I understood from your previous message that you are an investor in the Portugal Gateway Fund? It is this forum, on our website. Just please let me know your name when you sign up, it is only open to investors so I will need to check that and approve you. As you will see on the forum, we have had three investors approved over the last three weeks. Not as many as we would like, but not a freeze.
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Thatās mine! Waiting since Dec 2019ā¦
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Please keep us informed if Sef starts processing this yearsā applicants for the golden visa program
same concern about kids aging out, although it sounds like if a kid is still technically dependent up until age ?26 it can still go through-of course verify with an attorney. Our oldest just turned 17 so if it takes 10 years, it for certain wonāt work to include him
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A little good news to share: I regularly get ācome visit Portugalā emails from one of my advisors (really itās the marketing arm, not the advisor directly), so yesterday I wrote back, explained the concerns being shared here, and suggested they band together. He wrote back overnight to tell me that they are well aware of the problem, and that a group of various advisors - banks, lawyers, investment firms, and real estate agents - are already talking. They have a meeting the week of the 20th to discuss ways they might be able to get the ball rolling with SEF. I have no idea if this will be of any help, but I will take the āglass half fullā approach and say it canāt hurt, and just might help.
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Nuno? Please share if you hear any more about this
Personally Iām hopeful things will get rolling again soon, just gotta be patient
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SEF portal is now operational, accepting new applications. But Iām not sure if it is updated for the new regulationsā¦
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Hello, yes it is, just tested it. Although it is not yet updated with the new thresholds. But at least this are good news!
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Golden visas up 94% - The Portugal News 955 Golden visa up 94% in May hope they start working now 
to GOD
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I just received a marketing email from The Golden Portugal. Here is the text exactly (copied and pasted):
** Start of quote **
Good News!!
A lot of you may know that the SEF had stopped taking in new online applications submission from their portal from the beginning of this year, due to the changes of the regulations.
During this period, you can still add dependents, resubmit documents as requested and so on. But new applications via funds and property investment have stopped.
After a long five and a half months waiting, SEF has finally resumed their portal for online application submission!
Hooray!!!
Those clients who have been preparing for the application are just one button away from submission. Meaning, those who started the process in February and March and have everything by now, are right in front of the queue as if they had their applications submitted in January 2022!
And for some who were a bit worried about this need not to be anymore.
Kick start your application process now!
The earlier you start, the earlier you can submit your application, and the earlier you get your pre-approval and biometric appointment.
Itās a virtuous cycle!
** End of quote **
So I donāt know if this means that biometric appointment bookings have now also been re-started for those already pre-approved.
If true it is good news.
Anyone with more information do share please!
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Some good newsā¦
First time poster here. Long story short, late May 2022, I hired a US āinvestment advisoryā firm to help me pick an investment property (commission to be rebates back to me), paid them some good money. They claimed to be a āfiduciaryā and are SEC registered. About 2 weeks later the owner informs me that the ARI portal had been closed for 6 months, so I should make a donation or create 10 jobs (as if!). Claims he didnāt know it had been closed, but I donāt believe it. I had heard about SEF delays, but not about a total shut down of accepting applications, which to me indicates the program is for all practical purposes non-existent. He told me the portal is back open, but who knows how long, and I no longer trust the $&@#.
Anyways, is everyone still glad they made the investment given how unreliable SEF and the whole industry seems? Do you still feel itās a viable path? At this point Iām feeling I got scammed have no trust in the system or my āadvisors.ā To be fair, none of the firms I talked to mentioned the online portal closure, so maybe the whole industry is shady? Should I just be happy I only got taken for the advisory fee? Would you do it all over again? Please donāt tell me I should have researched more. I feel bad enough as is.
Thanks
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Absolutely if I had known how bad it was, I would not have made the investment. The realistic timeline to citizenship is clearly 10 years assuming anything ever gets moving again and Portugalās willingness to naturalize golden visas doesnāt change. Have friends now who are essentially blocked in naturalization process by requests for non-existent documents and a refusal to accept that the requests are impossible.
If you want to move to Portugal, get the D7. If you want an EU passport, consider some other program. Portugal is a lovely country, great to stay in, and their GV program looked very attractive on paper. Too bad it is a lie.
Consider yourself lucky you only lost some advisory fees!
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I agree but I think some of the problem is the marketing of the program. Most glossy brochures imply that you can get citizenship in 5 years. This is practically if not actually impossible. @portunhol is correct that it is closer to 10 years than 5 years. Heck, some people are waiting 3 years just to be approved. Of course, the execution of the program also leaves a lot to be desired.
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OK thatās not good. What kind of non-existent documents did they want for naturalisation?
(There is one baked in to the GV process, prove that your adult dependent children are not married, but Iāve been told an affidavit would be good enough to cover it)
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Does anyone know if appointments are open for renewals as well? Cheers.
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The one saving grace for me is that my investment in BPI Portugal (full of oil and gas companies, electricity generators, paper companies and food retailers) is easily my best-performing asset since I invested in Septemberā¦ 
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Hi, Carolyn - to answer your questions: (a) yes, we are still glad we made the investment, despite the SEF challenges. (b) yes, we still think it is a viable path for our goal. (c) Would we do it all over again - probably.
More broadly speaking:
- While we didnāt expect the specific issues that have arisen, I have spent several years of my career dealing with governmental bureaucracies in Europe, Asia, and Latin America (and even the U.S.), and have come to expect that nothing will be as straightforward as those hawking the program make it seem. So we are disappointed with - but not terribly surprised by - the delays.
- Given the recent turmoil in the U.S. stock markets, I must say Iām pretty hopeful that our VC fund investment in Portugal is doing a bit better at the moment.
- We got into this program to allow us to move to Europe in the next several years and not worry about visa and immigration issues as we get old. This is a long-term project and are still hopeful it will work for us in the long-term. If we had been in a position to move to Portugal now and spend at least half a year there each of the next five years, we might have done the D7 instead - but we werenāt and this was a viable option for us.
Just like nobodyās happy that the U.S. stock markets are in the tank, the smart money says āstay investedā. Weāre taking that same long-term value approach here, even as we experience the same frustrations as so many on this site.
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Do you know which non-existent documents they are requesting?
Iām in Portugal wondering if I should hold out until I can start the naturalisation process, but if they are insisting on having the āGV renewalsā up-to-date or something else out of my control then I may as well switch to the D7 visa now.
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