Awaiting Biometrics (Stage 3)

Our lawyer was able to get it after SEF sent them an email. It was a surprise to get the notification!

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Congrats! Same applies to my family. Only main applicant got biometrics appointment initially, but dependents have also just gotten biometrics too. The dilemma we are in right now is getting visa for dependents to attend biometrics, as the Portuguese consulate in my country is currently. Only the primary applicant wonā€™t be needing to apply for a visa, as he has an active schengen visa on his passport.

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Congrats and Oh No at the same time. Iā€™m so sorry about the visa dilemma. I thought I saw elsewhere on the forum that someone was able to get a letter allowing entry because of the SEF appointment, but I canā€™t remember any of the specifics of that. Good luck to you all!

An update from my post of 4 weeks ago
I have spent this week sortingā€¦
Me Porto 16th Jan
Son, Lisbon, 7th Feb
Wife, Funchal, 10th March ( she was always going to be the tough one because of her diary)
Mother, Lisbon 1st Feb

Docs MAY be in place by 10th March, but I doubt it

OlĆ”, anyone managed to travel to Portugal with Turkish Airlines transiting through Istanbul while holding an expired tĆ­tulo?
I read somewhere on this forum that Emirates is allowing people to board the flight from Dubai.

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Hey, there is a topic dedicated to this question - please also see the below posts. Bear in mind that local custom officers can make your life difficult so there is no math or exact science, someone here on this from had written that he could not travel to Portugal from Spain (though normally it should be treated as travelling within the same county)

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I was not aware of such thread. Thanks for the feedback!

Heads up for those living in Portugal while waiting for their residence card that I was asked for an atestado de residencia at my SEF appointment in Coimbra. Also for both my Portuguese and country of origin tax documents (instead of just the one I was resident in). They were quite strict and asked for almost everything they could think of that could be somehow relevant even if itā€™s not on the official documents.

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I just received the email to make an appointment. But my spouse who applied (and got pre-approved) a few days after me did not get this yet.

Should we wait a few more days to see if we are both allowed to make appointments together?

What has your experience been with appointment scheduling?

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My lawyer said to me this morning that getting a ā€œfamilyā€ appointment is sensible but almost never happens. And if they ask for one, they never get a reply. So Iā€™d take what you haveā€¦

The main applicant appointment takes longest anyway. My bit this morning was about 5 minutes, but the lawyer was in there for about 35 before that

Hmm, Iā€™m a bit scared now. My lawyer never asked for my birth certificate, let alone an apostilled version of it! I have my SEF appointment tomorrowā€¦ I really hope my lawyer didnā€™t mess up on the required documents! The only documents I have are: (1) passport, (2) criminal record (apostilled), (3) tax id (not apostilled, lawyer just translated and certified), (4) bank statements and investment documents, (5) NIF, and (6) proof of address using my lease agreement. The only document apostilled in that entire list is the criminal record. There is no birth certificate in that list!

Edit: I went to this link from SEF ARI that gives a list of required documents: https://imigrante.sef.pt/wp-content/uploads/ARI_alinea7_Pedido_PT.pdf and I used google translate on it. Thankfully, it does NOT mention birth certificate as a required document. Perhaps my lawyer didnā€™t mess up! Fingerā€™s crossed tomorrow goes well!

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No need to panic. If they require and you do not have it, they will give you some day to get it apostilled. My criminal record was expired at the time of appointment, and they gave me 30 days to provide an apostilled one.

The birth certificate is only required if you are bringing your parents in as your dependents. This is to prove that they are your parents.

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Looks like SEF itself is taking the (wrong IMO) interpretation of the extension being limited to those whose permits expired in the 15 days just prior to Dec 30 2022 :man_facepalming:

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What date did you submit your application, if you donā€™t mind me asking?

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Our submission date was around Dec 3rd 2021

Hi everyone,

Have been following this thread for a long time but this is my first post here. Want to check if anyone else is in the same situation as I am in and if there is a solution for this.
Pre Approved - Feb 2021
First Biometric date - Feb 2022 (Could not travel due to restrictions/delay in processing of Schengen visa)
No updates since and have been told that we are in a situation where the applicant has been called already and SEF has not updated when they will take cases like ours.

All suggestions welcome and hope we get called soon :confused:

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You should be talking with your lawyer about a lawsuit

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@minimaxr Because of the previous extensions of validity, all of the previously expired cards etc. were shifted to expire at the end of 2022. This covers all of them, because their validity lasted to December 30.

My lawyer also reads this: ā€œa partir de 30 de dezembroā€ to include those whose cards expire between now and the end of 2023. So this could be quite sweeping, rather than limited.

The bad news of her reading was that she guessed they gave until the end of 2023 in order to put off solving the renewal problem until after the re-org was complete, which means at least more delay. The worst case, obviously, is if the re-org gets put off even more or gets reconsidered.

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