Awaiting Biometrics (Stage 3)

Knowing that many of us are still awaiting slots for our biometrics, I wonder if folks wanna share on this thread re: news whenever they have success finally getting slots… (dates, SEF office, number of people / slots you got).

(maybe along with other info or tips one might come across like “hey lots of slots are opening up at that SEF office now,” etc. – or “I am cancelling mine so if someone wanna standby and grab them”)

Hope we all get through eventually!

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I am happy to do this as soon as we get to that phase.

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My biometric slot is reserved on September 2021.
Hopefully I will be able to make this.

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Which office and how many slots you got?

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I got 04 slots in Porto in all different dates in September for my family of four.

I do not understand why it is only allowed to book 01 person for one slot; why not letting people book the whole family per slot. Also why this kind of biometric has to be done in Sef office in Portugal. It is much simpler for applicants to provide their fingerprints to the Portuguese Embassy in their country.
Maybe the answer is: It is Portugal.

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Congrat!! I don’t know why my lawyer can’t get me anything yet… (I have one slot myself in 2 weeks, but rest of my fam no)

I did ask that question before, the answer was: at SEF the “interviewer” is supposed to be able to evaluate all your ARI docs like real estate, etc. (in addition to taking your fingerprints)… There also aren’t so many of these ARI staff and hence appointments these days are severely limited.

But we all paid so much fees that it’s unreal they don’t 2 to 3X these staffs for us. Guess they just want our investment money in the economy : >

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I wish you all the best luck too.

Actually I am totally fed up with this slow process and the slow responsiveness of my lawyer. I am now considering GV investment as “a lottery”. Win or lose ? I have no control whatsoever. I did my best. I paid a lot of money to lawyer too (probably the same to you). I contacted them and I urged them.
I used to feel that there is always something that is hidden behind the process. But now I do not care about it anymore. I just let the lawyer do thing with the amount of times they need. I never ask them again why/how long/expected date…
So if thing gets done, I take it as if I win a lottery.
And when thing fails, then I take it as if I lose a lottery. Nothing serious happens on my life.
This kind of low expectation reduces the stress iny head.

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You are not alone : > But I still like PT and I guess we all have this dream of spending more time there some day (and hence going through GV in the first place).

Some of these frustrations certainly are due to COVID19, but I definitely, like you, am learning to set the bar as low as possible when it comes to “getting things done in my usual speed” in PT, LOL.

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Absolutely agreed! Oh Yes, my dream is to win this portuguese lottery. I cannot imagine how I will be partying if I win this :sweat_smile::sweat_smile::sweat_smile::pray::pray::pray:

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We just got two slots in The Azores. for next week. We will have to fly to the Azores and stay over several nights…but its worth it!

Thanks for sharing your SEF appointment folks. Been waiting for my GV appointment for a couple of months now and haven been told the same thing about COVID slowing down the process. Hopefully with PT opening up and SEF back at work this should speed up the process. Fingers crossed!

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We were just talking about Azores, “wouldn’t mind at all!”

Did you feel / know that these were last-minute cancellations (by someone else) that your lawyer were able to grab? (that’s what I have been told for months, no “brand new” GV slots have been created for a loooong time)

For US persons, last minute cancellation probably won’t work because we need to provide updated apostilled FBI background check. (The turn around time for this is still 1-2 months) Also, for spouse’s application, your marriage certificate has to be issued within the last 6 months (with some state’s apostille still has a turn around time of 1 month).

@wkb, thank you for bringing this up. Our PT lawyer also confirmed this to be the case.

Definitely something for US applicants to consider when scheduling the biometric. Hopefully the State Dept’s window service will resume soon!

I was told the same thing too, hence very curious about @betsykehoe’s situation. The last minute slots are best for those who already got GV and are trying to renew.

I guess one thing we all can confirm is that they still haven’t resume GV appointments fully…!

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We enlisted the help of Edge Legal Services, who specialize in the Golden Visa Process. They secured our appointments, and will travel with us for our Interview, and make sure everything goes smoothly. They have been processing everything to do with our GV. Not cheap, but well worth it.

Regarding Apostile’s, for GV applicants, I’ve been told that there is a process where newly apostiled documents can be uploaded at a later date after the biometric appt, so do not need to be current at that point in time.

Meaning, these documents do not have to be current when you show up for your biometric appointment, but will need to be uploaded as soon as possible in order to get final approval.

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Doug,
Be certain your source is right. We had to go through getting the Apostile in March, before we could be approved.

I was choosing between EDGE and other firms back then too, and didn’t go with them. Maybe a mistake now : >

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@DougTee did you go ahead with your biometrics appointment without an updated documents? When you say the updated documents can be uploaded afterwards as soon as possible, do you know if there is a deadline when they have to be done?

@betsykehoe if you did your apostille in March (is it for the FBI records?), are you saying that your apostilles are still within the 3 month validity?

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