I thought it was 2+2+2.When did it change?
I am afraid the author of this article was mis-informed.
Initial GVs are all issued for 2 years, and then on renewal at least some of them are converted to āD2ā and issued for 3 years (with a D2 renewal fee as well).
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The job is to sell more GVs. I doubt the misinformed part 
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26 posts were merged into an existing topic: Best Portugal bank?
Has ANYONE heard of any pre-approvals in the past year? We filed March 2023. Nothing. Wondering if this is ānormalā within the abnormal/awful GV process? Any sign that any pre approvals being granted short of a hit/miss lawsuit?
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No, pre-approvals have been āpausedā at Dec. ā21 applications for more than a year. A lawsuit seems to be the only solution, though far from guaranteed.
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According to the database, only a handful of post June 2022 applicants have been preapproved, but I suspect they are all lawsuits. There are now quite a few H1 2022 applicants who are preapproved, so I imagine thatās where we are with non-lawsuit applicants. The focus does seem to have shifted to final approvals, as seen from the Stage 4 thread and also the database. As for a March 2023 applicant, Iād guess weāre a year away for preapproval.
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Iām March 2023 as well. According to some news reports, AIMA plans to resolve all pending cases by June 2025. I doubt that would happen thoughā¦ but hey we can dream 
At least our Citizenship clock is going. At this rate weāll be able to apply for citizenship on our first residency visa. In the mean time, weāre looking at spending a year in France on their long-stay visa while we wait on our Portuguese approval.
Are you absolutely certain of that?
No, itās still not confirmed whether it starts at online submission or biometrics.
If you want to be sure your citizenship clock is ticking and you havenāt done biometrics, you should probably consider a lawsuit.
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No. This is still just a hoped-for solution.
Speaking of, does anyone know if there are any signs that the language of the new law is getting close to being released?
I would only expect movement there after the current budget negotiations wrap up in Parliament. I think thatās the governmentās singular focus at the moment.
Itās worth noting that AIMAs practice currently is to count from the online appointment application date, and Iād be really surprised if that changes with the publication of the regulations.
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Appointment or application? Those are two very different things. What are your sources?
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Do you mean biometrics appointment date?
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Thomas posted a very thoughtful update today. I appreciate his insight into the political process.
One of the most frequently asked questions I see these days is the following:
āHas it been clarified yet when the clock starts ticking towards citizenship for Golden Visa investors?ā
You would think weād know by now. Unfortunately, itās still not entirely clear.
Letās look at where weāre at and why itās still not 100% certain.
So, to quickly recap the sequence of events:
- Early this year, one of the final acts of Portugalās previous government was to amend the citizenship law to start the clock towards citizenship not when you are issued your first residence card but rather when you apply for residency. Great news for everyone affected by all the application processing delays!
- However, the law isnāt specific to the Golden Visa program; it applies to any residence permit. The Golden Visa program is structured differently than other programs. The initial Golden Visa application is submitted through an online portal (typically by your lawyer), but itās also officially submitted again on paper during your biometrics appointment.
- While most lawyers think itās the earlier of these submissions that will count, some have cautioned that we still donāt know for sure.
- Itās expected that weāll know once the detailed regulations for the updated citizenship law have been published, something that should have happened early this summer according to the legal deadline.
So why havenāt the regulations been published yet?
Letās take a look at some critical context.
The PSD-led center-right coalition barely managed to form a government after an extremely close race in the March 10 elections. And while they spent the first few months in power doing their best to deal with the massive immigration backlog, they now have more pressing issues to deal with than publishing regulations for the previous governmentās laws.
I recently spoke to the legal service provider IAS, and their take was that the governmentās full focus is on passing its first budget. If they donāt get enough support from the opposition to pass a state budget this fall, weāll likely get the second snap election in Portugal in less than a year. And what Portugal needs now is political stability.
In other words, itās unlikely that weāll see regulations published for the new nationality law until after the budget (hopefully) has been passed.
The good news is that AIMA currently seems to consider the online application date when issuing the crucial CertidĆ£o de Contagem de Tempo document, which states how long youāve been a legal resident for your citizenship application.
A few months ago, IAS received confirmation from the relevant department of AIMA that this was indeed the case. They have since requested a CertidĆ£o de Contagem de Tempo for one of their clients and verified that the legal residency start date corresponded to the online application.
While AIMAās policy could still change if explicitly contradicted by the regulations, for now, it seems that any Golden Visa investors who submitted their initial application more than five years ago (and have received at least their first residence permit and learned a sufficient amount of Portuguese) can go ahead and apply for citizenship and most likely be approved.
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Excellent Guaro,excellent.
Thanks for this summary. Could you please post it in the thread dedicated to this topic?
https://community.nomadgate.com/t/wait-time-now-counts-toward-5-year-residency/
Also itās important to stress that until thereās a clear and public law/regulation on this for GVs, itās likely to be interpreted randomly at AIMA, like so many other things in this horrid process.
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https://www.gbnews.com/royal/harry-meghan-golden-visa-portugal-property-purchase
Well let us see what urgency proof is sought by the honorable administrative court of Lisbon if at all there is a need to file a lawsuit by them.