Hi Richard,
I did not get final approval. I’m still waiting. All I got was another request for documents after my biometrics. The first post-biometrics document request was in Jan 2023. That’s why I said in my post that I was not sure if it was worth noting or not. I thought it might be helpful for people to know that they were not just sitting on people’s applications in Lisbon.
My Lisbon biometrics was on Sept 22, 2022.
IMO things will start moving since most of them are probably back from vacation. I can’t comment on the timeline but believe we should see the 13-month timeline coming back shortly.
Regarding approvals relating to Real Estate, again IMO it should continue, but who knows 
All we can do is be optimistic and patient.
I am not considering a lawsuit until I am sure there is a need for one.
Received all of my cards now incl. dependants, so I will be officially moving to the Stage 5 thread 
Congrats. We’ll miss you. Don’t be a stranger to us in Stage 4!
Congratulations!
Wendy
Ha, ha, yes I agree with Chris. We will miss you and appreciate your support! 
Wendy
Great news Tommy! One part finished, and good luck on the rest of the journey! 
Congrats- Hopefully we will be soon behind you, still waiting on 2 dependents.
I received the final approval on July 17th, 2023, and paid the SEF fees on July 18th, 2023. However, despite these actions, I have yet to receive my card. My lawyer contacted SEF, and they informed her that the card has been issued almost one month ago but has not yet been sent.
Is there anyway to send an email to SEF to ask them speed up the process of sending my card? It’s been more than 70 days now from the day I paid the fees and I really need to travel as fast as possible.
Please anyone can advice me if I should send an email or do something else because it’s too much.
Hi Ahmed,
You can try to go to the SEF office that issued your approval and ask if they have the card held there for you. I have heard of this situation before where the card could not be mailed for some reason. SEF uses a separate agency to print the cards, not SEF itself. I don’t know the exact process and probably this won’t work, but it is worth a try . The good news is that if your card has already been issued then your timeline has begun already.
I just asked my lawyer how Faro was doing given our tracking sheet on this forum seems to indicate a 5-6 month post biometric processing time. She mentioned that none of their clients have gotten 5-6 months from Faro and they have a few… Not sure if our sheet is just biased in some way of the kinds of cases or if I just picked a really bad law firm
I think there is enough of a sample on our sheet for it to be a good indication. 4 unconnected primary applicants who all got their approval this summer after 5-6 months. Given they process roughly in chronological order I don’t see why this wouldn’t be a good indicator? Most likely, I’d guess, is that there were maybe missing docs with your lawyer’s clients that delayed their applications’ reviews? Or a tricky nationality? I don’t see why they’d be passed over to approve the other applicants faster, otherwise.
Possibly it’s now taken a bit longer given that final approvals slowed right down over the summer. If you look at the biometric appointment date for those not yet approved, and assume that say half update this spreadsheet and half don’t, then yes it looks like we’ve drifted to 6-7 months territory. Let’s see if any of those people get approved soon!
Praying 
I did biometrics with my wife April 12 in faro. I’ll report in for sure
Me, wife and daughter did biometrics early March in Faro, still no update!
Here are the latest final approvals granted by biometrics location & date (Reference: 19/09/23 crowdsourced database extract):
Good luck, Garrett. 
I’m right behind you with biometrics April 13th in Portimão and awaiting pre-approval on my husband submitted Jan 20, 2021!
Is there any positive example when the card was issued and not sent, that somebody in person came into SEF and received it? Even if we forget that it is almost impossible to meet personally without appointment.
Yes I did read about this once but I don’t remember the exact details or where I saw it . Most likely it was an unusual case .
Congrats, Tommy!
In a group I’m part of there’s someone who did biometrics in Coimbra on 15/02/23 who was approved recently. Tracking this one as it’s where I did mine!
Edited to correct typo - 02 not 12!