Thanks! Iâm hopeful no problems on TP. My partner is returning to PT on EasyJet so weâll see how that goes. (Weâre American but have been living in PT for several years now).
I get what youâre saying about the Schengen transit, but the reality is that I DID have that conversation once while trying to board a LH flight to the US via FRA and there was absolutely no way they were going to let me transit - Germany closed its borders for COVID and non-Germans werenât even allowed to fly through. After going through that, I wonât take any risks with Germany.
Years ago I used to hear that Italy was quite lax, no clue now but not risking it.
I hear you and I think itâs definitely best to avoid unnecessary risks. The riskiest thing is flying though strict counties like Switzerland or Germany. (I do wonder, though, if your problem in Germany was specific to pandemic travel controls.) The safest is flying TAP. Even other airlines should be fine as long as youâre leaving Schengen through Portugal â but thereâs a chance the airline might have a policy to ask for a visa/permit on check-in for your return flight depending on your situation (if your round trip originated in Schengen, etc)
Hi @minimaxr and @skippy.fluff , quick question if you donât mind. How soon after you made the payment for automatic renewal did the system status update? I paid my DUC a few hours ago but it still says âAguarda pagamentoâ. Iâm not sure if someone at SEF (which is currently on strike) has to manually go in an update it, or if the status should update immediately. Thanks!
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Everyone who has applied or is thinking about applying for the ARI/Golden Visa program of Portugal, We urgently need your help!
The rights of immigrants to Portugal are being threatened. At this point proposed laws seek to revoke the rights of ARI (residence by investment ) applicants , but any category of immigrants could be next. Please sign this petition sponsored by PAIIR asap . If the group of Portuguese industry and legal leaders obtain 7,500 signature the group will secure the right to participate in parliamentary discussions about the bill and represent itâs members and us.
Canât recall, my lawyer paid the DUC, and I wasnât tracking it super closely. I donât think it is manually updated. The updates are probably batched and happen at the end of business day. Iâd give it a couple of days to be updated on the portal.
If your visa has 6 months left, you canât apply for renewal right now. The rulebook says you can apply for renewal 90 days before expiry, but if you scroll up this thread you will see people whose permits are expiring in less than 90 days not being able to apply. Currently it appears that only permits expiring up to March 31 2023 are allowed to automatically renew.
But thatâs the thing, in the SEF website says that Iâm not eligible for automatic renewal:
" [I HAVE A RESIDENCE PERMIT FOR INVESTMENT ACTIVITIES. CAN I ACCESS THE SERVICE FOR THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL OF MY RESIDENCE PERMIT ON SEF WEBSITE?]
No. Your residence permit does not allow you to use of the âautomatic renewalâ feature. You must proceed with the online scheduling for SEF bureau service in the menu âAppointments Scheduleâ in the ARI Website."
As so, it would have to be through the ARI Website, but the ARI website doesnât let me do this.
It just shows up with this, itâs highly inconvenient and Iâve tried to call up every single Directorate in Portugal and they donât pick up.
The SEF website FAQ is out of date; what they said was valid until a few months ago. The rules changed in January allowing automatic online renewals for ARI, and several people on this forum including myself have got our renewed ARI permits with this procedure. The ARI portal has been looking like the situation in your screenshot for most of us for more than a year, and is not relevant for the online renewal process at all.
Your issue is that you are too early to apply for renewal, and the rules for online renewal may change by the time you are eligible.
In case anyone is wondering in the future, it took two days for the status of my order to be updated to reflect my payment. One day later, the status changed to âConcluĂdo.â
It can be predicted that they often cancel the strike when it is on weekend or on holidays. Wise enough, they also want to take holidays as normal citizens.
SEF comes/came under Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the press conference on Thursday when the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs presented the information on immigration/APMMA (which comes under her charge), she said (i) ~ 680 admin professionals currently at SEF will be transferred to the new migration agency (APMMA). (ii)The Minister of the Interior said the remaining SEF officers- mostly policing functions -would go to the police (PSP) or National Guard (GNR).
Residence authorisation and renewals will be done by IRN (Institute of registos e notiariados) which is the same Govt. entity that deals with Citizen cards, passports, nationality, civil registrations (births/deaths/marriages) etc. IRN comes under the Ministry of Justice, and (iii)a few SEF personnel will be transferred to IRN (no numbers given).
There is no Director appointed for APMMA yet and the approach will depend heavily on the competence and character of whoever is chosen to lead the new institution. A period of transition is anticipated (6mo for the implementation of APMMA). Broken up into 3 pieces, SEF will not be the powerhouse it once was. Letâs hope the spirit and mindset of those dealing with residence and immigration will be more efficient and humaneâŠ
