My husband had a biometric appointment in early November and I did not. Our attorney said that SEF almost surely wouldnāt see me. I stood outside the SEF office for the 15 minutes of his appointment then we left to enjoy a short vacation in Portugal, one SEF visit still left to go.
Portugal has lost 2.1% of its population in the last 10 years and itās expected to continue to decline. Plenty of space. 40% more foreigners in Portugal - The Portugal News
Dear all, I first wish everyone a happy new yearā¦
You might recall me writing about travelling to Portugal without the Schengen visaā¦ I double-checked this with my lawyerā¦ Here is what I heard from lawyers + my observationsā¦
My lawyers has told me that If someone has an expired residency card that person can travel to Portugal with the expired card + SEF appointment to renew it (without the Schengen visa)ā¦ The current residency cardsā validity period are extended till end of Marchā¦
As I mentioned earlier in one other post, I recall people being able to get on plane at Istanbul International Airport by showing their SEF appointment paperā¦ I actually checked this with the staff and they confirmed itā¦ (by that time my worry was the ground staff not being aware of all these details about extension of validity cards, renewal process etc, yet to my surprise they had up-to-date information and aware of residency cardsā validity extensions and even told me that they let people on-board a plane if they have a SEF appointment - they canāt do any favours to anyone, the airlines and the staff are penalized if they let anyone get on a plane without a proper visa & documentationā¦ )
Therefore my understanding is that the first time applicants will need a Schengen visa as they are to get the residency cardā¦ You need to have an existing expired residency card to be able to travel to Portugal by just having a SEF appointment and the SEF appointment should be all about renewing the expired residency (e.g. biometricsā¦)
Just like many of us, I still wait for my biometric appointmentā¦ Iāve completed 3 full years and await for the biometric appointment for the 3rd card.
Hope this clarifies
All the Best
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Thanks, this is helpful.
For residency renewals, isnāt that done online now? I read last year that all renewals were done automatically online and no need to visit for biometrics. Has that ruling expired now?
I raised this question to my lawyersā attention as well; the online renewals are for ordinary residency permits, e.g. if you get residency via a company or some other conventional means and live in Portugal, they provided the online optionā¦ However my lawyers told me that ARI (Golden Visa) applicants need to visit Portugal and have their biometrics taken in Portugalā¦
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Does the applicant have the choice to pick the location and date.
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Hi, if you are talking about the SEF office where Biometrics will be taken; in a normal world, the applicant used to have few choices, at least I was offered few alternatives and I could actually ask for certain datesā¦ whereas right now it is all about just finding a slotā¦ Of course you might be still lucky and your lawyer can provide few options but nowadays it is pretty rareā¦
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SEF has started to invite applicants to attend biometrics in chronological order. You no longer need to look for a slot.
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SEF has a new post about a pilot project for biometrics without scheduling. Does anyone have any additional information about this?
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Coimbra is lovely! Win win!
Hope they will finish the pending ones ā¦ we did the biometrics about 4 moths back and still NOTHING !!!
It should be soon. Approvals appear to be taking 3-4 months depending on what office it went through.
Hi @YC31 ,
Is this your initial application for GV?
I remember my initial one took 6 Months after Biometrics but the 1st renewal took only 3.
The indicators of progress are usually changes in the status on your ARI portal.
For example, in the payments page, if the status is examining application, then you need 2-3 months.
If you get asked to pay the Card fee, itās 6 Weeks, the status will be Granting.
Once you pay itās 4 Weeks to get the card.
Iām interested to know the new timelines, please keep us updated and I hope you get it soon.
Regards
Hi Bisho
We still did not reach the payment phase. So I guess the wait is still long.
I will keep you posted
Hi,
Asking to those who are waiting for āpre-approvalā:
Do you see that red Portuguese sentence when you login? It translates: āIt is not possible to complete the application because the type of investment awaits regulationā
Our lawyer has told us that SEF is currently rebuilding the website and everyone awaiting āpre-approvalā has that sentence showing up. Patiently waitingā¦
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According to a first person account of the Coimbra appointments trial, it was a complete disaster. Allegations of corruptions, police involvement, a night of camping in the cold weather, drama of blocking a family from entering the facility, escalation of complaints to the SEF regional director. It doesnāt bode well for future use of this program.
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I was wondering how it went, how disappointingā¦
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Apparently there is a news story about it on video. I havenāt seen the video yet.
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I found this one on RTP: SEF tem em Coimbra projeto-piloto de atendimento sem agendamento
Apparently it says that people were queuing from 2am and they only saw 6 people. And those 6 were ānot well attendedā.
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