Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
AIMA - Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, I.P.
1.2. Contact organisation unit
DPEE - Planning, Studies and Statistics Department
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
AIMA, I.P.
Avenida António Augusto Aguiar, 20
1069-119 Lisboa
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
29 August 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
29 August 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
29 August 2025
3.1. Data description
Data collection on Single Permits statistics based on Article 15 of Directive 2011/98/EU on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State.
The following dataset is collected under this framework:
Single Permits issued by type of decision, reason and length of validity (migr_ressing)
Directive 2011/98/EU was transposed at national level on 13 December 2011.
3.2. Classification system
See table 3.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Migration and asylum – Residence permits statistics, Single Permits.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
3.5. Statistical unit
Number of persons.
3.6. Statistical population
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
3.7. Reference area
Portugal.
3.8. Coverage - Time
See table 3.8. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Number of persons.
Calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The new Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum in Portugal, also known as AIMA, I.P.,began operating on October 29, 2023. This new agency faced the challenge of integrating thefunctions previously performed by undefined former SEF, maintaining the regionalized servicestructure and introducing new digital strategies to facilitate and improve residency processes.
At AIMA, there is a clear separation of political and administrative functions, allowing for thelaunch of a series of new measures, features, and policies that will expand and improve thequality of access to services, strengthening the security of processes and procedures and thetrust and credibility of users and society in general.
Those responsible for the data registration units supervise, control, and execute all the work, inaddition to verifying its accuracy, which makes the process a little slower due to the variousdigital changes that AIMA, IP is undergoing in its computer system, but everything has beenresolved with hard work and persistence.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
With the reallocation of SEF's attributions and responsibilities to Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, I.P. (AIMA) and the restructuring of the Portuguese system for managing border control, international protection and the documentation of foreign citizens, the following steps were taken, with close cooperation is ensured between all the institutions:
Border control; coordination and coordination of management, information and data bases and information systems relating to the movement of people and border control:
National Republican Guard (GNR)
Public Security Police (PSP);
Internal Security System - Border and Foreigners Coordination Unit (SSI/UCFE);
Supervision and control of the stay of foreign citizens:
Public Security Police (PSP);
National Republican Guard (GNR);
Responsibility for coordinating the work of the security forces and services among themselves and between them and the Institute of Registries and Notaries, I. P., and the AIMA:
SSI/UCFE
In practice, AIMA is responsible for assessment and decision of return cases.
GNR and PSP are responsible for the execution of return decisions.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Not applicable.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The Statistics Department, in accordance with the GDPR, and the department responsible for data protection at AIMA, regulate the necessary confidentiality of the data extracted.
8.1. Release calendar
RESPER statistics are only published and disseminated in accordance with current legislation, which means that data is submitted annually.
AIMA will publish the necessary data in the annual Statistics Report.
Migration and Asylum Report_2024.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
In an online publication.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Not applicable.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Not applicable.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Not applicable.
11.1. Quality assurance
Not applicable.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The data is reliable and verified by the Statistics Director.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
AIMA is constantly made available to INE - National Institute of Statistics, either by e-mail or on its platform with deadlines for sending.
This is necessary data and an obligation of the Portuguese state.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable.
12.3. Completeness
See table 12.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The accuracy of all the tables on residence permits is quite high, which means almost 100% accuracy.
The statistics reported almost accurately measure the target population, as provided for in Regulation (EC) No 862/2007(as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/851) and as defined in the Operational Guidelines for residence permit statistics.
The target population, i.e. third-country nationals applying for a residence permit, is represented very accurately by the residence permit applications in the IND registers, and validated compilations of this data are made to fill in the mandatory tables.
The deviation is usually almost zero.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Given the transfer of responsibilities from undefined former SEF to AIMA, I.P., as well as the reduction in the number of staff, the resulting evidence is still evident, as are the changes in the databases.
Unfortunately, AIMA is somewhat behind schedule in presenting its work, but it will complete it within the year, no doubt.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
See table 14.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Statistics are comparable between geographical areas in PT.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
There are no coherence issues with other data sets.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
The statistics are comparable over all years.
There are no sub annual statistics, only annual statistics.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Residence permits relating to stays in Portugal, which expired on or after 22 February 2020, are valid until 15 October 2025.
