AIMA Strike on 6 October: What to Do If Your Appointment Is That Day

The union for staff at AIMA (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo, Portugal’s immigration agency) has called a 24-hour nationwide strike for Tuesday 6 October 2026. If you have an AIMA appointment that day, keep it and turn up. On the first morning of the union’s last strike, in June, AIMA said every one of its shops was open and no appointment had to be moved. Anyone who is not seen can wait months for a new date.

This matters most if you are renewing a residence permit, collecting a card or going to a first appointment you have waited a long time for.

What has been called for 6 October?

The Sindicato dos Técnicos de Migração (STM, the migration technicians’ union) confirmed the strike to the Lusa news agency on 24 September 2026 (Observador/Lusa). It has delivered a formal strike notice (pré-aviso de greve) for the whole day (Público).

The strike is broad. It is called for the whole country (Público) and is expected to cover workers across the whole agency, whatever their contract, career, grade or workplace (24 Notícias). No AIMA shop (Loja AIMA) is outside it.

Being covered by a strike call is not the same as striking. What decides your appointment is how many staff actually stop work on the day, and nobody knows that yet.

Why are AIMA staff striking?

Pay, recognition and a meeting request that went unanswered. On 17 September the Interior Ministry proposed a supplement for PSP and GNR officers who work on border control, citing the specific nature of that job. STM then asked the Secretary of State who oversees AIMA for a meeting to argue for a similar allowance for immigration staff, and says it got no reply (Observador/Lusa).

Its wider demands are a dedicated technical career for migration staff, a pay supplement that matches their responsibilities, and “the immediate opening of a negotiation process, with a timetable and concrete commitments” (our translation) (Público). The union also cites uncertainty at the top: AIMA’s president, Pedro Portugal Gaspar, is leaving, and is in the running for a seat on the board of the Competition Authority (Observador/Lusa).

Could the strike still be called off?

Yes. Asked whether a reply from the government could cancel it, STM’s president, Manuela Niza Ribeiro, said that would depend on the outcome of any meeting. If the government says how and by when it will solve the problem, the strike is “suspended immediately”, she said, “but they have to be concrete things” (our translation) (Observador/Lusa).

When we checked on 29 September, we found no report that it had been called off, and AIMA’s news page at aima.gov.pt carried no notice about the strike.

Will your appointment still go ahead?

Probably, if this union’s last strike is a guide. No one can promise it.

STM’s previous strike was called for 1, 2, 3 and 5 June 2026, starting on Monday 1 June (RTP). On its first morning, AIMA said turnout was below 3% of staff and that every AIMA shop was open, “with no need for rescheduling” (our translation). Diário de Notícias (DN) counted 21 strikers out of more than 700 staff nationwide (Diário de Notícias, 1 June 2026). The union said “many workers” had joined, but also that nothing had closed so far, as it had planned; its main aim, RTP reported, was to draw public attention to the problems at AIMA (RTP).

Those figures cover a single morning, and the two sides differed on turnout. A strike by a different group hit much harder. When AIMA’s subcontracted cultural mediators struck on 30 March 2026, DN found turnout above 70% in Porto, with Lisbon’s worst disruption at the Anjos shop (Diário de Notícias, 30 March 2026).

For 6 October, STM proposes that the minimum services needed to keep the agency running are maintained (Público). That is the union’s proposal; we have not seen what AIMA plans for the day.

So plan on your appointment going ahead, and allow for a longer wait or a turn-away at a busy shop.

What should you do if your appointment is on 6 October?

• Do not cancel or skip it. If you are not seen, the wait for a new date can run to months, DN reported during the June strike. That costs far more than a wasted morning.
• Go at your booked time with every document you were told to bring, as on any other day. During the June strike, the guidance DN reported was to attend as normal, even at the risk of not being seen.
• Check the news on Monday 5 October. The union says it will suspend the strike if the government says concretely how and by when it will solve the problem, so the picture can change before the day.
• If you are turned away, ask at the desk whether and how the appointment will be rebooked, and keep your booking confirmation.
• If your residence card is close to expiring, read what an expired card does and does not mean in our AIMA appointments guide before you worry.

What should you do next?

• Need a first or new appointment? Our AIMA appointments guide sets out which official channel matches your case.
• Waiting on nationality rather than a residence card? That queue belongs to the IRN, not AIMA. Our registry backlog report explains the difference and what moved.
• Counting the years to citizenship? Portuguese citizenship by residency covers how the residence route works.

This post is general information, not legal advice. Strike plans can change at short notice: check aima.gov.pt and the Portuguese press before your appointment, and if your residence status depends on the date, speak to a qualified immigration lawyer.