I paid my DUC the end of June and my lawyer got my card last week, printed on the 27th of July or so!
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Congrats, my understanding is that that was relatively quick? I paid my DUC at the beginning of June and have yet to receive my card.
That said, Iâm actually hoping whoever is assigned to process my card is on vacation all August, and maybe even September! After almost 4 years since we began this journey, we are now considering abandoning the GV as the proposed 10 year naturalization requirement will be untenable for us. If this gets confirmed in September then weâre out, and weâll save ourselves the dependent DUC fees. If not, weâll have to make a decision whether or not to continue to pay the Portuguese government thousands of Euros to stay in a process with absolutely no certainty what weâll be getting when.
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What about if itâs 10 years, but retaining the bit about from initial application date? Would you still abandon it?
@mgotuaco I imagine you are not alone in making this decision. I entered this process in 2019, paid my DUC in early June, and to this day have received no update regarding my card or my familyâs DUC.
If the 10-year period is indeed approved, I too will sell the property I purchased and move the funds out of Portugal. And if there are many others in a similar position, this could trigger a capital flight crisis for the country.
So my final timeline as follows:
Sept 30thâ21 application, (but not paid until Oct 7thâ21)
Pre approved Jan 31stâ22
Biometrics Jan 31stâ23 Lisbon
1st app DUC 16th Julyâ25 (Madeira)
1st app card received 12th Augâ25
2nd app DUC 9th Augâ25
No lawsuit.
Now we await my husbandâs card, and weâre done 
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Congratulations! My dates are almost identical to yours, but still no final approval for my wife. Even though we filed and won the lawsuit, it didnât seem to accelerate the process at all⌠
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If the waiting time to citizenship application is extended to 10 years, whether to cancel is a tougher call for sure. On the one hand, itâs important to note that the citizenship application and grant process will take at least 3-5 years given the backlog that is moving through the system, so even if you applied for PGV in late 2021 and youâre 4 years in, youâre still 9-11 years away from having the passport in hand (2034-2036).
On the other hand, will there be another low-cost (less than hundreds of thousands of Euro), minimal-presence option to securing a different Tier 1A EU passport in less than ten years from now? There currently isnât. Malta appears to have moved to a citizenship-by-subscription model, which may demand ongoing financial contributions and leave participants with few legal rights, so thatâs a non-starter. Serbia citizenship by exception is available now for a 350k-400k EUR donation, but Serbia may or may not be admitted into the EU within the next ten years.
Armenia is the last remaining low-cost, low-presence option, but this only works if youâre not a citizen of Turkey or Azerbaijan. While Armeniaâs chance of EU admission in the next ten years is non-zero, itâs not high given they just started working on the accession chapters and would need to disentangle from Russia. Plus Armenia is unlikely to become a top-tier passport immediately after EU accession anyway.
The big key for Portugal isnât just the timeline, but whether they will require more physical presence in order to naturalize. If physical presence beyond 7 days per year is required, then there would definitely be more expedient, more reliable, less tax-consequential ways to obtain a top-tier EU passport, most notably Ireland but potentially others depending on individualsâ tax structuring.
The other issue for Portugal is, now that immigration has become a political football, the risk of further adverse change in law is extremely high. So even if we get positive news in September, the risk doesnât end until you submit your citizenship application.
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When I made decision to apply for GV in Portugal, my daughter was not even two years old. She was the main reason I did this. I told myself that she would start school in Portugal. Now my daughter is going to second grade and I still havenât received my first residence card and my familyâs DUC has not been issued. Imagine if this happens in a year and we all get our cards. Assuming itâs possible that the Portuguese government sticks to its word and we can apply for a passport in ten years, by then my daughter will be 18 and probably wonât be considered dependent on me.
On paper, the conditions in Portugal may be better than other countries with similar program, which exactly was, and thatâs why I chose Portugal. But the problem is that we donât see any commitment to what they announced. There are no guarantees about the future either.
@Hippopotamousse How well have the other options you considered kept their promises?
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Lawyer emailed yesterday that theyâve received my residence card. As a dependent, it has taken 5 months (biometrics end of March 2025 in Lisboa) for card to arrive. Iâve updated the tracking database.
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Unfortunately, Armenia, Cyprus, and Serbia are out for me as they refuse to naturalize Turkish citizens without renunciation. I havenât heard negative feedback about these countriesâ current programs, though.
From previous years, Cyprusâs credibility was rather poor â some people got stuck for years, and some never received passports. Greece Golden Visa is somewhat backed up, but apparently still functioning; however, Greece apparently doesnât naturalize even if you meet the criteria on paper, which include physical presence.
So if you definitely want an EU passport and Portugal doesnât work out, itâs looking like physical presence is the only way unless youâre willing to pay for Maltaâs subscription service. Shortest routes including physical presence but without tax nightmares include: Ireland 5 years, Cyprus 4-8 years (if not Turkish citizen and depending on visa category), Albania 7 years (assuming EU induction by then), Serbia 4 years (if not Turkish citizen and assuming EU induction, which may not happen).
North Macedonia and Romania apparently naturalize after 8 years of residence, and Romania apparently has an accelerated naturalization process if you invest US$1 million, but I havenât checked these out in detail yet.
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7 months since paying the DUC and no card, despite chasing my lawyer about thisâŚ
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Iâm in the same situation as you and we also waited for 7 months. I called to inquire about the situation, but they were still analyzing it. The lawyer said there might be good news in September. Thereâs nothing else to do except wait.
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Got my final approval this week! 
Application: 23 November 2021
Pre-approval: 18 July 2022
Biometrics: 31 March 2023
Final Approval 25 August 2025
Now the wait begins for my card so we can complete the same steps for my spouse⌠
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Congrats! Approved in June and still waiting on bureaucratic incompetence for printing of the card. Starting week nine now..
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Have your received the DUC for your dependent?
Yes, my family and I paid the DUC on the same day.
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Did biometrics this year in January 2025 after having a positive outcome after filing a legal case last year. Despite having been told at the biometrics appointment that approval could be in 90 days, it is more than 8 months since biometrics and no news on our final approval.
Will be three years in March 2026 since the application was submitted.
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Same. But our resident cards came out april 2025. Did the biometrics in porto. 2 yr expiry.
Another example of AIMA randomness. @piggy gets cards in unheard of lightning speed (for AIMA anyway). @va.trade23 with basically the same conditions gets ignored for 8 months and counting.
And yet the government wants to revert back to counting citizenship years from residence card date, not application date. This example proves how unfair that would be.
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no they are notâŚ..