Anyone apply for permanent residency / successfully get an appointment?

[yzwang (YWang)]

@sleuth_09dirk

despite being here on a golden visa, we’re applying for permanent residency under a different article for which we also qualify

Are you applying for “normal PR” as opposed to the “ARI PR”? When I first started the process, I asked my lawyer about it, and she said even if I have boots on the ground for 5 years (and hence technically eligible for the much cheaper “normal PR”), it’s practically impossible for ARI holders to get normal PR from AIMA. I assume this is because AIMA wants to make money from the much more expensive “ARI PR.”

This being said, others on this forum have done it when stars align:

@Lourenco

At the appointment, I received a huge, unexpected surprise. A year ago, I took the CIPLE language exam, the one you need to apply for nationality. My lawyer had my language certificate in her file folder, but had not submitted it for my renewal. Although I was eligible to apply for permanent residency, she had advised against it because the fee is extraordinarily expensive and I’d be applying for nationality soon anyway. But the AIMA officer caught a glance of the certificate in the lawyer’s folder and asked to see it. The officer then said they’d convert my application to permanent residency and not only that, it will not be the GV permanent residency, which costs around €5000, but the regular kind, which costs just €90. My lawyer told me afterward that she’s never seen this happen before.

I was also told not to take even “ARI PR” for granted, since there are very few appointment slots. This is why most people just renew their GV one more time (which is cheaper than the ARI PR anyway), while waiting for naturalisation. It seems AIMA wants to tie up our investments for as long as they possibly can, even if they have to forego making more money from the cards.