Law can change, espescially when Russia starts using nuclear weapons. God knows what might happen in the future. If Ukrain has the citizenship by investment, all in 100k, I would be happy to spend 100k on that. 
No improvement in my case. Still waiting for the biometric after more than a year
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This is the third time I read somewhere Russia is going to use nuclear weapons today. If thatās so, the speed of biometrics appointments becomes less important. I should get busy and spend more time with loved ones.
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Totally agree
I am in the same boat, waiting over a year to schedule a biometrics appt. For those that are working with Mercan , please message me if you are interested in trying to recover your investment
I am not sure what Mercan promised you but the delays are not Mercanās fault. Patience is really needed at this point, although your message could serve as a cautionary tale for others thinking about applying for GV.
I understand that the delays are not Mercanās fault. But keep in mind that they are not simply facilitating the GV process, but rather also taking investments for their own interests. In doing so, they have to comply with certain regulations. I canāt go into further details publicly on this forum.
You do wonder whether any of the advertising any of these firms have been doing have put them into a spot where they can be considered as presenting false information. I realize of course itās probably a super-high bar, and really itās going to have required someone at whatever firm to have really screwed up on the disclaimers and such, but SEF making things as bad as they are, well ya know.
It would certainly be morally criminal now to be making claims to anyone that theyāll get a permit anytime inside of ā¦ what, 18 months? If you dare to offer any timeline at all? I wonder if anyoneās changed their advertising yet?
Letās be honest. Few are going to promote the gv as āhurryā¦sign up today and in 18 months you will be started on your journeyā¦ā. Thatās not a winning sales pitch. So anyone that is giving a timeline is going to be more aggressive (from what Iāve seen, its more like 6-9 months). You can verify this with a simple google query.
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I am still amazed to see agencies promoting as āget residency in 9 monthsāā¦ They used to be 6 and now adjusted to be 9 
; still keeping it under a yearā¦ Once the SEF budget is approved the pre-approval might be happening in 9 months
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how much does it cost if we place a google ad telling potential golden visa applicants the truth? we can crowdsource the fund and focus on the biggest market, like the US, China, Turkey, etc.
Whatās the point?
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because that is how we can put pressure on the lawyers/agents, who will then put pressure on the govt. is there a way for us to directly pressure the govt? clearly no.
Iām very skeptical that
- the community of upset people about this will raise more money than the lawyers/CBI services for ads
and
- The ads would prompt any additional action by anyone other than to be annoyed. From above discussion, it sounds like lawyers are agitating with the government and SEF already. Portugal is just slow sometimes
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I agree that google ad is not a plausible idea. what about a media campaign? suppose we set up facebook and twitter account that contains simple truth about the biometric appointment delay, and then we just @ and spread our information, create a hashtag, leave message below anything related to SEF, GV agents, GV lawyers, and Portuguese govt. this appears to be sth that we can do.
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I was actually told the whole process takes around 12 months (!!!) last September when I started the process with them. 
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There was already news coverage about Chinese investorsā limbo status in Portugalās GV program. And that was from 2016ā¦
In defence of the lawyers, many of them do not get paid until the final approval so they have āskin in the gameā so to speak and they certainly want the approvals to come through and to get paid. But in general I have found a very laissez faire attitude toward all of this. A lack of urgency even to get paid. I suspect its a cultural thing. As for pressuring the government to do anything, good luck with that. In some countries there are due process rights, and in this case it would be appropriate to file a lawsuit based on failure to process documents in accordance with the law and force the government to act. I donāt think it operates like that in Portugal so there are limited remedies available. I think you can look at this from a positive spin. Because there arenāt process rights enshrined in the law there is no expectation that things will or can move quickly and people just accept their fate and go on with their slow pace of live. It almost begs ones to slow down and enjoy life because, what else can you do? I see people here complaining about the speed of their pre-approval even though it is well documented now that the process is 4-5 months but after 3 months people get anxious. I certainly understand but it might benefit us to take a step back and appreciate each day of our lives.
Circling back to the original query, the best way to put pressure on the government is by putting pressure on the lawyers and the promoters of the GV. If you are starting down this process and just reading this and they are advertising 9 or 12 months to complete the GV process, have them enshrine this timeline into the contract. Make sure that they donāt get paid until you get a card in your hand. As I stated above, I donāt think this will make a huge difference but at least it shifts the burden onto to someone else and gives you a basis to argue your case if things get delayed.
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Lawyers get paid BEFORE investors get final approval. Are we living in the same worldļ¼If you do not pay lawyers they wonāt start the process for you.
That was a different problem.
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