Same with me. Approaching 1 year on march 15. Coimbra.
Card received today!
Continuing some updates:
One adult dependent finally received the card. Printed date on the card is Jan 2024 although the fee was paid in Nov 2023.
In conclusion: 3 years 10 months from the moment of submitting application to the moment of card in hand.
All members of family now have cards in hand. At least some progress has been made so far!
- GV application submitted: April 2020
- Pre-approval: June 2020
- 1st Biometric Appointment (missed due to Covid lockdown): Sept 2020
- 2nd Biometric Appointment: April 2023 (in SEF Porto)
- Final Approval: November 2023
- DUC received: same day with Final Approval, but needs to wait 48 hours until it comes in force. (fee for card issuance is: 5798,68Euros. Not sure it is more or less but I am not going to argue anything about it).
- Card received: Feb 2024 (date printed is Jan 2024)
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Quick update: we received my wifeās card today (dependant), which was paid only 2 weeks ago.
Meanwhile my card which was paid for in Nov 23 is still somewhere in the unknown.
Anyhow great to finally have something at hand.
4 years and 2 months since submitting the initial application.
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Happy to know that at least one of you has a card! Its been quite a journey!
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grats everyone!
On the plus side, if the new nationality law takes effect you can soon apply for citizenship. Assuming youāve already learned enough Portugueseā¦
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Intensive course at lusa will take care of that in a few months, sem problema
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Whoās got problema? sem me, thatās for sure
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We did our biometrics in Nov of 22 (porto). Still waiting for final approval.
Hi,
Our family did biometrics in Oct 2023 in Lisbon. We havenāt received anything from AIMA till date.
I am contemplating legal action. We got our appointments only after the court case against SEF.
Should I wait or go for legal action to get out residency cards?
Thanks,
V
Firstlyā¦ the next batch of approvals out of Lisbon (when they finally emerge) will be for people who did biometrics around August/September 2022. Mine was February 2023, and Iāve heard nothing yet. On that basis, youāre at least a year away from hearing anything.
Secondly, it rather depends why you want the cards. If itās for the purposes of regularising residence in Portugal, thatās one thing.
But if your purpose is citizenship, note that new amendments to the Nationality Act (see elsewhere in these forums) indicate that the five year clock will start not from when you receive your cards, but from when you āappliedā. Itās still unclear whether this means the date of your online application, or the date of your biometrics appointment. But in that case you gain nothing by forcing the issue of your cards - in fact you may end up paying more in renewal fees if you get the cards earlier.
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Thanks Chris. Makes sense.
The only problem is that without cards we canāt travel, and applying for schengen visa is a pain.
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If you need the visa to travel for reasons other than the minimum stay (which does not take effect until you receive your residence cards!), then absolutely sue. Itās the only way to get anything done, and youāll be waiting forever if you donāt.
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Well finally ! After waiting for over a year my attorney final received notification that my application was approved. A total of 541 days since the biometric appt.
Aug 29 , 2022 to Feb 21, 2024. Forgot to add that my biometrics were in Lisbon.
So the timeline (itās been so long that I had to look it up on my personal spreadsheet 
)
Application 5/16/21
Pre approval 7/8/21
Biometric 8/29/22 (Lisbon)
Final approval 2/21/24 (payment made, now the wait for the card begins)
So 2 years and 9 months.
Being the optimist that I am, Iām thinking I just saved the cost of an additional renewal, if the cards last 2 years at a time 
For those using Bison bank the āPayment to Stateā is located under the shopping cart icon (If only it were that easy).
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Where were your biometrics, Lisbon?
Yes Lisbon
Yes, I had to wade through the cobwebs to get to my record 
Cj is this your own tracker? this looks different from the Tkrunning tracker on this site
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A lawyer on a different group reports that two of his clients with Aug 2022 biometrics also received approvals
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Yes, Iām Lisbon bio, so created it for my own purposes, then decided to share the joy. Itās partly from Thomasās database, but mainly from people whoāve posted their details in the forums - only some have also contributed to the database.
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