@anonymous69
Thanks for your reply and information, Is it possible to book appointment just to be on safe side, if the auto renewal doesn’t open so the appointment will be already booked.
“We are now entering the month of October with a great acceleration in relation to family reunification processes”, said Pedro Portugal Gaspar, in an interview with Lusa.
This type of process has not been transferred to the mission structure that is resolving pending processes and is “an area in which we will move forward”, with priority over processes related to changes of residence for investment.
with priority over processes related to changes of residence for investment.
Does this mean that ARI applications will be further deprioritized than they have already been?
Link to that interview is in my other post here:
That interpretation would not make sense. ARI is the smallest applicant pool for almost all permit types, so why would they waste time to call out that permit type to disfavor them, as statistically they are irrelevant. In that context, I would assume they mean the opposite - that they are going to prioritize family reunification for investment permit applicants.
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It is about “a alterações de residência para investimento” due to change of law about 11 months ago, not a concessão de residência para investimento?
Update on our renewal process: As the primary holder, I was able to renew online relatively easily. My family members are still unable to renew online, and we were informed this week by our legal team that they will not be able to apply online. They will have to try and get an in person appointment And will need all the regular documentation. Of course no appointments are available now so we will likely have to bring a lawsuit, Incur the additional €3000 cost, and see where that brings us. This is disappointing. Typical Portugal that they would bypass a quick and easy way to renew our visa and instead take up for slots of precious in person appointment. We are determined to get our passport so onward and upward through this craziness!
Or you can just wait. If there aren’t enough biometrics appointments available, Portugal will just keep extending the permits automatically. Why waste money renewing when their citizens clock is ticking regardless?
Does the extended permit count when actually applying for citizenship?
It definitely counts towards the 5 years. Per @seagu77 they require an actual valid permit at some stage of naturalization, so you might need to a do a lawsuit to get one around then. But if you can get away with initial permit + validity extensions + 1 renewal, that’s cheaper and easier than renewing constantly for the full 7+ years it takes to collect 5 years residency + wait for naturalization.
So that’s the argument I made to my wife. Her concern is that when people had expired permits during the pandemic, and it came time to apply for citizenship, they had to get a letter from SEF explaining the gap in permits. Also, it hurts our planning because we can’t know when we need to travel there to get 7 days a year under our belt. Basically it’s just a pain in the rear.
Sorry I wasn’t clear. I know it counts towards the 5 years. I meant can you have an extended permit when you actually make the application. Given the change in law, there must be a lot of people on extended permits who have hit the 5 year clock or will do soon, so want to apply for citizenship.
Per @seagu77 's comments elsewhere I believe you can, but at some stage of naturalization processing they will ask AIMA for a “contagem de tempo” (count of residency) and at that point your naturalization process will pause unless/until you have an actual valid card. So it seems it could slow down your process, but shouldn’t jeopardize it.
Just saying, I wouldn’t bother with a lawsuit until you are close to eligible for the citizenship application.
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Does anyone else have experience of this, i.e. only the principal applicant being approved via the online system? At what point do you know that it will not be possible to renew online and that you have to try to get an appointment for your wife/child? Does AIMA advise this or you just have to guess?
Does anyone know when will the online renew will be open for card that expired this in October 2024 please?
Well, guys, I was telling it a bit differently.
IRN send the request to AIMA for contagem de tempo. If you do not have the card at this point, AIMA gives the response “does not meet the requirements”. In recent years, they allow applicants to provide new cards. However pls take in the account, that IRN gives you 30 days to provide new docs, and you may ask for extension of that period. With mess in AIMA, you could have the reason why you have not renewed, but if there WERE options to renew and you just decided not to renew to save money, I have no idea if IRN gives you that extension. I know the cases when the application was refused for such reason.
Common advice is to have valid residency at the time of applying either.
Some other things to think about:
- AIMA and procedures are changing
- Before covid periods between cards were excluded from contagem de tempo, they could return to that practice
- You need to have you 5 year completed before applying. The application may be accepted, however on the check stage it will show up. IRN could calculate 2 plus 2
- In the past (befor covid) it was considerred renewal only if you apply for renew not later than 6 month after expired card
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Sure, if it is easy I would certainly suggest to renew. I’m just saying I don’t think IRN can punish you for not filing a lawsuit, since the lawsuit is not the standard procedure!
- Before covid periods between cards were excluded from contagem de tempo, they could return to that practice
Before covid, there was no law extending the cards validity, was there? But right now there are laws by the government extending the validity, so by its own law mustn’t the government count that time?
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Hi all, an update. I met our lawyers last week and they confirmed that renewal cards are now for 3 years duration (real estate investment) and they suggest to complete 7 days stay in the 1st year and 14 days in the subsequent 2 years to be on safer side.
Also family online renewals are still not open but it will open up soon like last year so need to wait for it.
They also mentioned that a lot of changes (for betterment) are happening in the agency and things will get faster starting Nov.
Even the citizenship process has become faster by 50% due to half of it been online now.
So things are getting better and let’s hope it works for all of us. We are also awaiting our renewal cards.
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Call me skeptical, but I’ve heard for a long time that “things will get faster”.
What I have never heard, is “things have gotten faster”.
I’ll believe it when it happens, not when it’s promised.
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I agree and have same feelings. But lawyer said they have deep connections in the agency and are seeing positive changes coming. Also citizenship portal has already seen 50% saving on time (implemented) hence I am positive:)
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