The monthly variation throughout the year shows a sharp increase, especially in the months of April, May, and June, with peaks of 225, 275, and 249 complaints, respectively. Furthermore, a comparison between the first and second quarters of 2025 reveals an increase of over 100% in complaints (103.5%), rising from 368 to 749 occurrences.
The main reasons for complaints reflect the difficulties faced by citizens: inadequate or inefficient service (31.07%), technical and operational failures (26.23%), delays in processes and documentation (17.46%), scheduling and contact difficulties (15.94%), and problems with payments and transactions (6.62%). Other reasons reported on the Complaints Portal include staff misconduct and security issues.
AIMA's page on the Complaints Portal reveals the agency's poor performance in responding to the problems reported to it. Currently, it has a satisfaction rating of 18.1 out of 100, a response rate of 13.1%, and a resolution rate of 13.8%.
Pedro Lourenço, founder of Portal da Queixa, comments: "The increase of over 100% in complaints in the second quarter of 2025 reveals a serious, chronic, and structural problem. A public service cannot fail so systematically and devalue the suffering of those who depend on it. When the president of AIMA downplays complaints, he ignores the human impact of these failures. The State has an obligation to be exemplary, and silence in the face of delays and inefficient service is a sign of a lack of commitment to people."
Demographic analysis shows that most complaints come from Lisbon (34.65%), followed by Porto (17.91%) and Setúbal (10.47%). Regarding age group, the majority of those complaining are between 25 and 34 years old (42.70%), and there is a slight predominance of women (43.69%) compared to men (56.31%).
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This is very interesting. I recently sent letters if complaint by registered mail to AIMA and Secrerary General of Admin because the government's online yellow book complaint portal no longer has AIMA listed. I suspect complaints would be far higher if someone hadn't removed AIMA from the portal! I think this should be investigated. Also you published an article from Lusa claiming AIMA had increased appointment booking from 1000 to 6000 per day. This is pure propaganda. It is still not possible to phone or email AIMA. A new portal was launched only 1 month ago but this does not work for many people as it doesn't recognise us from visa numbers.
By MR ANTHONY H TABOR from Algarve on 11 Jul 2025, 08:51
With all due respect and as an organizational and business consultant, the fundamental issue with AIMA (and many other agencies and businesses) is a lack of commitment to integrity and accountability. No where do I hear the leadership or management taking ownership and responsibility for the failures of the system without blaming on someone or something else and systemic failure of people being trained to do what the said they would do by when they said they would do it. As a result, there can be no authentic commitment to excellence, personal pride and accomplishment. In the absence of leadership and accountability, agencies and businesses live in a swamp of overwhelm and victimhood, constantly blaming the circumstances for the lack of workability. This is not complicated. Integrity requires the willingness to be responsible as well as the personal pride in being held to account for a standard of performance that many other countries, agencies and businesses flourish in. Until integrity and responsibility become a national concern, until there is real leadership, Portugal and the citizens of this amazing country will continue to be stuck in the story “isso não é possível em Portugal”. Without integrity, nothing works.
By Leon McLaughlin from Porto on 12 Jul 2025, 08:56