My attorney stated that AIMA is
aware of an issue and will be updating the status on the first of the month after payment. Unless I have some unique issue, that does not appear to be true based on some data posted here. I will report back if November 1 results in a status change.
My application payment was finally acknowledged after about 2 months on 11/3.
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Hello, all! My law firm, EDGE, submitted my Golden Visa application to AIMA on September 3rd after we painstakingly assembled all the required documents over the summer. At the same time, EDGE submitted the required application fee.
However, we’ve been waiting since that time on AIMA to acknowledge the fee has been received so that we can then submit the applications for my two dependents. Nearly three months have now passed with no acknowledgement from AIMA. Apparently this acknowledgement is sent manually instead of electronically - which I assume is in the form of a postal letter snail-mailed back to my law firm? EDGE says that this delay is in line with the delays they’ve seen in other applications.
Has anyone else seen this delay at the outset of their GV application? It’s of course frustrating, as my dependents have FBI checks that have to be apostilled in DC which are only good for three months and will have to be re-done soon - the third time they will have done the whole process.
Thank you!
Our lawyers were able to submit the dependents a week or two after the principal. I don’t know what sort of acknowledgement they got.
People have been waiting years for SEF and AIMA to respond at various stages of the process. If you expect AIMA to meet deadlines, you’ll probably be disappointed.
In my experience, a passive strategy is less successful than an active strategy. But it’s a balancing act. On one hand, “trust the system” doesn’t lead to timely success. Conversely, excessive stridency has gotten people ghosted by their law firms, which doesn’t improve things at all.
Useful tip: many times you’ll find an English-speaking security guard outside Portuguese offices where people line up for service (e.g. AIMA, SNS, AT). The guards are often helpful, and may provide you with practical hints about how to pursue your goal. Resolution may require time, patience, and determination.
Good luck!
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Hmm, my application was submitted after yours and though there was a glitch that required my law firm submitting payment a second time (they cancelled the first payment once it was clear it didn’t go through), once that was done, the status online was updated. Dependent applications and payments were allowed to be submitted and acknowledged digitally as well. You may want to press your law firm about that. You should also get credentials to the AIMA platform that allow you to log in and see where things are, independently.
My application was submitted about 50 days after yours. When the payment did not reflect on the AIMA portal for a few days, my lawyer asked me for the bank document confirming the payment. She forwarded this document to AIMA. A few days later the portal got updated. My dependent’s application could then be submitted - approx. 15 days after mine - early this month. We are now waiting for the dependent’s payment to reflect on the portal.
One theory about the updating of payments by AIMA (read on this forum itself) is that the payments are updated in batches and the most likely frequency is monthly. So I ask my lawyer to check tomorrow. I know that this does not explain the 3-month delay in your case.
Mine was submitted around the same time and finally acknowledged after 2 months. My dependents were submitted at the beginning of November and payment was acknowledged 2 weeks after submission.