I would just apply for the HK police clearance straightaway and get it sent to PT (to your lawyer or SEF as the case may be). And make sure your lawyer keeps applying for those extensions until the police clearance reaches SEF. I donāt see any other way out. Ask your lawyer what will be the situation with your application if the clearance does take 3 months.
It really DOES take that long. The process is incredibly involved. I have to give a POA to a lawyer in Macau who takes it to the macau consulate who then issues me a form which I have to fill in and return, after which the Macau consulate issues me the letter which is essential to get an appointment at the police in HK. Then I have to get an appointment (we just booked the earliest available as soon as we got out of the SEF - for last day of February!). Then we go to the appointment (MUST be in person, in HK) and then a few weeks later they issue the clearance which has to be sent to Macau who certify it and send it back to us in HK - and then we courier to Portugal. Thatās assume the Macau consulate is running right now due to covid (which is hitting Macau for the first time at the moment). Because HK does NOT have a portugese consulate - this is why we have to keep going to Macau, which is a different country!
You are experiencing the portuguese reality. It is exactly what youāve described. The consistency between Sefās offices is zero. One district might require one set of documents. Other district might require a completely different set of documents. It varies a lot from district to district and city to city, and from a specific person on a specific day 
.
However, no need to panic. Although they give you 10 days, I remember someone here in this forum missed that deadline for months. He only actually found out because he lawyer contacted SEF and SEF said that they sent a letter asking him to resubmit police clearance, but he never received that email from Sef. Then he resubmitted and Sef still accepted it and his case has gone thru. So just provide them the document as soon as you can, they might still consider it.
I donāt think this is true.
They all follow the same internal SEF ARI Manual which was posted on this forum multiple times and describes the requirements in some detail. Thatās on top of the ARI SEF portal where they have requirements posted for applicants in PDF.
So if you just follow these official requirements and prepare everything to the letter, you cannot go wrong.
The only difference then will be that some SEF clerks enforce ALL documents to the letter, while some others may be more relaxed and accept some older versions.
Totally relying on a lawyer without reading at least once the official requirements by yourself is never a good idea.
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Here goes my report:
Had my appt. in Porto, GV + family, all went very smoothly, took roughly 20 min each from start to finish including the wait in the queue etc.
I had no prior appointment with my lawyer, we all just arrived with our sets of documents, the lawyer gave us a few forms to sign, grabbed everything and went in to submit.
Then fingerpints/photos taken for everyone, cards paid for and thatās it, boa tarde.
Nothing unusual to report other than I was asked to pay the card issuing fee on the spot (did not expect that but duly paid by a PT debit card).
Also I would recommend checking the documents returned to you after the appointment before leaving the site. I checked and found a few docs not taken, so the lawyer went in again and re-submitted the docs as those were among the āmandatoryā.
Was told SEF forgot to take them on the first attempt.
Good luck everyone.
UPD: in case anyone wonders, the SEF clerk spoke English with me and was very friendly, but I am sure it is still helpful to have a lawyer by your side 
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How much was the card issuing fee.
This is a total law office failure by your lawyer. There are no two ways about it. Every document that is submitted to SEF as a period of validity (e.g. 3 months for criminal background, 6 months for marriage certificate). This is not specific to the Faro office, it applies to all SEF offices. Also, I would assume that even if the person in Faro did not ask for any expired updated documents except for the criminal background check, that your residency card will not be processed until all documents are brought up to date.
I will give you the language that my lawyer sent to me in advance of my biometric appointment as an example of what your lawyer should have done:
"I take this opportunity to outline below the documents and their relevant legalizations that will be required for the biometric appointments . . .
- Criminal Record duly apostilled by the Hague Convention, issued in the country where you have been living during the previous year. Please note that the criminal records are only valid for 3 months for Golden Visa purposes and all the remaining documents must be submitted within the validity of the criminal records;
- Birth Certificate - duly apostilled by the Hague Convention. Please note that this document cannot be more than 6 months old by the time of its submission before the Immigration Office;
- Copy of your Tax Number duly apostilled by the Hague Convention, issued in the country of your nationality, residency or tax residency. Please see attached one sample.
My lawyer then outlined the documents that would be required for my wife and parents.
Your lawyer is incompetent.
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The card issuance fee is EUR25.31 (per card)
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I know what you mean. Obviously all rules are stated clearly beforehand on ARI portal. However the question of applying all listed rules or only some of the listed rules is very dependent from each Sef. This is the āconsistencyā problem of Sef, which is exactly I have mentioned about.
If they could keep their consistency with all rules they have set from the first stage, then we would not have to wait for years just for a biometric appointment. Or maybe, their consistency means being consistenly inconsistent with the rules. So we can learn from that. .
If one could prepare all documents to the fullest level, then it would not be a problem. But he/she must first and formost trust the words of the lawyers. Only until the lawyer fails, then we have re-evaluate the situation ourself.
I was worried keeping all of my boarding pass for the Biometric (Feb 2022), but no one asked me about it. Now I have card in my hand, but still keep all boarding passes safe. God knows if they might ask again later in the future. Never can be sure 100%.
One extra note regarding the Social Security declarations of āno debtā or āno record at allā.
As was previously discussed these are mandatory, and there are two ways to obtain them:
- a PoA to your lawyer, or
- a DIY in-person appointment at a Seguranca Social office.
Depending on the timing/location of your appointment and the swiftness of your lawyers you may miss option 1, in which case do not despare but book yourself an appointment on the phone:
They speak English too.
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With respect, we pay a fortune for lawyers PRECISELY to avoid having to do it oneself! But I do agree mine has clearly failed. If he tries to charge me extra for this Faro trip I will start to push back. All this information in the last few posts has been really helpful in that. Thanks.
I completely agree with Tommigun. The SEF offices are largely consistent in their application of the requirements. I had biometrics in Lisbon and my lawyer was very clear that updated police report is required.
Itās such a strange situation. In the United States where I live you can completely rely on your lawyer and it is very rare they make mistakes or lie. (In fact, even one case of lying to a client, you can lose your license) There is also a fiduciary duty so the lawyer in the US is obligated to put your interests first and cannot have conflicts of interest. After you read many of these anecdotes over and over on this forum, you can understand why that distinction is SO important.
Yeah, after all itās just like everything else in life.
You hire someone to do the work for you alright, but you still need to deal with the requirements and the outcome yourself. In that sense lawyers are no different to any other profession.
How much you dive in really depends on a lot of things, but it is important to take a balanced approach.
You outsource too much - the risk of crappy outcome becomes too high.
You outsource too little - you get too tired and end up wondering why you hired them in the first place.
Hence my recommendation is always to check at least the official sources that would not consume a lot of personal effort.
P.S. I personally had to change the lawyer on my GV case as the initial one was a total goof to say politelyā¦
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By the way No debt can also be downloaded online. It is easy.
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For what itās worth, my lawyers told me that the 10 day deadline can be extended as many times as you need, the lawyer just needs to ask for it. In my case, we did not need any extensions, but my lawyers said it was a very common thing to do.
On your home country Tax ID official document, did this need to be apostilled or translated to Portuguese and notarized? Thanks.
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did you have to redo all your documents to be within expiry limits or did they not ask you for those?
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I see many of applicant got an biometric appointment which makes me happy.
I got no invitation and still waiting. I know one applicant exactly similar to myself.
By the way, is there anyone with the same experience? Pre-approval in 2020 and still waiting for biometric appointment? My case pre-approved in March 2020.
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My family and I were pre-approved June 2020.
Only me (main applicant) and one family member have done the Biometric and got cards in hand.
Others are still waiting for Biometric.