The government estimates that consular meetings will be normalized within 12-18 months.

The Portuguese government estimates that services at consular sections will only be normalised within at least a year, once all measures have been taken to speed up appointments, which currently take up to two years.

“I sincerely hope that in a year or a year and a half we will be able to have a situation very different from what we have today. We may not have solved all the problems yet, but at least the appointments in the consulate sections can be normalized during this period,” Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities José Cesário told Luce.

As for the normalization of processes that do not depend on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, José Cesario prefers not to take risks.

“I cannot adhere to the deadlines, because everything does not depend only on me. There is an area of ​​​​consular service concerning the sent processes, which depends on the Ministry of Justice, especially the processes of registration of citizenship, the way in which they are sent to the Institute of Notary Registration, I cannot take on obligations, but we will work in this direction,” the secretary said.

Regarding the procedures aimed at normalizing services, José Cesario listed some of them that are underway, such as replacing computers for all employees, upgrading the equipment for electronic biometric data reading, many of which are currently broken, and hiring more than 80 employees who will be admitted to consular posts with the greatest problems, including the consular posts in Buenos Aires, which will be reinforced to four employees.

Last year, the post in the Argentine capital became the target of protests by Portuguese citizens who were unable to get an appointment for years, with the wait in some cases exceeding three years.

The Portuguese Embassy in Argentina defends the need to have not one, but two employees, which will continue in the future.

“I admit that in the long term we will need another employee. With another we could completely solve the problems in Buenos Aires. This is our difficulty,” admits José Cesario.

Another change will be in the scheduling method. Currently, this process is only done through an online platform. However, this method is impractical for a community with a majority of elderly people, such as in Argentina. Stations will have the option of holding telephone and in-person meetings.

“We hope that thanks to this set of measures the current situation will change significantly,” says Jose Cesario.

All posts must increase the number of so-called “consular presences”, a type of mobile and travelling consulate that promotes the campaign for services such as issuing citizenship cards, passports and civil registration.

“Next Sunday I will be in São Paulo to begin the consular experience in the area. It will be at the Arouca São Paulo Clube, near the consulate. We have had this experience in the past in Buenos Aires, and we know this tool for interacting with communities. It is very effective,” says the secretary.

Cesario will visit Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina from July 5 to 15, before leaving Buenos Aires on the 9th for Brazil.

Sao Paulo is the Brazilian station with the most scheduling problems, followed by Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Fortaleza. To a lesser extent, Brasilia. On the other hand, Belém, Recife, Salvador and Curitiba have responded satisfactorily to demand.