Congratulations vidur
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Can anyone tell me where exactly the Lisbon office for biometrics with SEF is? My lawyer just said ‘Lisbon’ when I asked.
What’s the best location to stay for such an appointment? Short stay Apartments are preferred (kids!) but hotels are fine too. Somewhere close by with easy travel to the office. Thanks
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Av. António Augusto de Aguiar 20
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Lisbon (near El Corte Ingles if there’s more than one.)
Metro and inexpensive Uber make it very easy to get to SEF. Just west of Parque Eduardo VII is a nice place to stay. The blue (Parque) or red lines (São Sebastão) get you to the SEF office so anywhere along those lines make it easy.
The Lisbon Metro is fantastic. If you stay nearby, I highly recommend “Coffee in Brew”. Great coffee and pasteis
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Lisbon is not a very big city and as mentioned by others ,it is very walkable, very easy to get around through Metro, Uber is very convenient and inexpensive. I suggest you could perhaps stay around the Baixa Chiado area, (note its very touristy especially at this time!) so that you can enjoy Lisbon too while you are here. The SEF office wont be more than 10-12 mins from this area and an uber will cost between 5-10 euros.
Its peak season at the moment, so we are staying in an Airbnb near the Timeout market and getting around is very easy. If you want to travel Via the metro to the SEF office the nearest station is Parque. Hope this helps.
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We did our biometrics in Lisbon last month and were also told we should have cards by end of the year.
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Told by who? I think that matters!
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Seriously, everyone dodging this question is driving me crazy
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The first card was issued 182 days after biometrics in 2021. Let’s see if they can speed up this year.
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Even before the pandemic, I was told by my lawyers that Lisbon offices typically take 6 to 8 months, while offices outside lisbon (such as Coimbra) will take considerably less time for final approval and card printing.
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I have dome my bio Coimbra in Feb 2022 i got my first card in hand July and Family in Aug 2022
They were very Fast
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From February to July and very fast!!
Incredible
I definitely recommend staying at a walking distance location. We stayed at an Airbnb which was 10 min. taxi drive from the SEF office. It was raining that morning so we called an UBER 45 min. before the appointment just in case however there were no cars available! After multiple UBER cancellations we got there with 20 min delay. If it wasn’t for our lawyer’s persuasive skills we would have been considered having missed the appointment which probably would mean adding 1 - 1.5 years to the overall timeline. It was a nightmare, I will definitely avoid it next time.
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Before the pandemic, getting an appointment was easy, you could pick and chose your convenient date and time. But the bottleneck was with card printing. Most people had received their cards 12 to 18 months after their appointments. When the pandemic hit, the bottleneck moved to the appointment stage so the time gap between the appointment to getting the card dropped down to even 4-6 weeks in some locations. Over the last one year, with the appointment backlog clearing up, the time gap between the appointment and card issuance again increased. From what I read in this forum for Lisbon I think we are looking at 6-9 months.
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Based on what I understand now, the cards are NOT printed by SEF but a private company in Lisbon. The steps are: 1) SEF Biometrics → 2) SEF Approval → 3) Applicant Payment → 4) SEF Checks Payment and ORDER Card Printing → 5) The Private Company Prints.
The actual last step (5) of card printing is super fast (a week) in all four cards in my case. For one of my cards, it’s (4) card ordering and the SEF office literally wasn’t doing anything for months after getting the money that was the problem.
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Small correction. In Portugal all “smart” documents identifying a person and incorporating an electronic chip – eg Portuguese electronic passport, citizen cards, driving licences & residence permits etc. are centrally printed at the Imprensa National Casa de Moedas (INEM) in Lisbon. The INEM is a merger of National Printing Office (Imprensa Nacional) with the Portuguese Mint (Casa da Moeda). Sensitive & confidential data. Not a private company, but a separate institution.
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Your attorney may have been lucky to get in at the time of your appt. In August 2022 when both I and spouse had appointments, we waited 30 minutes and 75 minutes respectively past appointment time before being called in. Having an appointment only seems to get you in the door and a number to be called when they are ready for you. My attorney thought it was great when we arrived that there were “only” 10 people ahead of us when we arrived at our appointment time.
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Dear Vidur,
Is their a large crowd at the Lisbon office. Does one have to stand in a queue outside to enter the office. I am told that the office opens at 10 am while applicants are asked to reach in advance to get a place in the queue.
Thanks
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