The law (https://dre.pt/dre/detalhe/decreto-lei/42-a-2022-185452470) states that there is an extension, until December 31, 2022, of documents and visas related to stay in national territory. This information and the expired card should be accepted by SEF border guards if the flight/entry is direct to Portugal. However, getting on a plane may be another matter - although there have been postings of airlines being familiar with the problem of expired ARI cards (ARI Holders (Stage 5) - #57 by anand).
SEF have not opened appointments for biometrics/renewals since early 2022 so how and when they will deal with the approximately 19,000 requests to renew expired ARI residency cards (MSN), as well as the unknown number of new applications that still await biometrics, remains sadly unknown.
We were 2 of the lucky ones that managed to get appointments with SEF in July to renew our GV - which expired last year. This is the final renewal before we can apply for a 5 year visa. But to date, we have not received the new cards. It does state our visits to SEF on our ARI page, but weâve been told by our lawyer that itâs still best not to travel! We havenât been out of Portugal since the beginning of 2020, so havenât been able to visit our relatives or travel anywhere out of Portugal!
We had good news yesterday! SEF sent an email to my husband to say that his GV renewal has been approved and he can now pay and (hopefully soon) receive his card. Iâm presuming that I will receive the same soon as my renewal was done 2 weeks after his.
Hi Gail.
Itâs always great news to hear the system is processing gvâs!
I presume your husbands old card had expired before you did the biometrics for the renewal, what are the dates for the new card in relation to the old card? Do they continue from it or is there a missing period between the cards?
Thanks
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
My friend got his first card in 2013 and first renewal in 2014 of which the issuing date was continuous. All subsequent renewals afterwards were no longer continuous. His last renewal appointment was in Nov 2020.
So now weâve hit a snag with the card renewal! We have to pay SEF but nowhere does it say how much! On my husbandâs ARI portal, it says to âconsult the table on the portalâ but I canât find the table anywhere. Our lawyer has written to them to ask as it hasnât happened this way before - she normally paid them at the appointment. Weâre hoping sheâll get an answer soon.
I have the same problem. Received the acceptance letter with noification to pay. But the laywer said they could not pay. Something wrong with the payment of the SEF. And my lawyer has been contacting SEF about this for 4 weeks now and the problem is still not solved. Not sure how long it is going to take to solve this. Months ? Or years ?
I have no idea what I should comment on this. Only I can say is: Itâs Portugal.
Thank you for this info but I actually found it on my husbandâs portal. When you click on the euro sign, it takes you to the page where previous payments have been made and the current one is âpendingâ. You can click on the first icon in the first column and a warning sign comes up to ask if you want to print the page and when you agree, the SEF page with all the details and the amount appears. And then you are given about 6 days to pay.
My family member as a dependent GV has had the same problem with the payment. After 2.5 months of trying, my lawyer has finally resolved this problem with SEF. The payment has just been made today. I will wait to receive the cardâŚThings keep rolling on with a pace of snailâŚ
