June 2022 applicant here - longtime lurker, first time contributor.
This new status change has me a bit confused. The language (going off of Korionās translation above - thank you) is clear, but the response I received from my lawyer after enquiring is less so.
They shared a screenshot from the portal showing my status as āaguarda envioā (awaiting submission) but my lawyer described my application as āunder analysis,ā as it has been in the past. So clearly my status has changed but the lawyer doesnāt mention that there is any action required:
Your process is still in analysis by AIMA. You can see below the screen shot of today.
Kindly note that currently AIMA is analyzing processes of 2022, but we donāt know where they stand at the moment.
We are seeing some developments, but mostly to the processes that have a legal action against AIMA.
I do not receive communication from AIMA directly, so I rely my lawyer for updates but there never are any. It was this forum that informed me of the status changes, so I reached out to them. Should I be updating and resubmitting my documents despite my lawyer not mentioning it?
If the screenshot is definitely your profile (i.e. you see your personal information) then you absolutely should be collecting refreshed documents and having your lawyer certify and upload them for several reasons:
The e-mail I noted above says that if you donāt resubmit documents then your application will, at some point, be considered abandoned.
If your lawyer hits submit with the original and expired documents, then you will have to provide the refreshed documents at biometrics. In doing so, thereās some discussion that your application goes from being āonlineā to an in-person application. The net result, if accurate, is that you wind up paying ~2000 Euros more per person as the ~6000 Euro fee is the online fee which represents a 25% discount on the in-person fee
If you can get your documents submitted and biometrics before March when the AIMA fees are increased by inflation then you wind up saving some money as well
Iām not a lawyer but this is what Iāve gathered from all the information floating out there in the past week.
I suspect your lawyer was in auto-pilot when responding and perhaps once everyone is back from holidays next week information will start to align between lawyers and law firms.
Thanks for the warning. The screenshot is clearly my profile and I agree that the lawyerās response was probably rote, as they must get a lot of requests for updates. Iāll start the process of gathering refreshed documents.
Lastly, does anyone have any tips on acquiring fresh FBI background checks/apostilles from overseas? Last time I did this I was living in the U.S. Iāve tried fingerprinting at home on the special cards and it was not ideal.
I would ask them why they werenāt aware of week-old developments in AIMA world, when plenty of other firms were (and they also celebrated Christmas). Those āPlano de RecuperaĆ§Ć£o de PendĆŖncias ARIā emails were blasting out as early as Dec. 27th
You can apply the background check online from FBI website. Download the fingerprint form and go to the U.S. COOP in Lisbon. The U.S. COOP is located at the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon and offers fingerprint services for 63 Euros.
For other countries, follow the same approach and use an FBI approved fingerprint service to get the fingerprint done.
Mail the completed and signed (by the authority) fingerprint form to FBI.
In some cities there are apparently companies that will take electronic fingerprints and transmit them to the FBI, just like doing it in a US post office. I think there are places in London, Paris and Berlin that offer this, for example.
Ok got fingerprinting done here in Buenos Aires! One question though freaking me out last minute: on the Argentina US embassy site, it says:
The FBIās CJIS Division will authenticate U.S. Department of Justice Order 556-73 fingerprint search results for international requests by placing the FBI seal and signature of a Division official on the results, if requested at the time of submission. Documents prepared in this matter may then be sent to the U.S. Department of State by the requestor to obtain an apostille if necessary (Office of Authentications). Requests to authenticate previously processed results will not be accepted.
However I donāt see any way of requesting this on any of the FBI mail-in background check forms or fingerprint card! Anybody have experience with this? How the hell am I supposed to request this?? I would have thought you just make the request for the background check, and after it gets mailed to you, then you pay to get it apostilled at that point. Is that not how it works??
(*An apostille is a certification that a document has been ālegalizedā or āauthenticatedā by the issuing agency through a process in which various seals are placed on the document.)
The FBI will no longer place the FBI seal on U.S. Department of Justice Order 556-73 fingerprint search results. The FBI will authenticate all fingerprint search results by placing the FBI watermark and the signature of a division official on the results at the time of submission.
Therefore it seems the Embassyās website is out of date and there is no need to make the request (indeed as you point out there is no place on the form to make it).
The above seems to describe the form of report all of us who did the online version received: A form letter with a watermark and a facsimile signature. These were submitted to US State Department and apostille issued.
Is anyone getting a very different message from their lawyers, or is this new status change still generally nebulous across the board? This is what mine is telling me - I donāt want to act out of turn but I also donāt want to avoid taking action when I should:
AIMA is on the way of making some changes and so they changed the information in the Portal ARI. They changed the status to āaguarda envioā. However, they did not request us to add any new document.
However, as per the communications that AIMA released is still early to pass any information to the clients, we are studying the documents and making some questions.
Lisbon has been historically slow, but I think weāre in a new world now, and old wisdom may not be valid. Thereās been some suggestion that files are being passed around offices to speed things up, and the recent changes may throw everything up in the air. And it seems you probably wonāt have a choice of location anyway.
Iām still waiting to hear back from my actual lawyers (who I presume are waiting for further clarification), but this is roughly what I heard from Henley.
I asked our GV Advisor about this yesterday, and while it doesnāt apply to us (weāve already completed Bios) her thoughts are anyone pre-Bios should get their refreshed docs uploaded ASAP to get an appointment in the next few months.
Is your application processed after AIMA new change ?
As per information here, Appointment will be starting from 15 Jan with Leadtime 30-90 days , if i understand correctly .
Thank you, would also like to see what list of documents are currently listed, as we were given one which had all sorts of things we donāt remember doing (we applied Oct-Nov 2022 to a real estate refurbishment and nothing since then.). Thank you!