With all the threads regarding timeline of the various steps, @jjmz and I put together a google form to collect this information in a structured manner. Please share it with anyone else you know that’s applied so we can get as much data as possible and potentially use it get attention upon these protracted timelines. Thanks!
Form:
Results:
form done
BR
i have submitted my timeline but don’t see it appears on the result sheet.
Here are some findings based on the data contributions to the Excel file. Data as of 16 March 2023. It may encourage people to contribute to the database.
First, thanks to Chris’ @cj807 for listing individual information on waiting time from Biometrics to Card received for Lisbon. This inspired my interest in the data for other locations, and thereafter to examine the data in the Excel file, for which we all thank @loheiman and @jjmz. A reminder that the 211 Excel data contributors are not necessarily the same as the 52 individuals who contribute to the data on time from Biometrics to residency card(Awaiting Final Approval (Stage 4) - #331 by Onward), although there is probable overlap.
The table below provides timing of submissions in the database for 211 individuals. Even in our small database of applicants it shows the clustering of applications in Q42022 – so the clustering is likely to be magnified in the universe of all ARI applications, as our community represents a small fraction of total ARI applications, and ARI applications are a fraction of all applications for residence.
The next table shows the average time, in months, between Application and pre-approval date, by the quarter of the year in which the application was made. No surprises that most pre-approvals until Sept 2021 were within 3 months. But we see the longer times to pre-approvals for Q3 applicants and lots of missing values (zeros) for pre-approval dates for 2021Q4 and 2022:
The next table shows the results of the wait to biometrics after application submission (in months), by Application submission date. This wait includes the wait to pre-approval.
There appears to be an error in the database for an application, where the value biometrics date pre-dates the application date (Azores) and pre-approval date is not a date but 12AM. Therefore, ignore the values for 2022Q3 for Azores, until the database is corrected.
In general, the table shows what we know - the increasing waiting time (more than 1 year after 2021-Q3) to get a biometrics appointment, except for 1 person in Porto who waited 24 months and another in Coimbra who waited 18 months (unless these are database errors).
Finally, we have the ** wait from biometrics appointment to receipt of the card by date and location of Biometrics ** – only for the 16 who received a card, after the biometrics appointment.
The rest of the 54 who had biometrics are still waiting for their cards, as indicated in the table below.
Happy to communicate with @loheiman and @jjmz, as needed, on apparent database errors.
This is great stuff! But is it all that relevant to divide up the “wait to biometrics after application submission” according to the ultimate location of the biometrics appointment? In my case, I was just invited to book a biometrics appointment in a particular window, and I think that could have been one of a number of locations. (I suppose for a couple of SEF offices there might not have been any appointments available.)
Once you’ve done biometrics, of course, your application is in the hands of that local office, and each works to their own timetable.
It depends on the lawyer and the client. I had the same experience as you, and I would be interested in predicting how long the process will be.
But I also see that others (perhaps those planning ahead) are thinking strategically on where to go for their biometrics. There have been comments/perceptions that X location is faster, or slower in sending the card. So, I thought for those who want to know, the information is there, and the total gives the average, regardless of location.
Is the application in the hands of the local office always? I thought I saw a comment somewhere (I cannot remember the detail) that somebody did biometrics, say in Lisbon, but the card was sent (or printed) in Porto. Since all printing at the Casa de Moedas (HQ in Lisbon but maybe with offices elsewhere) not clear how this evolves.
Speculative question… Suppose the shutters finally come down on GV applications in the next couple of months. Does that mean that SEF resource which would have been devoted to consideration of initial applications can be redirected towards the later stages of the process? For example, could we expect the timeframe from biometrics to final approval to shorten, since there are more staff available? Or does it not work like that?
I assume they open a number of appointments every time the currently scheduled appointments run out. So, in that case there would be no change in booking biometrics but maybe more appointments per opening? Which I don’t think matters since it sounds like everyone waiting got an appointment aside from a few that fell through the cracks
The early applicants may be able to inform us how it was run before COVID. I dont know how it was run, and a lot of blame has been placed on the epidemic.
But I understand SEF’s power came from the fact that it was the main administrative organ for frontier policing and immigration. There was vocal criticism of the management from within SEF. Part of the reason for its disbanding was the need to curb power and change the culture of the organization. As anyone who has worked with or for a major organisation knows, it is difficult to change the culture overnight. People have histories and habitual ways of doing things. Hence, one solution was the transfer of competencies/staff to the PSP, GNR and PJ, leaving admin staff to do admin (under APMA).
But APMA will be a new entity with a new Director, very visible and reporting to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs. With this high profile, we hope the new person in charge will need to be seen to be competent and efficient!
Here’s what is promised by the minister of APMA, it sounds dreamy, let’s see how it turns out.
Hi, Loren! I’d like to update the google doc you created (thank you!) but am unable to do so. Could you please add the date 5/19/2023 to row 57, and 6/11/2023 to row 61. Now we are just awaiting our cards.
Thanks!
