Macau, China, Sept. 10, 2025 (Lusa) - Prime Minister Luís Montenegro expressed optimism on Wednesday about a solution to the restrictions on Portuguese residency in Macau, following a meeting with the leader of the Chinese semi-autonomous region's government, Sam Hou Fai.
"I believe that things are on the right track for us to be able to establish a more agile, easier, more expeditious regime and, therefore, to be able to overcome this constraint that we know exists," said Montenegro.
Since August 2023, Macau has not accepted new applications for Portuguese residency for the "exercise of specialised technical functions", allowing only justifications of family reunion or previous connection to the territory.
The guidelines eliminate a practice established after Macau's transition in 1999.
The Portuguese are left with a “blue card”, an authorisation limited to employment, without the benefits of residents, particularly in terms of health or education.
The only alternative to getting a resident's identity card is to apply for the recent programmes to attract qualified staff.
"We are concerned about the residence visas of all those who come here to work and to help Macanese institutions carry out their work," confirmed Montenegro.
The prime minister emphasised that the procedures for obtaining residency "often end up determining the choice of people seeking professional activity" in Macau.
"We're talking about people with various qualifications who come here to help develop many of the activities in which our community is involved," Mr Montenegro stressed.
The 2021 censuses indicate more than 2,200 people born in Portugal living in Macau. The last estimate provided by the Consulate General of Portugal to Lusa indicated approximately 155,000 Portuguese passport holders among residents of Macau and Hong Kong.
Montenegro said that both Portugal and Macau want "this whole dynamic to be as easy as possible and, therefore, for the rules to be quick and also so as not to discourage this mobility, which is a positive mobility".
The prime minister said that the governments on both sides "are in contact" and will "continue" the dialogue that began with the visit to Macau at the end of March by Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel.
At the time, Rangel said that the "follow-up to the dialogue" started with Sam Hou Fai will take place at the seventh meeting of the Portugal-Macau Joint Commission, the first since 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Montenegro revealed today that the commission will meet between 4 and 6 February 2026, an announcement he underlined as "one of the objective results" of the meeting with Sam Hou Fai.
In a statement, the Macau government said only that the head of government and the Portuguese prime minister "exchanged views on bilateral relations and topics of common interest".
VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
