Thanks, Olga. And biometrics not required??
Some rare good news for this thread. We submitted an online renewal back in March during the brief window they were open (a spouse card that expired in Q1 24).
After a few months of AIMA claiming they couldn’t locate our payment, some claiming the online renewal opening was just a technical glitch, and bracing myself for legal action, the new card suddenly arrived at our lawyer’s office yesterday.
What does it all mean? Who knows? But the March online renewal worked, so wheels are turning slowly somewhere.
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There were standard renewals via personal visit with preliminary scheduling. They usually have been taking biometrics during doc submission
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Ok, so it looks the procedure is not integrated, as someone got a face-to-face submission followed by biometrics registration, while others got an automatic renewal without biometrics (?) during their technical pitfall. Apart from their unintended opening of the registration in March, we still don’t know any official proper procedure, right?
I recently met someone who works for AIMA. I explained my situation, which is: my residency card expired last month. I live full-time in Portugal, so this is a big deal for me, especially because there are 6 days left until the decree law of extension expires. I told him that my lawyer claims that the online renewal system for ARI visas has been closed for quite some time. Is there anything he can do to help me to arrange a renewal or appointment? He told me not to worry, he will help me, but first he must speak to his supervisor.
For the next several days I lived with a tiny glimmer of hope. When I next heard from him, yesterday, it was a text message that simply read (in Portuguese, which I speak well enough): log on to the ARI portal and follow the instructions for renewal. In other words, either his supervisor told him to brush me off or his supervisor has no idea what is going on.
But is he perhaps correct? Sadly. I’m one of those people whose lawyer absolutely refuses to share with me the login credentials to my ARI portal (Please do not advise me to demand my lawyer to share the logon credentials. I’ve been through this a million times, including here on this forum. It is not possible in my case, so please don’t offer advice on this).
My question here is, for people here who do have access to their ARI portal, has anyone been able to renew their residency or schedule an appointment online during April, May, or June 2024? Or, even if you don’t need to renew right now, would you do me the favor of logging on to your portal and seeing whether a renewal option even exists there? After all, this could be something very newly introduced.
I’m wondering whether there’s a difference between an individual’s ARI portal and the ones law firms use to access the accounts of hundreds of clients at the same time.
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I have access to my portal and its the same one my lawyers are using. There is an error message saying my residency type doesn’t allow auto renewals. This is the same message everyone else is getting.I check my portal daily 2-3 times a day. This is the exact message:
O título de residência que possui não permite a utilização da funcionalidade “renovação automática”. Para mais informações, o Centro de Contacto do SEF está ao seu dispor, todos os dias úteis, das 8:00 às 20:00 através dos números – 808 202 653 (rede fixa) ou 808 962 690 (rede móvel).
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From what I understood, automatic renewal is not in ARI platform, but it is on normal Sef platform. Please look at other old post. You actually can register an account yourself with your current resident card. I did mine and I am trying to auto-renew everyday. So far it is still not do-able for me because my card is expired in Q4 2024.
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Are you sure it’s AIMA ARI Portal (where physical appointments with AIMA are scheduled) that you have access to, not sef.pt (where auto renewals are ordered) ? Most GV applicants do not have access to AIMA ARI Portal hence he wants to know what renewals slots look like on AIMA ARI Portal.
Can you please share the link and the section from where you are trying to auto renew? On the normal ARI.SEF portal, I don’t see any renewal options. Only on SEF.PT and from there it’s giving the same error message.
I am on both the portals, and the options to renew is only on SEF.PT and not on ARI. SEF.PT..
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Yea. I am using the same site as yours. Mine also shows the same message. My card is going to expire in Q4. So i think it is too early for auto renew.
I seriously think what Lourenço was asking about was ARI Portal not sef.pt. What this AIMA employee suggested was to try to do something on ARI Portal, not sef.pt.
There is no option to auto renew on SEF.pt. I already sent the message from Ari portal (edited my last reply above )
Mine shows the same message and my card already expired in Q2. It’s not because it’s early, it’s because ARI is not supported for auto renewal.
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Can you text him back a screenshot with the red text showing renewal is not possible?
Tough!!! So no one from this forum with card expired in May June is able to do auto renewal. It might soon be another thread "lawsuit for renewal"
Yes, I am going to file a lawsuit for renewal.
I can agree that there is no express option to renew on the ARI portal. I suspect they mean the SEF.pt portal as others have said already contains an express renewal option. But it doesn’t allow renewals for GV.
It is possible that AIMA leadership does not realize that someone in the IT team did not load GV applicants to the renewal platform at sef.pt and GV applicants have been overlooked. Perhaps as someone mentioned you can text the screenshot and ask them about this error message?
I suggest someone with an expired card contact SEF IT directly and ask them to enable autorenewals for everyone.
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FWIW when our lawyer was able to do the online renewal in March it was through set.pt not the ARI portal