending school and family and social ties — these are precisely the facts to plead and document in an application for extension. Paragraphs 2, 4, 5 and 6 were repealed, and paragraph 7 requires the duty to be entered in the Schengen Information System as a return alert for one year, which has effects reaching well beyond the national territory.
The missing implementing rules
The law expressly refers to orders of the members of Government responsible for migration and for home affairs. By 17 September 2026 no order, regulatory decree or decree-law implementing it had been published in the Official Gazette. The law is in force; the instruments that make it operational are not.
What to do in practice
Anyone with a pending file should do three things. First, confirm the exact filing date and calculate from it the end of the ninety days, keeping documentary proof of submission. Second, check whether any notice of extension was received and, if not, record that fact, since the extension depends on being communicated. Third, if a refusal has already been served, check whether the notification contains the grounds and the indication of the right of challenge and of the period, since the law now expressly requires it. And in any pending challenge, raise the absence of a transitional rule as regards Law 23/2007.
The full newsletter
This note forms part of the edition of 18 September 2026 of the firm’s biweekly newsletter, with thirty-two items in Portuguese and English. The full document, on letterhead, is available here.
This note is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Concrete solutions depend on the facts of each case and on the regime applicable at the time. For specific questions, please consult a lawyer.