Yes, my lawyer told me that dependants (family) applications have to be submitted after the main applicant documents are submitted and the SEF fee paid and receipt got. That process took 4 days and they submitted the documents of my family of 4 - wife and 3 kids after that
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I was asked to keep an updated one ready if requested (by my lawyer)
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And in the same issue of the Portugal News:
Government to try out 4 day working week
I guess all those diligent SEF officers will have to find somewhere else other than the office to sleep all day every Friday.
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Seriously, what a useless org. Iām hoping I get pre approval before biometric slots open again, Iām dec 7 which should make it, but nothing is moving, weāre barely even getting posts here.
Absolutely absurd. I hope every single SEF officer is fired when they transfer to the new immigration service
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Even Iām 7th Dec applicant and still waiting with patience after 10 monthsā¦I hope we get before Dec 7 
Given the bid and ask for the 4-day work week is working 4 days but completing all the work you would have done in a regular work week, seems like thereās plenty of room in SEF operational conduct to move to a 1-day work week with no discernible reduction in service. The future is bright!
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Finally got our pre-approval today. My application was submitted Dec 3rd, 2021, my wifeās Dec 7th, 2021, pre-approval received Oct 19, 2022. Now on to the next waiting period.
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For both of you, or just you?
Grats!
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For both of us. According to my lawyer, SEF notifies them of the next step, that we can book biometrics, on a quarterly basis. In other words, SEF will wait until all of the applications submitted in the last quarter of 2021 are reviewed and pre-approved before anyone from that quarter is notified of their biometrics. Since there were a glut of applications at the end of 2021 before the amount of qualifying fund investment increased from ā¬350,000 to ā¬500,000, I suspect itās going to be another 3+ months, before weāre able to book biometrics.
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Optimistic I see! Interesting, I think we suspected that but didnāt have any proof of any sort but Iām sure Iāll be corrected
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Congrats! And we are still waiting (application date - Dec 2, 2021)
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Though we understand there is a glut of applications in Dec 2021, still we donāt see the movement in approval wellā¦atleast from this group we donāt see much approvals as we used to see before. The speed is not there. Nov 21 applications approvals got over almost 45 days back and in last 45 days we are still in Dec 3. Besides, approvals are not following the orders of application datesā¦ so, if in 45 days they could progress till 3rd Dec applicants, we can imagine when can the get over with all Dec applicationsā¦Also assuming that the number of applications are more in the end sideā¦BUT IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY OUT FOR US OTHER THAN JUST WAITā¦BEST OF LUCK TO ALL DEC APPLICANTS.
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Latest from my lawyers when asked what dates are being pre approved:
Still very similar, namely the first two weeks of December, which was when a lot of applications started being submitted before the end of the year.
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No update here in the whole weekā¦anyone got approval this week?
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Been checking every day but nothing, dec 7 
Sorry, no good news to share.
Dec.3, 2021 applicant, still waiting
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Donāt know how to i interpret this on one hand this might declog and make it faster to get appointments and processing for those who are already applied and got approvals. On the other hand this could put a few things at risk. We will need to watch out the space.
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Restructuring of SEF to take place in 2023 - The Portugal News another news that is quite difficult to read the repercussions. In the past closure of SEF meant delays, confusion and very badly managed transition. Hopefully they will be able to do this more smoothly and we get better predictability from next year.
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