Congrats Garrett! I am glad to hear you had a positive experience!
Unfortunately, I have a Faro SEF nightmare to report.
I attended SEF Faro with my lawyer on 6th April. I had asked my lawyer if I should still attend, given the SEF strike, which I had found out about from a Nomad Gate post on another thread (I think), after the appointment had been scheduled.
My lawyer told me I should attend as there were no alternative appointments in the system. There was also no notification from SEF advising that I should not attend, and from all the horror stories here on Nomad Gate of applications disappearing into the ether when people try to reschedule, I knew I had no choice but to attend as scheduled. So I flew to Portugal, on my own, last Wednesday. (Husband was NOT called, under family reunification ā¦ but he couldnāt have flown anyway as he had an operation four days before I flew 
).
Like yourself, I stayed overnight, nearby ā¦ to make sure I would be at the SEF offices in plenty of time for my 2.30 appointment. I met my lawyer at 2pm and we made our way to the SEF āareaā, walking through the food court and other ācitizen service areasā as you described. At the SEF area, two members of SEF staff were at their desks and working. The other desks were empty with a photocopied sign on the partition glass saying āGreveā (strike) and some further info in Portuguese.
My lawyer approached one of the staff. I could immediately tell from the body language that my appointment was NOT going to happen. Lots of shaking of the SEF ladyās head and shrugging of her shoulders.
Eventually my lawyer came back over to me and told me that because of the strike, my appointment was not happening. Apparently, the two SEF staff were processing people for other Visa types - but didnāt work on my GV Type!
My lawyer asked if they would produce a letter to state that I had attended for the appointment, but that due to the strike, the appointment did not happen. The SEF lady refuses. My lawyer asks why not. The SEF lady says ā if I was not sitting here, you could not ask me that questionā. Unbelievable!!!
We left. My lawyer remarks on how calm I am. I say ā whatās the point in shouting and screaming about it. Is that going to change anything?ā She agreed it wouldnāt! She took me back to Faro airport and I flew home.
Donāt get me wrong - I am far from calm about whatās happened. In fact I am so mad, itās taken me a week to calm down sufficiently to post this update! I bent over backwards to expedite obtaining a new police report for this appointment, & got it notarised and apostilled - all on a priority basis. I booked expensive flights (due to short notice and the Easter Holiday period), as well as hotel and taxi costs etc. So the whole experience has cost me a lot of money and all for absolutely nothing as I 100% failed to achieve the objective - to be received and processed for my Biometrics appointment .
But more than my anger and frustration about last week, I am now REALLY , REALLY concerned about what will happen with my application. Will SEF realise that my appointment didnāt happen because of the strike, and will I get called again 
? If so, will it happen in the next 90 days, so that I can use the police certificate I have just gone to great lengths to obtain . Or of much greater concern ā¦. will my whole GV application now get āstuck /lostā in the system - like some of the really unfortunate nomad gaters I have read about, who couldnāt attend their appointments in 2020 due to COVID restrictions, and have never been invited again. Will I have to therefore sue SEF to get my application āunstuckā , and if so, how long do I wait until I judge my application has stalled in their system ?
I have so many questions right now, and absolutely no idea what the way forward will be.
