AIMA 3-Day Deadline: How Weekends and Holidays Are Counted

The deadline for guest reporting sounds simple: three working days. In practice it regularly causes confusion, especially when guests arrive on a Friday or before a public holiday.

The basic rule

Foreign guests must be reported to AIMA via SIBA within three working days of arrival. Working days are Monday to Friday, excluding Portuguese public holidays.

Examples

• Arrival Monday: the deadline ends on Thursday.
• Arrival Friday: Saturday and Sunday do not count, so the deadline ends on Wednesday.
• Arrival Saturday: counting starts on the next working day, so the deadline ends on Wednesday.
• Arrival the day before a holiday: the holiday is skipped and the deadline moves one day later.

Key public holidays in Portugal

Besides New Year, Easter and Christmas there are, among others, 25 April (Freedom Day), 1 May, 10 June (National Day), 15 August, 5 October, 1 November, 1 December and 8 December. Regional holidays apply as well, for example in Lisbon (13 June) or Porto (24 June).

Our advice: do not wait until the last day

Even though the legal deadline is three working days, it is wise to report immediately. The authority''s service is not always available; in September 2026, for example, it was down for several days. Reporting early gives you a buffer.

What if SIBA is down?

Document the outage (date, time, error message) and generate a DAT file you can upload manually later. That way you can show you made a timely effort.

Conclusion

CheckinSimple shows a countdown to the deadline for every pending guest in your dashboard. Reports are submitted automatically, and if the authority is down the system retries on its own. Try it free for two months, no credit card required.