I just had my renewal appointment in Faro and let me share what I heard from my lawyers and my experience
No one really knows when the renewal appointments will be available again, every one is making an assumption, the hope is things speeding up in the new year, but this is just the hopeâŠ
Faro office is one of the less crowded ones, the office is actually inside the âmercado municipalâ and easy to spot; the SEF secion is on the right wing after you go upstairs
The process took perhaps 20 minutes, my lawyer presented documents for 15 mins and biometrics done perhaps less than in 5 mins ; ONE NOTE; bring your old passports, residency cards and perphaps your boarding pass to the appointment as well. I was asked to provide my old passport - perhaps because my new passport literally has one visa and few stamps - My lawyer told me that even if I hadnât had my old passport it wouldnât matter, but being able to present something thatâs being asked does not hurt. I also recall that someone on this forum was asked to show his boarding pass (perhaps because the officer could not spot the entry stamp) On a personal note, in the year 2023, there should be more modern ways to confirm if someone has entered the country via legal means or not
My lawyer told me that so far 60.000 Ukrainians are granted permits
âThe expectationâ is that the renewal âmightâ get approved around 4 months
Faro and Portimao are still considered to be the fastest ones, yet there is no math
Expectation is that the previous employees of SEF are to continue their work under the new agency
Last but not least, I met with a Brazilian student who was doing the reception work for the airbnb that I was staying. She told me that as a Brazilian student she also experience great difficulty getting an appointment from SEF as she is waiting for an appointment since last June/July. I thought it was only us who were in this waiting limbo mode.
I wish everyone a great happy new year and smooth process in their applications.
OlĂĄ, anyone managed to travel to Portugal with Turkish Airlines while holding an expired tĂtulo?
I read somewhere on this forum that Emirates is allowing people to board the flight from Dubai.
Contacted by JN, a SEF source said that, this week, automatic online renewals of residence permits would resume and that, in the coming days, the situations covered would be announced.
However, a novelty has already been confirmed: gold visas (Residence Permit for Investment) can now be renewed online. The new measure comes in the wake of the State Budget law, which created a commitment to streamline the renewals of these visas.
Thank you for the feedback. Golden visa holders and asylum seekers have always been excluded from using the auto renewal feature so I really hope that has changed.
Just tried, still not working, this is the message displayed on SEF portal:
"O tĂtulo de residĂȘncia que possui nĂŁo permite a utilização da funcionalidade ârenovação automĂĄticaâ. Para mais informaçÔes, o Centro de Contacto do SEF⊠"
This online âautomatic renewalâ for visas is good news for some, but not all. Yes, it is the first time it will apply to GV visas (as well as other visa types) BUT only for those who have visas expiring between January 1 and March 31, 2023, some 21,500 visas in total, where the biometric data has already been collected and whose documentation is already known to SEF.
I agree it is not a solution. A finger in the dike. My sympathy goes to all who have been waiting and waiting. And investors are a fraction of the many whose lives have been put on hold because of inability (or unwillingness) to find alternative ways of renewing residence cardsâŠ
What amazes me is the fact that the government has not been able to counteract such unilaterally stupid decision taken by SEF. Either you cancel the whole GV program or you fully execute it. Pre-approving new investors and not accepting their renewal requests once they made the required half a million euros investment is definitely a form of scamâŠ
They are foxes. If they follow their own rule, then most likely people will exit Portugal after 6-7 years with all capital. Govt wants to keep all money staying inside PT as long as possible. Hence the trick needs to be used. With this kind of trick, they can keep your capital in PT at least 10 years. In addition to this, all lawyers to some extend are the side-businesses of the SEF. Without bureaucracy, one could apply himself for GV. So using the lawyers with high fee is one way to support SEFâs particularly, and in general PTâs economy.
Wouldnât this include the vast majority of GV visas since virtually all of them were extended via decree until December 31, 2022? So, for example, I think it would include all of those that expired, say in April 2020, would be eligible since they were extended via decree various times until December 31, 2022.
I didnât think about it that way! Hopefully that would be how it would work but if it is an online system then perhaps the program wouldnât âsee itâ that way and those of us whose visa cards have the expiry date in 2020 or 2021 would not be included in the date range that the system is programmed to accept
This is the same logic used here: Awaiting Biometrics (Stage 3) - #1348 by skippy.fluff to argue that the current extension of validity applies to all cards even though the language says âvalid on Dec 30 2022 or 15 days priorâ since they were valid in Dec 2022 by the terms of the previous extensions.
Yes I agree with this logic, but you canât argue with the online platform - it will either allow you to process your application for renewal or it wonât. Only time will tell, fingers crossed!
THE RESIDENCE AUTHORIZATION FOR INVESTMENT (ARI) WILL NOW BE ABLE TO BE AUTOMATICALLY RENEWED.
The government has announced plans to launch a new portal for the automatic renewal of residence permits that have expired or will expire by March 31st, 2023. The portalâs terms and conditions will be announced in the coming days. We will keep you informed as more details become available. Additionally, those currently in the process of renewing their permits should expect to hear from us by the end of next week.
The Minister of Internal Affairs stated in Parliament in Nov 2022 that the Government had already decided to automatically renew all expired visas by law with an allocation in the 2023 Budget to enable online renewals of residence permits throughout 2023 for those whose biometric data had already been collected and whose documentation was already known to SEF.
The Law to extend the validity of expired residence visas until 31 Dec 23 has now been published (https://dre.pt/dre/detalhe/decreto-lei/90-2022-205493447) and further extends validity of expired visas which have already received several earlier âlegalâ extensions. But these validity extensions to expired visas are a legal workaround and do not come with residence cards with revised dates that can be shown to border guards or airlines to facilitate travel and/or demonstrate legal right of residency (in the absence of a Schengen visa).
The online automated system for renewals that the Portuguese newspapers/TV report - is for visas that expire between 1st January 23 and 31 March 23, and now includes GV - these dates to be extended in stages until the end of the year. In principle, all expired visas will be covered between the legal workaround and the online procedure. But if the online procedure implements the method already used in 2022 (requiring online confirmation of data and payment) it should result in delivery of a card!
Regrettably, English reports do not provide the detail available in the Portuguese press: SEF. Serviços voltam a poder ser requeridos via Internet but âsellâ the fact that GV visas are now included in the online renewal process.
All of this should soon be verifiable from this community - if those with 2021/2022 expired visas and those with about to expire visas try to renew online and report back. As @supermoira says, the system will either allow, or will not.
I have tried to renew online (card expiring within the window of Jan 23 to March 23), both at the SEF portal where others do renewals and via the ARI portal. Nothing so far. The SEF portal continues to report that I am not eligible and the ARI portal hasnât been updated in any way to allow for renewal.
Given that January 23rd is being touted as the first date, I assume the portal will update then, but this is obviously a guess.
My lawyer has also checked her access, but no changes so far. Her best guess is that we will need to upload new docs (as for the pre-approval) and then get the information on what to pay. One wrinkle is that we need to update the info on the adult cards (new address) and the photo on the dependent card (5 years is a big change for kids). Not clear how that will work, but I guess we can address that after getting the visa itself sorted.
Thanks very much @skippy.fluff. Nice to know that your expiry date is within the period allowed which is January 1 2023 to March 31 2023. I was afraid we didnât have anyone who met those date requirements in this community!
Suggests to me that the portal is not yet live or functional. My understanding (from the non GV immigrants who did this last year, many with problems doing so, particularly at the payment stage) is that the addresses can be updated within the portal once the portal is live - which is reported to be this week! Do let us know how this goes, if you get in! In the meanwhile, good luck to you and your lawyer!
