According to other sources, June 2022 is worse than December 2021 given that 6 months of applications were lodged in less than a week.
Regardless, there is a huge backlog which needs to be cleared. Processing times will only increase from here on and not decrease for applicants who applied after June 2022 unless the SEF gets itās shit together.
@kai.kiyoto another way to look at it is to think that had the SEF portal not closed, all these applicants anyway would have been in the system for processing had it been business as usual. There was no ārule changeā event driving a surge. The only difference now is that there is likely a big batch of applicants in June 2022, but it does cover the first half of 2022.
I think the timelines for those applying since mid-March 2023 will be a lot longer, as the volume of applicants has very likely picked up recently for obvious reasons.
Agreed. Also, both can be true. June had the demand from the first half of the year, but the demand may have been much lower than in 2021 due to the rule changes that made the real estate path far less appealing.
June 2022 could be 1/10th of Dec 2021 for all we know. There are certainly far fewer applicants from that time period on this forum. The unfortunate thing is that so many applications in any given month makes it hard to gauge SEFās progress, versus knowing āok SEF is working on March nowā.
Great news, congrats, I applied one day next you in application, letās us see how much longer.
My lawyer told me thereās a pre approval on 5/25 for 12/22/2021. On her hand there are three more cases, 23,24, and 27. Weāll see how that goesā¦
Youāve got to be close!
Very happy to read this. Wishing you a smooth rest of the process.
Well my turn to post my obligatory date of my GV application and take the expected long wait time to 1) stay healthy and alive and 2) absorb as much as I can in prepping to move a family of 3 to Portugal in a few years.
GV under my name, submitted April 26, 2023. My wife and mother submitted May 10, 2023. Fingerās crossed to get my pre-approval in the next 3-6 months. 
How many fingers do you have and how hard can you cross them?
Just to confirm you did apply for the Portuguese GV, right? If so, then sorry mate, itās not happening.
Maybe if you applied for some other countryās GV, then yes you could expect it in 3-6 months.
Hi that is good news and good luck with the document they are requiring. Would you be happy to share what your process number is? Our lawyer tells us my husbandās process number is 00108 and in the ARI portal the date indicated as submitted is 01/02/2022. Then the date stated for documentation having been submitted is April 27th, and then the real submission date was June 2022. Thank you 
Rae
Hi
Please could you let me know what the statutory form is for unmarried couples?
Thank you
Hi Nicky, It will depend on the country youāre from, so need to google around that and perhaps ācertificate of no impedimentā or āstatutory declarationā.
Ok thanks. One more question, if you sent apostilled documents on the initial application do you have to get them all redone for the preapproval if there is a big wait time between submission and preapproval?
All documents with expiry dates need to be valid at the time of biometrics. So eg. criminal records with apostille ā¦ yes.
For biometrics, yes. But not specifically for pre-approval (unless requested by SEF)
Yes ā applied before 12/27/21 ā still waiting
I applied on 23/12/2021 status still pending
Wow - I wasnāt made aware of this, nor the large window of time from submissions to pre-approvals. I feel a bit misled by my lawyer. Either I missed this in our detailed discussions of his explanation of timelines or it was missed or withheld. Either way reality is what it is. Retirement was about 2 years out anyways so I wasnāt in a rush but now Iām learning much more about this a bit late. So based on otherās submissions who are still waiting, I expect Iām going to have to redo most all the apostilled documents againā¦ If and when i ever get to biometrics. 
On the plus side, you wonāt have to redo the documents for quite a while!