These documents are accepted by Portuguese authorities, pursuant to Article 16, paragraphs 1 to 8, of Decree-Law No. 10-A/2020, of 13 March, and Decree-Law No. 85-B/2025, of 30 June, as amended by Decree-Law No. 41-A/2024 of 28 June.
The extension of the validity of these documents and visas is limited to Portugal and is binding on the Portuguese authorities, while entry and movement in other Schengen Area member countries continues to be subject to the rules of the Schengen Borders Code.
Not applicable.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Not applicable.
17.2. Data revision - practice
See table 17.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
AIMA submitted annually the RESPER data.
The table below shows the data submitted to EUROSTAT and when:
Data tables - EUROSTAT
RESPER - ANNUAL
Submit - August
RP1_RP1 AS
RP2_RP2 AS
RP3_RP3 AS
RP4_RP4 AS
RP5_RP5 AS
RP6_RP6 AS
RP7_RP7 AS
BC1_BC2_BC3
SP (25/6)
SW1_SW2
SW11_SW12_SW13
ICT3
ICT11_12_13
ICT21_22
LTR_LTR AS
SR1_2_3
18.3. Data collection
Each data table is submitted according to the date indicated by EUROSTAT.
RESPER data is taken from the PT internal platform and after verification and validation, they are submitted to Eurostat via EDAMIS platform.
(Ever since the clear separation of duties between the police and the administration that came with the creation of AIMA, there have been clear tasks within the institution.
The statistics department is clearly responsible for working on, analyzing and submitting statistical data for the whole of AIMA.)
18.4. Data validation
A set of standardised validation checks are applied by Eurostat before publishing the data.
Data providers may transmit the data only in csv (comma separated value) templates (administered by Eurostat to Member States).
The new validation service infrastructure is built around two components performing validation operations: one for structural validation (called STRUVAL) and one for content validation (called CONVAL).
The validation rules below are checked to ensure the internal consistency of the data:
Variable codes and values of data are from a predefined set of accepted code-lists and format;
Statistics are confronted against other relevant data (e.g. a 'total' value of a given disaggregation (dimension) should equal the sum of the disaggregated data);
Investigating in consistencies in the statistics;
Analysis of size and sign of revision;
Verifying the statistics against expectations and domain intelligence;
Outlier detection.
18.5. Data compilation
Based on the national detailed figures transmitted by the national data providers, Eurostat derives European aggregates by applying common calculation method:
The geographical aggregation is done by arithmetical sum, when there are no missing values amongthe components of the respective geographical aggregate.
Otherwise, they are not calculated.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
No statistical technique applied.
AIMA, I.P., is still updating its entire IT park and platforms due to the change in AIMA's structure.
But it's important to say that with the support we've had from our partners, everything hasclearly worked out for the best.
Data collection on Single Permits statistics based on Article 15 of Directive 2011/98/EU on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State.
The following dataset is collected under this framework:
Single Permits issued by type of decision, reason and length of validity (migr_ressing)
Directive 2011/98/EU was transposed at national level on 13 December 2011.
29 August 2025
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
Number of persons.
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
Portugal.
Calendar year.
The accuracy of all the tables on residence permits is quite high, which means almost 100% accuracy.
The statistics reported almost accurately measure the target population, as provided for in Regulation (EC) No 862/2007(as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/851) and as defined in the Operational Guidelines for residence permit statistics.
The target population, i.e. third-country nationals applying for a residence permit, is represented very accurately by the residence permit applications in the IND registers, and validated compilations of this data are made to fill in the mandatory tables.
The deviation is usually almost zero.
Number of persons.
Based on the national detailed figures transmitted by the national data providers, Eurostat derives European aggregates by applying common calculation method:
The geographical aggregation is done by arithmetical sum, when there are no missing values amongthe components of the respective geographical aggregate.
Otherwise, they are not calculated.
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
Annually.
Given the transfer of responsibilities from undefined former SEF to AIMA, I.P., as well as the reduction in the number of staff, the resulting evidence is still evident, as are the changes in the databases.
Unfortunately, AIMA is somewhat behind schedule in presenting its work, but it will complete it within the year, no doubt.
Statistics are comparable between geographical areas in PT.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Single Permits’.
