Human resources | Delays on processing residence requests are creating ‘instability, fear’

Maria Amélia António

In the first half of 2016 there were less requests for residency in the territory from Portuguese citizens, according to data released by the Public Security Police Force (PSP).
The number of requests decreased by 17.3 percent (amounting to 13 fewer requests) with an even bigger decrease in the number of approvals of these requests, falling from 77.3 percent (58 requests) of total requests in 2015 to only 45.2 percent (28 requests) in 2016.
Taking into account the fact that the authorities claimed not to have rejected any of the requests during the period, this means that 54.8 percent of requests (34) are pending.
The analysis shows what Maria Amélia António, the president of “Casa de Portugal” (House of Portugal – CPM) deems a “trend in the last couple of years.” The processing of the requests to completion can take several months.
“They [the PSP] didn’t refuse any request but they only approved 28. I can’t believe that all these requests [have] just [come in] within the timeframe [of the last] one or two months. People didn’t come running to do all the requests at the same time for sure,” the CPM president said.
“If a company needs a worker, [they] cannot be waiting for months, moreover they are not going to request that people come to Macau to stay here waiting. The same happens in the cases where people come to Macau on their own initiative. Also, it is not reasonable for them to be waiting after having found an employer; they are forced to give up,” Amélia António said. “In the event that these people do not have support from either family or friends, who sponsor them to stay and wait, it is impossible to survive,” she added.
The House of Portugal head knows several cases of identification request delays that lead to the withdrawal of those requests affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as well as in specialized fields such as Information Technologies (IT) amongst many others, including people who intended to work for the Portuguese association.
“This [the system] creates many troubles especially for SMEs and I often get confused by the information [from the government] that aims to protect these kinds of companies,” Amélia António stated. “We also suffer from the same problem as there are fields of interest in which I intend to hire people to teach but I can’t have them here for such a long time waiting. That lead us to finding solutions that are cumbersome – to bring people for very short periods of time to teach in workshop-based classes that consequently can’t be included in the programs of continuing education from the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) and so on… it creates a ‘snowball effect’ that is bad for everyone,” the president of CPM told the Times.
“This situation, as well as the uncertain governmental requirements at the time of renewal of the IDs creates instability. People aren’t able focus on working and contributing to society because they are always afraid that something might happen to them and this creates a lack of security for people which doesn’t come from a lack of jobs but rather is due to the system,” she added.
The association head also commented on the number of Portuguese nationals who are now working in the territory and hold work permits as non-resident workers (or holders of what is commonly known as a “blue card”): “It’s another push [from the government]. As they say it is supposedly faster to process… they tell this to people. There are two other important aspects: first the company needs to request or have a quota for this kind of worker; second, even when this happens, these workers become totally dependent on the company and this is a bit horrifying for me to know that a person that can have [by law] a better situation will be forced in to the ‘blue card” system that blocks them from other options and from developing and contributing more.”