Regional Government opens AIMA service at Ponta Delgada RIAC office and plans to cover all nine islands by July - Communication

Secretaria Regional das Finanças, Planeamento e Administração Pública

The Regional Government opened today the new service provided by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) at the Integrated Citizen and Business Support Network (RIAC-RIAE) office in Ponta Delgada.

The opening ceremony was jointly chaired by the Regional Secretary for Finance, Planning and Public Administration, Duarte Freitas, who oversees the RIAC network, and the Regional Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities, Paulo Estêvão. The event was also attended by the President of the AIMA Board of Directors, Pedro Portugal Gaspar, and the President of RIAC, Carlos Mateus.

This partnership between the regional administration and the national agency aims to decentralise and speed up responses to foreign citizens residing in the Region, facilitating access to essential integration and document regularisation services.

At the event, Paulo Estêvão recalled that, until now, immigration services were concentrated on a few islands, which required costly travel during the working week, heavily dependent on air connections.

"This was very detrimental to our immigrants. We identified the problem and moved forward with this project together with AIMA, relying on RIAC's outstanding response capacity and efficiency," explained the government official.

The Azorean Government is committed to expanding this local response to the entire archipelago in the very short term.

“From July this year, we will have a response on all the islands. We will have RIAC offices providing the same effective response in Corvo or São Miguel,” stressed the Regional Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities.

With a view to ensuring that regularisations take place "in record time" and without bureaucratic delays, the Azorean Government has signed preliminary agreements with AIPA (Association of Immigrants in the Azores) and CRESAÇOR.

These entities will provide direct support in preparing the applications, ensuring that the documentation is complete when it reaches the RIAC offices.

Paulo Estêvão pointed out that, as of today, the immigrant population in the Azores stands at around 9,000 people.

This figure represents less than 4% of the Region's resident population, a growth rate well below the average of 15% recorded in Mainland Portugal. 

Despite its smaller scale, the government official noted the deeply humanistic approach of this integration policy: "Resolving this bureaucratic issue sends a message that immigration is welcome and that we welcome people."

He added: “We are a people of emigrants. We have not forgotten the difficulties we had to face in other lands, and we want to provide all the conditions here to overcome those difficulties.”

With the opening of this new office in Ponta Delgada, the Regional Government takes another decisive step towards consolidating an inclusive public service network adapted to the current demographic and social reality of the archipelago.