I am curious about one thing. I understand everyone is able to get appointments the coming month. Although how is everyone arranging for a latest background checks apostilled/translated in such short notice.
Well done!!! So jealous!
But good news, they are openingā¦!
Is there any expectation that SEF will release another appointment block each month going forward? Or does everyone basically have to continue to badger their lawyers to be vigilant for openings?
You just need to have one valid within 90 days and take it to your biometrics appointment. Some of us are having one done every 90 days.
Yes, apparently, it opened up for 7 mins. I happen to be in front of the Portal for the last 2 mins.
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No one has a fāin clue WTF is going on. Basically though I imagine it is just ābe vigilantā. I mean really, when 5000 appointments appear and then disappear in a few minutes, you kinda gotta be vigilant to hit that window, no?
You donāt really need to have one thatās valid - you can go with the one that was originally filed, itās just that the visa issuance will be held up until you provide a current one. All my wifeās paperwork is out of date now, sheās going to have to re-do it when we get back. SEF understands that the time between application submission and appointment has gotten out of hand and that the normal systems for all governments are gummed up at this point.
What an utter disaster. On average, a GV applicant transfers 500K EURs into the country, executes his investment, and then its too much for such an applicant to expect a little bit of consideration from the Government / SEF. ? We have been left out in the lurch, for sake of a a simple procedural step.
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Those under article 88 applying for employment-based residence demonstrated on the street in Aug, their leader met the countryās president, and they got SEF to change their scheduling to chronological order. ARI (article 90-A) applicants have two disadvantages : we are outside the country; 99% of us go through lawyers, who will never be as motivated/frustrated as the applicants.
There arenāt very many of us anyway and we arenāt organized. And can you really imagine the lawyers all going out in the street and protesting?
In truth I think a lot of people simply donāt care. They made an investment which they feel will pay off in time - I imagine most purchases of houses, the person is not planning to flip it in 6 years plus a day, so what does it matter. Hell, Iām not really that concerned about it either - I made investments in funds that I expect to pay off in time, and if they do achieve the advertised rate of return Iām just going to leave the money there anyway. And in practice once you have a pre-approval, you can get in the country and the rest is just administrative crap that your lawyer can deal with, so if you are in say some country where you might want to leave quickly you can still do that. So itās an irritant but thatās all.
I realize that none of this represents the dominant line of thought of this board but I imagine that this board does not represent the broader community of applicants.
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I think you are right for most people who do not need a visa to visit Schengen territory. However if you do (and according to the stats most applicants of GV do), then you would really be impatient to get your hands on the residence card which allows you to travel freely within Schengen territory. In such case, without a Schengen visa you canāt even go to Portugal even if your application is accepted.
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Just got a text from the lawyers. They managed to get us 3 of 4 sits for November today.
Congrats - why do you think these slots were available today? Wondering if these are already cancelled slots from yesterday?
As I can conclude from what Iāve read and heard last two days, yesterday there was a set of slots released for October, and todayās set was for November. But thatās solely my conclusions.
A poll: Have you got SEF appointment during the Sept 24/25 āgrand re-openingā of slots for Oct and Nov?
- Yes
- NO
0 voters
Total 2,952 slots have been released for ARI this round, according to media. approx. the total slots for Oct and Nov.
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source for this?
A friend in Lisbon read in local media today. I did not ask for details.
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Here is the quote of 2,952 for ARI.
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