Guys, a question to those who received their final approval recently - how did you get your DUC generated? By yourself from the SEF portal? Or only possible via lawyer? How long is it valid for payment (from the point of approval)?
Haha! I know the feeling. We are all in this together buddy and hopefully this will push Lisbon SEF to catch up. The funny thing is, my lawyer had scheduled me, and my parents in Lisbon too, on consecutive days, but I changed to Porto on the portal, as we wanted it all to be done on the same day. This meant, my lawyer had to travel all the way from Lisbon, which wasn’t ideal for her. But, I had no idea this would make such a huge difference in the process.
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My lawyer generated it via the Portal and sent it to me.
It was valid for payment for about a week, and we had to wait 48 hours before payment. I couldn’t wait and ended up paying after 24 hours though, and hope that won’t cause any issues!
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Apparently they have started working on my application (July 2022 biometric) and I resubmitted the proof of fund investment from my bank. Hoping to get final approval in the coming weeks based on how long others reported after final requests from SEF.
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@jswik when did you receive this SEF request and when did you submit these updated documents?
I received the request on 20 April and submitted on 3 May.
I got the request May 26th and submitted the new document May 29th (bank was very quick). @rogergan68 has your approval not come through yet?
I am very lawyer dependent. I paid them the day I got notice I’d been approved, and got notice from them the following day that they’d paid… I guess I’ll know more if/when a card arrives!
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@jswik unfortunately no final approval yet. On 15 May, SEF requested a copy of my new passport as they discovered my old passport was declared lost (stolen at Barcelona airport a few months ago). My lawyer submitted notarized copy of my new passport on the same day.
Thanks for the update Andrew.
How did your wife manage to get a second appointment after missing her first? My husband is in a similar situation in that he missed his appointment, but our daughter hasn’t been invited for hers yet. So if there’s any tip you have for anything you did to get your wife a second shot at it when your daughter had hers, I’d love to hear it! Thanks.
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We were only able to get an appointment for her after my daughter’s first appointment was scheduled. My lawyers petitioned the SEF with proof of my daughter’s appointment (and circumstances under which the previous appointment was missed), and we received a positive reply after 20 odd days. My lawyers did tell me that this is rare.
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That’s good to know. Do you know how they petitioned - by email, letter or in person?
I haven’t seen any update from Faro applications. In 2022, it was the quickest one, that is why we selected Faro, but it looks like 2023 is not turning out that way!
By the way does anyone think there is any benefit in emailing SEF to follow up on applications? Not that they will reply but could it get them to look at your application quicker?
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They petitioned via email.
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Emailing to the general SEF contact email would not help, in my opinion.
When did you do biometrics? We did mid April in faro and are hoping for a card in the next few months
We did late Feb and haven’t heard anything yet.
Got my final approval from SEF Porto (early Jan 2023 biometric) 
But I have an unusual problem in that the DUC is not yet available on the portal. Is that normal? How long did you guys wait for the DUC generation?
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I never got that either.
It is only my lawyer that received email from SEF regional office (Algarve) for payment.
No status update on ARI portal either.
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Any 2022 Porto biometrics waiting for final approval ?
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Thanks. Do you recall how long did it take for SEF to generate DUC for you after the approval?
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