Thanks a lot for your message. I guess many people here appreciate it very much. Ourselves we donāt have access to the portal, and our lawyer is, guess what, on a vacation. Anyway, informed him and hoping for the best.
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Unfortunately, all the slots were taken in a matter of minutes 
You (or your lawyer) really need a script or something monitoring the calendar to have any chance of getting a slot now that there are just cancellations showing upā¦
I have a slightly different theory about all of this, but canāt confirm it as my lawyer controls my application on the SEF site. I suspect the site lacks CAPTCHAās (see CAPTCHA - Wikipedia for a description). These annoying little tests try to make sure there isnāt a ābotā running at the far end of the connection.
If, in fact there are no CAPTCHAās, itās possible for a programmer to build an automated solution that scans for available appointments regularly around the clock and alert someone when they are available. This isnāt an expensive proposition relative to the money involved in all these applications. If I controlled my own account, Iād probably have created such a program by now. Alas.
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Really appreciate this!
There are indeed no CAPTCHAs, and itās trivial to build a bot to monitor availabilities. Thatās how I discovered the appointments I shared above. The only annoyance is that youāll have to refresh the session (log in again) approximately every 24 hours.
Anyway, Iām expecting SEF to move away from this system sooner rather than later (which may be why they havenāt released any new appointments in several months), so probably it wonāt be worth building something thatās production-ready.
I recently completed my biometrics appointment. All good. My application was pre-approved several months ago, but I didnāt have time to travel until this month.
There are no guarantees, but a highly motivated applicant, who has access to the ARI scheduling site, can probably get an appointment within a few days on average. Certain computer skills are a big help for saving mouse clicks and reducing the wait for success, but I know with certainty that a motivated applicant can find appointments by hand.
I confirm the rumor that providing a fresh, apostilled background check, < 90 days old, is appreciated by the SEF official. It may expedite the issuance of the residence permit. My strategy was to order a new background check every six weeks, and send it out for an apostille immediately upon receipt, so that I always had a valid document in hand.
Hints: last minute appointments for the Azores are often dumped between 11 PM and midnight, Portugal time. Beware, you canāt cancel an appointment after midnight (i.e. on the same day).
A more diverse set of appointments may appear for a few minutes on Monday mid-morning, Portugal time, but they disappear fast so if you spot one, grab it quickly!
Good luck everyone! Donāt despair.
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I checked the ARI Portal, it now says āCandidatura Aceiteā, a 9-months wait. No appointments.
Does it show the 9 month wait?
My lawyer says they are still closed and will likely reopen in Octoberā¦
For whatever āreopenā means. I just got off a call with my lawyer. He has no idea what is actually going to happen or what āreopenā means and no one at SEF is saying.
Weāre leaving on saturday. It sucks because Iām sure something will start opening up the moment we leave - but how long can you sit around waiting for Godot the SEF agent at $1400/wk in airbnb/rental-car and further angering your cat?
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The SEF Facebook page has several statements about openings starting for different categories. Residence permits, extensions, etc. The statements are pretty terse, so I donāt know how much can be learned. Any change from a stopped system seems good though.
āThe Foreign and Border Service (SEF) clarifies that the vacancies to be made available from tomorrow are other legal types that are currently not subject to chronological ordination - granting residence permits, extension of residence, etc. ā¦
Bookings regarding expressions of interest for residence permits for 2017 and 2018 (Article 88) have been completed.
By the end of this week, the SEF will begin notification of citizens with expressions of interest in the first quarter of 2019. In this case, it will be the SEF to notify each of the citizens and, after an answer, it will be the Service to mark the scheduling in chronological order
Iām inclined to interpret that as they switching to more of a first-come first-served model for golden visa seekers, since it certainly hasnāt been āsubject to chronological ordinationā so far.
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An SEF post 10 hours ago says there are 5699 residence permit openings. Hope this is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Itās a nine-month wait for pre-approval.
āā¦not subject to chronological ordinationā¦ā which means itās not for ARIsā¦
Who the heck knows at this point.
Update: lawyer says nothingās actually changed so far as of this morning, announcement or no.
Surprise!
Maybe they are trying to manage the bad press theyāve been getting? Just PR.
Butā¦ it could lead to actionā¦!!!
My lawyer also confirmed. The SEF FB post was for other types of residency permits, not ARI.
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weāre tail end charlie, as always.
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It was true. 5699 openings, including ARI.
I thought Iād give it a try, the scheduling system opened a full monthsā worth of appointments for October at 18:30 (Central European Time), for all locations. The appointments for the full month of October was snatched up in a matter of, literally 80 seconds. I managed to move my hand to grab one two weeks from now.
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Yeah. My lawyer just called to say she got us an appointment too. Said the appointments were available for 9 minutes in total before they were gone. so they were open for 7 minutes before you got to it, apparently.
I am thinking that what happened here is that lawyers all just blind-booked spots for clients without asking ahead of time, and a bunch of folks are going to say ābut I canāt do that/are you kidding/you want me to fly to Portugal on one/two/three weeks noticeā and a bunch of appointments will end up getting cancelled and become available again, so the scraping and cycling will continue.
What absolute insanity.
So I guess we are staying another week. I was thinking my wife could just fly back on her own and it would be cheaper, but she doesnāt want to do that. Not that staying in Portugal is so horrible but you do get to missing home after a while, this isnāt exactly cheap, and 130ms round trip for internet access to work really sucks.
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