You should look up SEFās emails on their official website, they are all in there except IT I believe.
Thank you for posting. If I have read the article correctly, the new fees are effective immediately, as of October 13th, 2023. There appears to be no āgrace periodā.
Very disappointing!
It could explain why there have been no approvals in the last couple of months - they may have been holding them to get higher fees.
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I am afraid you are absolutely correct! I will raise this question with my lawyer, thought I doubt anything she could do in this situation.
Iām curious as to when we are required to pay the card issuance fee? As they are increasing the issuance fees by 30%, I guess my question is, is there any way to pay the fee before the 29th October fee hike? I had my biometrics in Jan 23 in Lisbon, so I would imagine Iāve got another couple of months before they actually issue my card. Iām just damned if Iām paying the extra fee when my processing time will probably end up as 2.5 years.
I feel the same way. Specifically, people who applied for it as the same time as us but got their approval already and paid the lower fees. We should not be penalized as we got our biometrics done at Lisbon and it is taking longer. I wouldnāt even be surprised if the delay is because the SEF knew about the increase. I will at some point ask my lawyer about it. You must too and tell them that you refuse to pay the higher amount for the fault of the SEF when others who applied at the same time paid the lower amount as their biometrics was from a place other than Lisbon. I am not expecting my approval till at least end Feb early March of next year. At which point I sm going to go to Portugal and ask my lawyers and challenge them to take action. If not I may not go through with the GV card. Will travel there for 3 months if need be and stay out for 180 days and go back in. I have had it with these guys. Never know when they could/shaft us again and keep gouging us asking for more money during the renewal. With NHR and everything else that they are backing off of from. This was definitely not the deal that I signed up for at the time of applying for GV. If they can do this to us during the process, imagine what could be constantly trickling down at every phase of our journey of the GV. Whether it be renewal or final citizenship. They seem to want squeeze us at every phase. What is to stop them if tomorrow they say sorry no NHR even if you were on it? Sorry am voicing my frustration but I have had it with their gimmicks and constant demonizing of the GV applicants.
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I tend to agree that the levels of bait and switch are just getting more bold and brazen - even if we escaped the worst of the terms in the initial draft of Mas Habitacionā¦ And the times are getting longer and longer with almost no end in sight - some people can get US citizenship faster 
and at least the process is predictable.
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I would have sold my property and left. However, the Euro has devalued by approx 15% from the time I bought my property. Note I didnāt say invested as we really were excited to move to Portugal in a few years. We still love the people and the place. Just donāt trust the present political situation. Need to wait and see. Unless a large number of people push back on no increase for people who have applied before the new price, they will keep squeezing us. I am definitely going to push back. But history has proven that there wonāt be many people pushing back.
I wrote to my lawyer about the delay in getting final approval for applicants who have done their biometrics in Lisbon.
The lawyer mentioned that Lisbon SEF is still reviewing August 2022 cases.
I notice that while pre approvals and appointments are being given, for some reason there seems to be a complete stop in issuing final approvals.
Do we need to all start writing to SEF Lisbon.
I predict citizenship processing fees for GV holders will skyrocket in 4-5 years or so, just in time for 2021 applicants (of whom there are dozens) to start thinking of applying.
āThat will be 100k EUR!ā
Mike, what you are suggesting here is that you would punish yourself if SEF does not reduce their fees.
I would not recommend doing that out of sheer frustration.
I am afraid there are exceptionally very few places in this world where government bureaucrats can be bothered by ālosing a customerā. In fact I am not aware of any, do you?
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I recommend:
- contacting SEF Lisbon directly plus via your lawyer with escalated request to issue your card as 90 days passed.
- finding your ālocal MPā and complaining to them (in writing, then in person) with the copy of your letters to SEF
- finding your local head of administration and doing the same thing as with MP
Couple of suggestions (not that Iāve done any of this yet in Portugal, butā¦):
- get your employer to sponsor you and expense it
- if not employed, put this through your own companyās business expenses
Thanks for provoking the thought.
I have thought through this carefully. If I was timid I could be labeled as āpunishing myselfā. My actions have nothing to do with how any government agency thinks or reacts. It is purely my position and analysis on action I need to take to protect myself. I have couple of points;
- I think it is my right to fight for the lower fees as a matter of principle. The thought is the ones who provided their biometrics at Lisbon are unfairly having to pay the higher fees due to SEF delays. I had submitted my application through my lawyer in November 2021. People who applied during the same time and had biometrics done in other cities/towns have got their cards already. I am willing to go to court for it. Even though the court fees etc. may turn out to be higher. Somebody has to do the dirty work and give our rights a fighting chance. As I had mentioned earlier, history has shown that there are not many who will follow this route.
- In my situation I am surely not punishing myself. I am informed enough to know that most government agencies donāt care a hoot about individuals (that is why there is something called collective bargaining). On the contrary, I donāt think I should punish myself and my wife by paying something close to Euro 15,600 for a card that will need renewal in 2 years when another Euro 7,000 odd will be due. That is if we are allowed to renew due to the new rules about real estate investments. All this money is being paid in spite of all the agony we had to go through about trying to get appointments for the biometrics, waiting and further waiting with no clue about how the laws would change. Added to that with the NHR situation even though I have one already, who is to say it would not be revoked in a couple of years (as someone said that you canāt trust the government and you pointed out that they donāt care about us customers).
- Most of us who had applied for a GV were people who wanted the residency without the restrictions of having to live in Portugal for extended periods of time. Along with that take advantage of the tax rules (NHR). If not we would have applied for the D7. With the length of time that the GV has taken, we are anyway approaching retirement age. So if we really want to spend 181 days in a year in Portugal we might as well go for the D7 without this ridiculous fees. 4) Considering the risk reward. For us the cost for so much uncertainty with rule changes on the fly is not worth the monies, taxes etc. There are cheaper options.
Again this is analysis and actions that we intend to take based on our situation. Another 25,000 Euros for the cards and renewals etc. with all the uncertainty is in my analysis, pushing us to the ānot worth itā bucket. Who knows in the future the agencies could also say no Citizenship for the people who came the GV route. After all these agencies donāt care about us. That is a fact even mentioned by you.
Once again thanks for provoking the thought that I might be punishing myself. Each one needs to analyze their situation and take action. I would say there are better options with less uncertainty.
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Sure, if you have other options thatād work better for you than GV - then thereās no āpunishmentā.
I was just suggesting a more cautious approach as I did not know what you wanted to do instead of GV.
In my view, simply abandoning GV just because of a hike in fees would not make any sense.
We had another gentleman here who I believe abandoned his GV just before the final approval, because he could not bear the wait any longerā¦ Sad storyā¦
Sure totally get it. Thanks for the concern and thought.
It will be crucial to see if and when the next final approval comes now that the law is passed. If we dont see any for some time, it means they have put it on hold until their are further clarifications.