Awaiting Final Approval (Stage 4)

DUC has 7 days validity IF you can generate one.

I believe there is a known issue with the IT system at the moment - I’d expect your lawyer should be aware of that?

My lawyer is also having an issue about the DUC payment. She says due to the system error, they cant generate DUC reference.
I have been waiting since 20 days to pay my dependants residence card payment.

I just kept harassing my lawyer to in turn pester AIMA about the delay in issuing the DUC. My lawyer told me that sometimes there is a delay in being able to issue the DUC, as sometimes AIMA wants updated information even after the final approval. I was not asked for any additional information after final approval and I have no idea whether my lawyer pestering AIMA had any effect at all. As someone else pointed out, the clock for the 8 days to pay only starts ticking once the DUC is issued.

After I posted my message here, my lawyer informed me that, she managed to issue the DUC for my dependants and we can make the payment tomorrow. Another milestone, now next step we will be waiting for the cards.

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I dont have any words to say. I send the DUC amount to my lawyer once she told me that we can make the DUC payment for my dependants (from the updated amount €7724,30 per card), and I received the below email today.

ā€œHope this email finds you well.
We inform you that the DUC“s were not paid, everything was canceled because AIMA said that the values are wrong.
They say that they will resolve soon.
The amounts are actually cheaper.
I will update you as soon as I have news.ā€

Well in one hand I am happy because I will pay less, on the other hand, I have to wait more that I dont know for how long.

I am in the same boat trying to pay for dependent and was quoted 7724.30 euros - if you hear anything from your attorney please let me know and I will do same - seems like mass confusion at this time.

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Finally received my residence card! Although the back of my card reflects my lawyer’s address and not my own… Does this need to be corrected?

Timeline:
Applied: 2021/11/25
Pre-Approval: 2022/07/26
Biometric Appointment: 2023/02/09 (Lisbon)
Lawsuit Filed: 2024/07/31
Final Approval: 2025/01/30
Card Issued: 2025/03/04
Card received by lawyers: 2025/03/20
Card expires: 2027/03/04

My spouse (dependent) has yet to receive his final approval. His biometrics was on 2023/05/18 in Lisbon, which was about three months after mine.

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The interesting question is: when did you pay your DUC?

You may be eligible to apply for citizenship before doing a single renewal. :joy:

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I paid on 2025/01/31. I asked about applying for citizenship Nov. of 2026; however, our lawyers said at this point, citizenship applications are taking 1-2 years! I’ll most likely need to apply for a renewal… :disguised_face:

Ahh, that’s the DUC for the final card issuance fee. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that the clock starts ticking when you pay the initial analysis fee (about 10% of the final fee); that’s the date I was referring to.

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My final approval is 2025/01/27 but we didn’t file the lawsuit. Paid my DUC the next day. However, the lawyer hasn’t informed me about the card yet. I assume he’ll be receiving it soon?

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I was told by attorney today the fee ( for 2 year residency card) is back down to 6045.20 euros per person and not the 7724 Euro quoted earlier.

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Heyy, that is good news.
Happy to hear that.
I haven’t received any update from my lawyer yet but expecting soon.
Before It goes up again, I want to pay :joy:

Yes it is! He said he has to wait until last entry with higher fee expires in system before he can enter a new DUC payment. We shall see…

Finally, I received a notification from my friend in Lisbon that my Residency Card has arrived. I do not know exactly how many days it has spent in my mail box, and so I will use a good-faith estimate. Here are my dates:

Final Approval Received: 16 Jan 2025
DUC Paid: 17 Jan 2025 (6045,20 €)
Card Received: 17 Mar 2025 (estimate)
Card Validity: 25 Feb 2027, so two years
Investment Type: AR Investimento (printed on the card)

No information yet on when my wife’s application will be approved and her card issued. We are preparing again for a long haul…

Since I reside in Portugal and have changed my address to my apartment in Lisbon, AIMA used that information to forward my card. Hence if you have a valid address in Portugal on file with FinanƧas and no registered fiscal representative who is generally your attorney, it might be used as the destination for the card mailing.

Good luck to everyone, and don’t lose hope for the eventual success!

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Congrats! On the plus side, your first card expires AFTER you are eligible to apply for citizenship! (Well, knock on wood…)

One random question: did you notify AIMA of your address change, or is their IT advanced enough to grab your address from Portal das FinanƧas? If the former, then did you just fill out a form, or did you have to provide proof of address?

Congrats again!

Thank you for kind words - yes, I am knocking on wood every day! :slight_smile:

I did not notify AIMA of my address change. They must have gotten it from Portal das FinanƧas. That was impressive… until I realised that my card was issued with my wife’s NIF number on the back! Jolly good!!! How am I going to change it now???

Oh well, at least I have a card to flash at the border control next time I travel in and out of EU.

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:scream: :joy: If they do this to all the people who changed address on Portal das FinanƧas for NHR1.0 purposes, but are not actually living in Portugal to receive the cards, then it’s getting wild even by AIMA standards. Veep, PT AIMA edition perhaps?

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Well, I guess one out of two correct pieces of information (address and NIF) should deserve the praise for AIMA after all… And they even got my name correct! Three cheers for AIMA!!!

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