I am extremely happy with my lawyer, Irina Akhmetova. I can wholeheartedly recommend her.
My timeline:
Application Oct 2021
Pre approval Feb 2022
Biometrics Jan 2023
4 Likes
Sorry to hear about your troubles - must be very frustrating!
My lawyer, Marina Sofia Andrade, has been generally very good in following through on all her promises and being there for us when needed. She had prior experience at SEF and seems to know internal workings of that agency. If you would like, I would be glad to put you in touch with her. Just FYI, I do have access to SEF portal in parallel with her to monitor the progress.
Hope your luck will turn soon.
2 Likes
Anyone who received pre-approval in mid-Nov but not yet invited to book a biometric appointment?
2 Likes
Iirc everyone up to December first 21 applicants should have been invited for biometrics, aside from some that missed their first appointment
Seems itās not the case. My GV application got pre-approval on 3 Feb 2021 but no invitation for biometrics so far.
1 Like
At least 1 other person in addition to @WesL Delay in biometrics appointment - #5 by meyerhenry6243.
Same here, waiting since pre-approval was done in March 2020.
1 Like
We have been very happy with our attorney, Catarina Sardinha at Dixcart. It is a small boutique multinational law firm with locations in Lisbon and Madeira. She has always been very reachable and responsive either through WhatsApp or email.
Our timeline:
Application submission ā December 15, 2021
Application approval for both myself and my wife February 9th /14th.
Now the wait for biometrics appointment.
This has been definitely an opportunity to improve my patience.
Cheers!
3 Likes
really hope that they stop the GV completely so that they have time to clean up the backlogs. Otherwise, they keep making fictional excuses that there are a lot of incoming GV applicants while they still could hand out cards to the 50k Ukrainians within weeks effortlessly.
2 Likes
Hello and Sorry to hear that.
My case is even worse compared to you as my pre-approval was in March 2020!! Almost 3 years and still waiting for the biometric appointment.
I did what you wanted to do. I changed my lawyer and with the new lawyer I submitted a court case against SEF in December 2022. No news yet!
Unfortunately I can not recommend any lawyer as most of them I faced are slow and unresponsive. I believe we should start another topic with whom you should not apply for GV!!
But you are not alone! I am in the same boat.
2 Likes
Iāve been told by the lawyer Iāve engaged to sue SEF that it takes three months to get the initial decison of the tribunal. So, hopefully youāll be hearing about the outcome of your case next month.
2 Likes
At this point, do we have any sense of why suing would NOT be successful, given that we know some cases have been?
Thanks.
1 Like
The question is if I lose something by suing the SEF?
Having been waiting for about 3 years for a biometric appointment, what else could I do? Even if the court approves what SEF has done, I do not lose anything. At least I will find out if I have to take my investment somewhere else rather than Portugal or I can keep my hope for a longer time.
This is not new, but you may take a look at if you didnāt.
3 Likes
Suing seems like an action of last resort, which makes sense in your case. I am cynical enough to expect a bad government agency will not get better when their hand is forced via lawsuit, so I would fear my renewals will be even worseā¦but SEF will be going away soon, so maybe I am being overly dramatic.
Good luck!
1 Like
I understand your decision. Not much choices we can do at the moment. Just be prepared mentally that this country is like that. Thatās why more than 2 millions of native Portuguese left their beautiful country and re-located to elsewhere to live. It has the reason itself. Recently I spoke to one of my local Portuguese friend, he told me it took him 5 months to book an appointment of Citizen Card for his son. Then it took another 3 months to receive the card. It is absurd as it is. A local guy had to spend that much of times to get the citizen card. Imagine, a foreigner in Portugal, Govt do not give a damn about investors. Once they take the money out of our wallet, deal is done. I have been living in Portugal for one year now. Itās tough for local people with this kind of attitude from Govt. People keeps talking about the dictatorship elsewhere, but to some extent the dictator is right here in this country and taking absolute control over its citizens. Pretty sad!
2 Likes
Thanks to all for the feedback. As I mentioned earlier, my lawyer is very unresponsive, and I canāt help but wonder if he has really helped me with the application (Yes, I know, I think too much). I just want to know about othersā experiences for reference. The email in the link is the only notification we have received so far from SEF regarding my application. Does it look similar to your case? It seems strange to me that there is no application number, and itās also not on SEFās letterhead. Itās simply not possible to have no application number in any dealing with the immigration department in my country.
1 Like
Thatās how the notifications look: it means that you have been pre-approved, and now you have to wait (however long) for your biometrics appointment. Mine looks identical to yours.
Good luck!
3 Likes
I am curious to know why you did not manage to book your biometric throughout 2021, back when it was āfree for allā rather than by invitation?
1 Like