The article clearly shows the frustration of the lawyers, as we(the applicants) are blaming them for delays and too little info .
I am sure SEF is not intentionally doing thisā¦it doesnāt make sense to do so.
It would be great to get some wider coverage too. Peter Wise of the Financial Times is one of the most active foreign correspondents in Portugal. It will be difficult to get international coverage of this mess until people are willing to go on the record (with your name printed) to speak about the human costs ā problems with travel, taxes, opening accounts and businesses in Portugal, etc. If thatās you, consider emailing him at peter dot wise at ft.com. You might also try SĆ³nia TrigueirĆ£o of PĆŗblico at Sonia dot Trigueirao at publico dot pt . She covers SEF and would probably also be happy to connect with sources
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I hear you that it doesnāt make sense, but itās impossible to know if itās driven by negligence, incompetence or malicious intent. The reality is the people are getting arrested when they travel due to expired permits; theyāre unable to open bank accounts or activate cell service; theyāre having trouble with filing taxes; theyāre hearing from lawyers that SEF is playing politics with their lives. If any of us knew from the onset that this crazy stuff was a possibility in our adopted home, I am sure most or all would have gone elsewhere. And meanwhile, most other types of residents started getting automated renewal as of January.
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This is not encouragingā¦but at the same time good that itās getting media attention and hoping the authority will now put due attention.
This will definitely help Portugal.
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Hi
Today morning, received a confirmation from our lawyers that SEF has started processing again.
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Processing new applications (which is already confirmed), or processing biometrics?
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Are they āreleasing appointment slotsā or will they contact the renewals chronologically?
Because last year when they announced they would contact GV applicants it was only new applicants and not renewals (as far as I knew?).
I checked the ARI site (https://ari.sef.pt/Account/Registo.aspx) and it no longer gives me an error message like it used to when clicking on the investment type. Iād wait to see until they start scheduling biometrics and renewals before I got too excited about it thought.
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The message I received seemed to indicate that just the portal is open again. So, they can take more peopleās money for investments to submit their application, but there is no sign that they are then doing anything to process those applications!
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Iāve been checking the SEF ARI portal few times a day during the last month and the only day when I did not do that in the morning, SEF released new appointments)) My lawyer called me at 5pm yesterday saying slots were available and we booked two appointments in Portimao for next Monday and Tuesday (27th and 28th of June). And it looks like these were the last slots available as we could not secure appointments for our children (their residence cards are valid for another 3 months though). And I donāt see any available slots anymore on the portalā¦
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Good to know renewals are opening up as well.
Did you do anything to initiate the renewal process, or did slots just show up on your ARI page? Was there any email from SEF to your lawyer? Also, was your permit expired at the time of booking?
To be honest, I donāt know how my lawyer got news about available slots (I will check on Monday and update). No emails from SEF, it seems you simply need to monitor the portal every day.
Yes, my residence card expired a month ago, but my wifeās card will be expiring in one month time.
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That was my thought also, but the speed and volume of appointments opened up yesterday is staggering compared to what was available in the past 1-2 years. So I am open-minded that SEF has turned the corner and will start to right the ship. I was pessimistic and maybe time will justify the pessimism but I am willing to give it a chance to see what happens from here. With so many biometric appointments opened up, it reasons that they need to start processing existing biometrics faster to prevent a massive pileup of files. If a lot of final approvals donāt come through in the next month, then we know something is still very wrong.
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Wow you are so lucky! My visa expired in April 2021!
I emailed my lawyer yesterday when I saw that people were getting biometrics appointments and she just replied saying that they werenāt open for renewals. 
@AnatolySukhodolov Can I ask which lawyers you are using?
Iām on D7 in Portugal since 3 months and I feel like I will not be able to fulfill the stay requirements. Do you think I should start the GV process any cons to it? And how long will it takeā¦
Appreciate your feedback!
Automatic renewal has always been the norm for other kinds of residence permits like employment based, but investment based permits have never been capable of being automatically renewed, and I donāt see anything in the article or the SEF website which suggests anything has changed on this front. I would, of course, be very happy to be wrong 
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AKhan - see my response to you on another thread.
I use MAIO Legal (www.maiolegal.com), Lisbon office. Please donāt treat this as a recommendation because I cannot say they are very pro-active or responsiveā¦ as many lawyers and law firms in Portugal, though (no offence).
You are correct. The SEF website states:
No. Your residence permit does not allow you to use of the āautomatic renewalā feature. You must proceed with the online scheduling for SEF bureau service in the menu āAppointments Scheduleā in the ARI Website."
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