Hi there,
If you have recently entered Portugal to do your first GV biometrics, what did you present at border control at Airport to show that you are not there for “non-essential travel??” (per restrictions listed on Portugal and US Consulate sites)
Thanks in advance!
Wouldn’t your lawyer be a better source of an answer for that?
Yes they would write me a letter to present – I was just curious to see who have successfully made it in PT (not many out there given the lockdowns obvioiusly) and if it was easy / difficult at border.
I read in a different thread that you have not yet submitted your GV application, yet you are worried about entry to Portugal for biometrics?
You are getting a little ahead of yourself. You have just a bit of time before you need to worry about biometrics… 
I have submitted : > And have an upcoming biometrics appt soon (although it can be cancelled as the specific SEF office remains closed due to COVID).
Ted,
ok. i misunderstood. Hope you can get an appointment faster than everyone else here.
That’s another long story LOL. My appointment is sadly at SEF Portimao, which is yet opened (most of SEFs are opening next week as you prob. already know).
It’s a little mind boggling that GV folks don’t have appointments assigned and seem low in priority… whereas for other visa types like D7, they are all being auto-assigned as we speak : <
In that case, what you need to do is have your lawyer write a letter and attach invitation from SEF for biometric interview. You should have zero problem getting across border and then you can chill in Algarve until your appointment comes up.
Yes, it is a pet peeve of mine that GV are not a priority. Even worse, it seems D7 get more preferential treatment for some reason. For a country that wants people to invest there, not really the smartest move to delay putting those people into the country… IMHO
When did you get you pre-approval from SEF?
In another thread, you asked “my lawyer also asked me to apostille whatever doc I end up using to provide my tax ID / SS”. Is that for bringing with you to your appointment at SEF? (I only heard that we only need to bring whatever we used to submit the application. The only new document we need to get is the FBI check + apostille.)
@anon16151502 thanks yes I was thinking similarly. I have never seen the “SEF invitation” myself since it’s though the lawyer’s login; but was asking them to attach a screenshot of my appointment.
It’s crazy right?! We (will) pay so much fees and they can’t allocate specific resources / slots for us? I admire the energy of the increasingly big D7 populations but yes from our perspective we deserve to at least have appointments assigned.
I think I was pre-approved back in May or something 2020. I hope we all finally get our appointments / biometrics no later than early 2022… That’s 2 years on top of the whole 5-7 year process LOL.
@wkb I think this Tax ID thing is a new requirement. It was NOT I believe there when I submitted my application last year. See this page and open any PDF for the bulleted list of docs needed and you will find it. https://imigrante.sef.pt/en/solicitar/residir/art90-a/
So my lawyer only started asking me for this less than 6 months ago and I wasn’t too happy.
I assume lawyer will upload the apostille doc to the SEF system and also bring it to the appointment (if I have it done in time). It seems that they aren’t 100% strict to have every piece of doc presented at biometrics and can be followed up later.
That’s interesting that you weren’t asked to provide SSN before because the bank we opened an account with also asked for it.
That would be great if you can update us what you have to bring to the appointment!
Yes re: bank – but bank didn’t require apostille…
Yeah I’d think any bank would require SSN for FACTA reporting… weird.
This thread has gone wildly off-topic.