Says comunicar-se: “Since the beginning of the year, the number of complaints about the service (both when it was run by SEF and since) has soared 158% compared to 2022 ” – and one has to understand complaints in 2022 were plentiful.
https://www.portugalresident.com/new-asylum-agency-celebrates-first-month-with-over-200-complaints/
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Received this from our lawyer today:
we have been able to establish an initial institutional contact with AIMA two weeks ago and we can say that we were positively surprised with the level of awareness regarding the existing inefficiencies and, in addition, we were advised that a number of changes would be implemented very soon by AIMA to overcome these inefficiencies and the delays. We can also report that the communication with AIMA has been more prompt comparing with what existed with the previous entity, SEF, which to us is also a good indicator. This different stance could also be seen last week with news that the Government has approved a Regulatory Decree (still to be approved by the President) that will in principle bring a number of simplification measures to residency applications and that is bound to expedite these processes.
Hella
Hopefully this is true!
Is this public information? Would be interested to know if this clarifies how the new GV laws will apply.
I cant tell if that is an old declaration or not. The things it describes seem like they would fix all of our problems: waiving face to face appointments and/or improving appointment scheduling; no need to provide the same documents repeatedly.
But then the only dates I can find are from years ago, meaning none of this helped at all if it was approved by the president…
Decreto Regulamentar n.º 9/2018, de 11 de setembro
That legislation is from 2018 so definitely not new.
fwiw, our advisor says:
“The president of AIMA was the founder of ‘Simplex,’ a revolutionary project that was instrumental in streamlining many administrative procedures and reducing the bureaucracy in Portugal.”
…will believe it if/when I see it 
LOL well then this truly is hopeless if we live in a world where PT thinks it implemented those things.
Maybe its like Michael declaring bankruptcy in The Office: as long as Portugal makes a Declaration, they consider the job finished.
I am shocked that a terrible government agency that was split into many parts is now many terrible government agencies.
I guess the best way of to be taken care is going Brussels and protest Portugal Government in front of all European leaders before their regular meetings. 
Including a few hundreds of people in such a big protest would definitely take attention.
The EU doesnt want GVs to exist, and there isnt much positive public sentiment toward people who MUST be ultra wealthy if they can afford a GV! not sure what a group march would do for us…
Some of us are not ultra wealthy. We put our pooled savings into the property we bought in part because we didn’t have enough to generate the “fixed income” required for a D7. So now our funds are sunk into a property in Portugal (which we also got defrauded on, by the way.) So we have a close to worthless property, no remedy, no funds, and no visas. I know we’re not alone.
I think some of the comments here come off as whiny and entitled. Go to any country where incomes and standard of living are lower and wave around a bunch of cash and see what happens to you. Caveat emptor. I know several people who overcame obstacles in this process and were successful only because they took matters into their own hands, not because they came here and complained. I can’t say that I am personally impressed by the process but it is a country offering a favorable residence by investment program precisely because of the problems facing the country. What do you expect?
I feel bad about your situation if you were taken advantage of by someone and have a worthless property. Maybe others can learn from your experience. The passive income requirements for the D7 aren’t that high - I think around 10,000 euros per year. At current interest rates you could generate that income with 200,000 in investments. Was this a situation that the property had latent defects or the lawyers didn’t represent you well? I have seen both scenarios.
Affirmative written misrepresentations by the seller—a rich and well-connected guy—including a false declaration that was the basis of the documents legally required to sell us the property. And yes, representatives who were at best sloppy and at worst in on it. We have a solid claim, but have been told it will take years to prosecute, cost tens of thousands, and as a practical matter our chances of a meaningful recovery are low. And at the time we purchased, we would have needed about 800k in passive income investments. Now it’s is a very different climate, of course.
Yawn. Dont ask people to come in and wave their cash around if you arent prepared to hold up your end of the deal.
I expect them to actually offer what they claim to offer. They are not doing that, and havent been for years. There are legal obligations for processing timelines being totally ignored.
But great youve heard of people taking matters into their own hands!!
I was being sarcastic. ARI applicants are all presumed to be foreign billionaires by non-ARI applicants. Calling it a “golden visa” doesnt help.