Automatic Online Renewal Procedure Jan 2023
This post describes the automatic online procedure for ARI renewals (golden visas) starting Jan 2023. It is fast, requires no documentation and is probably available for a limited time. There are a few things to be careful about, and this post attempts to consolidate the experience of the community so far.
- Eligibility: Despite the official notification about this procedure being open only for people whose cards expired in Q1 2023, people with expiries in 2022 have successfully obtained cards. So the only requirement in practice seems to be that you have an expired residence card.
- What you need: Expired card number, date of birth. No documents, biometrics, proofs of stay, investment, criminal check, etc. required at any time during this procedure. Your previous data is assumed to be valid and current.
- ARI portal should not be used: Please note that the ARI portal is completely different and not relevant for the Jan 2023 automatic online renewal process in any way. DO NOT use ari.sef.pt for renewal.
- Registration: You need to register at the SEF portal, with the expired card number, date of birth and an email address. (I repeat, this is a different system from the ARI portal, you need not use the same email address as used in ARI.)
- Expired permit number is the 9-letter alphanumeric code at the top right of the residence card, next to the words “TITULO DE RESIDENCIA”
- Date of birth should always be entered as DD/MM/YYYY, you may be confused if you are using Google translate on Chrome which will render date prompts as mm/dd/yyyy
- Email address format: Avoid using email addresses with funny characters. Periods in email addresses are fine, e.g. foo.bar@gmail.com is OK, but don’t use a ‘+’, e.g. foobar+son@gmail.com. There are reports of login failures with such emails, and you can’t re-register a different email address with the same details, so you’re effectively stuck pending manual SEF intervention.
- Family members: Each family member needs to register separately, with their own card number and a unique email address. Don’t attempt to use the same email address for all.
- After registration, you receive a confirmation email to be clicked to activate the registration.
- Renewal application: Once activated, login and go to Requests - Automatic Renewal. Enter expired card number, password. You will see a page with existing data SEF has on you from your previous card: name, marital status, NIF, address. You can update the address if needed. Note that this address will be printed on your new card AND it’s also the delivery address to which the new card will be sent. Typically people use their lawyers’ address here. Try to use a one-line address, some reports of trouble with 2-line addresses. People who are moving shortly and want to avail of duty-free shipping of their goods may want to consider their choice more carefully: Changing address on residency card
- Payment: Once you click confirm, you will immediately get the payment advice PDF (documento unico cobranca, DUC) for download. It is also sent to the registered mail address associated with the sef.pt account. It has a unique reference number which must be quoted while making payment. There is no payment portal as such; you can make the payment using ATMs or internet banking as “payments to the state”. (It is the same procedure one uses for paying taxes in Portugal after filing the model 3 tax form and getting a payment advice.) Pay 48 hours after receiving the DUC as it may take that long for the reference number to become active in the system. Your lawyer can also make these payments on your behalf, given the DUC.
- Status: You can keep logging in and checking the status of your application. Typically it will shuffle between “Awaiting payment”, “Processing request”, “Accepted - in instruction”, “Completed”. Once it hits “Completed”, it’s probably all done and your cards are printed, although the status may still keep fluctuating back and forth. Status fluctuations after hitting “Completed” once may be safely ignored.
- Delivery: Cards will be delivered by post. Even cards applied together and paid for together may be delivered a few days apart. All cards applied together will have the same date of renewal and a validity of 2 years, regardless of their previous expiry.
- Timelines: Applying for renewal takes a few minutes. Payment can be made 2 days after application. Status typically goes to “Completed” in about 2 weeks after payment, and delivery typically takes about 1-2 weeks after the status goes “Completed”, but has been known to be delayed beyond this. Lawyers say it can take up to 6 weeks from payment.