The Vice-Presidency of the Government of the Azores carried out, in 2021, through the Regional Directorate for the Communities, 9.540 attendance services to emigrants, emigrants’ applicants, returnees and immigrants, residing in all the islands of the Region.

The three public attendance offices of the Regional Directorate for the Communities have registered 4.136 on-site attendances, from which 2.290 were made in the office of Angra do Heroísmo, 1.032 in the office of Ponta Delgada and 986 in the office of Horta. At the same time, this department of the Vice-Presidency of the Government also counted 5.404 telephone services to clients from all nine islands of the archipelago, a number that has increased comparing to previous years and that is justified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In what concerns the national origin of the clients, this service was used by citizens of 53 different nationalities, whereas the most representatives were the Portuguese (7.269), Brazilian (803), American (556), Cape-Verdean (363) and Canadian (161).

Among the subjects on which this service provides support and information, either on the area of emigration or of immigration, the most requested subjects were related to foreign pensions, passport renewal, acquisition of nationality/citizenship, visa and documents’ translation.

The Vice-Presidency of the Government of the Azores guarantees a public attendance service to these citizens during the year, being available permanently on the islands of São Miguel, Terceira and Faial and, on all the other islands, through telephone assistance and periodical displacements made by their technicians.