âTransferredâ is indeed the status upon final approval.
I see the same for myself and my dependants.
The DUCs for dependants are due to be issued only after the primary applicants pays his/her DUC and his/her own card is issued. This was explained in the final approval note from SEF that I got.
Do you know if I have to get the Marriage cetificate notarized and Apostilled or just Apostilled?
Just the apostille
Thanks Tommy,
In this case, is the status of the dependents updated to âTransferredâ as soon as they send the DUC to the primary applicant? I already have confirmation of receipt of DUC payment, but I dont think there is any way to track if and when the card is actually issues?
What i most perplexing is the status of my wife being shows as âTransferredâ, as she hasnât even had pre-approval yet, as she was added to the application much later.
@consultant2b my understanding is that status changes to âTransferredâ once the person is âfinal-approvedâ. So it looks like you and all your dependants have been final-approved.
The DUC issue is a follow-on item.
You (primary applicant) get your DUC first and pay, then wait for the card issue.
Upon your card issuance, the DUCs for dependants should appear on the portal for each dependant as available to generate. Then each dependant generates and pays their DUC, then they get their cards.
And the point that your wife seemed to have received pre-approval and final approval straight away on the same day is not surprising for SEF Porto 
They have been very customer-friendly lately 
Itâs amazing, I never realized how much impact the state in which you get married / have kids has.
Apparently Texas limits you to 10 birth certificates per lifetime. Crazy given that Portugal wants a fresh birth certificate for every renewal (and probably another for that renewalâs biometrics)!
Re: The Wife, Yes, that is indeed amusing and I am guessing is a human-error.
Donât think they would like to skip the biometrics, but like you said, maybe they are setting new standards in service delivery.
I would be very concerned the mistake will cause you headaches later, but maybe not rocking the boat is good
Adding mine to the database. Family of 4 - three of us were pre-approved in May/June 2022 (November 2021 application). Biometrics scheduled in Faro on 3rd March 2023. Still awaiting final approval/cards. My infant son (born in June 2022, and application submitted in July/August 2022) is yet to receive pre-approval 
Hi folks, does anyone know how long it normally takes for the âDUC paidâ status to be reflected on the SEF portal? 48 hours after payment?
Yes, I am in a dilemma too, my lawyers think we wait for the DUCâs to be issued for dependents and if we get one for her, we just pay, if we donât, we wait and watch.
Can anyone help answer what might be a daft questions. I received an email requesting I make the now increased payment before my residency permit is issued.
Obviously Iâm happy to receive it but Iâm puzzled how best to pay as all they provided is an IBAN without specific instructions how i identify itâs from me. I assume I include my application number as the reference on the payment but it seems a lot of people talk about paying on a DUC which I donât have and I canât see anywhere when I login to my application on the ARI portal.
Iâm flying solo as I parted with my lawyer at the start (another story) but despite getting access to the online application all email correspondence is still going to the ex lawyer. To their credit theyâve been very good at forwarding emails immediately so it hasnât been a problem. Consequently I received the forwarded email from SEF yesterday, Friday 16 June which was the same day on the original email, but whatâs confusing is itâs states I have to pay within a month, which is fine if itâs a month from the date of the email, but the wording of the email states that it was granted on 05/18/2023 which is more than a month before the email was sent. Common sense tells me the month must run from the date of the email notification but I was hoping I could have someone confirm this.
Given itâs the weekend Iâll probably go to the SEF office on Monday to ensure I donât make any stupid mistakes but in the meantime any useful comments would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
@crumbs.try-0g I feel your pain about the lawyer. Had to switch mine half-way but still had to pay that initial so-called âlawyerâ as I was too inexperienced agreeing the pre-payment terms. But lessons learned.
I am now with a different proper lawyer, but what I notice is that the SEF systems are wired towards the lawyer-based application. Sometimes you get smth direct from SEF, sometimes it just goes to your lawyer and you donât see nothing.
Which is the case with the final approval email notification.
It only goes to your lawyer (apparently).
Then the steps are as follows:
0. Lawyer receives the approval notification
Regarding IBAN - I am not sure who âprovided an IBANâ to you. The DUC itself does not have any IBAN, it has a reference number to be entered in your online banking in the Payments to the State section (âPagamentos â Estadoâ). I can only assume that you refer to your lawyerâs IBAN in case your lawyer wants to pay the DUC for you and obviously theyâd need to receive the money first from you (i.e. bank transfer from your own IBAN to your lawyerâs IBAN).
Hope this helps.
Nope I have access to the portal and nowhere is there anything to do with generating a DUC. In fact thereâs no change to what was there before receiving the email notification to pay. And the email was sent to the ex lawyer but she sent it to me immediately. Itâs was dated yesterday Friday 16 June. The email only states that I pay within one month and they provide an IBAN. Thatâs it. See the suitably redacted copy of the email.
This is weird.
Whatâs your status on the portal now? âTransferredâ?
Nope as I said nothing has changed to anything on the portal since before I got the email. Maybe itâs how they deal with it in PortimĂŁo? I donât know if itâs different between SEF locations? I guess Iâll have to go in there on Monday
To me it looks quite suspicious.
If you are final-approved, then your status on the portal should change to âTransferredâ (âTransferido SIISEFâ).
And you should see the DUC generation option once you click the Euro sign.
Could be a scam email for all we knowâŠ
Agreed. Does it mention your application number or anything that only SEF would know?
So I donât know if the process has changed in the last year, or varies between locations, but when I was approved through SEF Açores (approximately one year ago) I did not receive any âDUCâ, what my lawyers sent me was an approval notice with:
I looked under âtransfers to the stateâ on my bankâs website, and there was no option there to enter an IBAN, so I asked my lawyer if I should just use standard euro zone (SEPA) transfer, and they said yes, being sure to include my name and the NIE number in the description.
So I sent the transfer using the details
My lawyer also forwarded the payment confirmation to SEF.
26 days later, my lawyers received the residency card and forwarded it to me.
