Cards Received!
Received notice today from our attorneys that our residency cards are in their possession and they will be sending to us. What great news to receive.
Here is the timeline recap and follow up from prior posts. The prior posts contain all of the resources we used on our journey thus far.
Oct 2021: Initial application submission
Mar 2022: Notice of Prelim acceptance of application
Jan 2023: Biometrics in Lisbon
Aug 2023: Lawsuit filed. This was our “FastPass” approach to the endless lines and waits.
Nov 3 2023: Court instructs AIMA they have 15 days to make a decision. (due by Nov 17). They miss that date but no clear path to enforce, no real option other than to wait a bit more. Our attorneys were told that the delay was due to AIMA waiting on some type of security/police check from an external org that was outside AIMA control. Whatever. The delays mean the 2 week stay in early Dec won’t count to our time in country requirement.
Dec 28, 2023: Receive notice that my application was Approved. DUC fees paid. A week later wife and son are approved and paid.
Feb 8 2024: Cards received by our Attorneys.
This will be the last post for a while, I suspect. Wishing others success - it appears from the recent posts that the gears of production are beginning to turn.
Thank you for the comprehensive update and congratulations on your ultimate success. We’re just behind you and judging by your timeline we should have our cards some time late March/April. We’ve just bought our one-way tickets from Bangkok to Lisbon for June 30 so our ducks are lining up. Good luck for your future plans.
More details on my lawsuit, since I just now realized my lawyers sent me an english pdf of what they submitted
Basically, they argued the wait time is outrageous, I’m being seriously inconvenienced by the tourist 90 day limit, I want to get a house here (they were a bit fast and loose with my wife and I’s plans to start a family in PT! No complaints if it gets results)
There was quite a lot of dramatic repetition of “wow this is taking a really long time, our precious foreign clients are aghast and bereft” which isn’t really too far off I suppose haha
It ends with an interesting section about how the court should issue fees on the head of AIMA personally, something like 75 EUR a day until I get my card. Which seems pretty wild but maybe that’s how it works here. I’ve asked for more details because I’m very curious
Our lawyer told us today that AIMA has requested documentation from our investment bank, which they have speedily provided. Hope this means something good.
Same for us end of last week. Apart from the bank confirmation on investment, they also asked for some details to confirm my legal residency as I am currently an expat in the country I am in.
Hopefully that’s the final list of questions, fingers crossed.
I am in the exact same position. They requested bank confirmation on investment in August and have recently requested legal residency details for me as an expat, which was provided last week.
I am in the situation of having been offered a biometric appointment in Jan '22, but could not travel at that time due to eye surgery (and it was in the middle of the omicron wave), and have not been offered a biometric appointment since then (2 years and counting!). I filed an urgent lawsuit in June '23, but my lawyer said the urgent status was rejected because I am not living there yet. We were planning on moving around now, but have delayed that because we have no clarity around the GV status. I see that some have gotten the right judge, which apparently we have not. I have two questions for anybody with words of wisdom: 1) would it be worth a short trip (say, 2 weeks) just to say we are in the country to elevate our status to urgent, or is that pointless? FWIW, we purchased an apartment in Lisbon for our GV. 2) if not deemed urgent, is there any way to know when our case will be heard (months? years? who knows?)? Thanks! --Keith
Is it common for AIMA to delay compliance with court rulings? And in the absence of a means to enforce the ruling, has anyone had to sue them again?
I saw on another post that AIMA recently took 2 months to comply with a ruling that had a similar 15-day deadline to mine.
I assume these administrative court judgements are legally binding.
In our case we got a positive ruling on Jan 18 ordering AIMA to conclude our family reunification applications within 15 working days.
My lawyer told me yesterday AIMA has said it is still “analysing” our case.
We sued not only because of delays - 2 years since biometrics — but because SEF/AIMA suspended my family’s applications on account of them having Russian citizenship (in addition to UK in the case of the children). I got my residency in April last year having done the biometrics at the same time.
My suggestion would be to agree (negotiate) a deal with your lawyer (or new lawyer) to keep filing cases until you get a judge who accepts your case as urgent. They seem to vary widely. It doesn’t cost much to re-file the same papers at court.
Also think hard about all the problems not having the visa causes and double down on these in the filing - hardship is caused by many reasons, not just living in PT without a card.
Good news:
GV Hotel Project Investment Dec 2022
GV Application Jan 2023
Contacted lawyer to sue AIMA Oct 4 2023 (only home is another investment in PT)
Suit filed Nov 15 2023
Info requested by court Nov 21
Request by court for patience Dec 7 (ha!)
Ruling in my favor Feb 13, requiring biometrics appointment offering within 10 days
Three dates for biometric appt offered Feb 20 (1 week, 5 weeks and 9 weeks out)
Lawyer: FIO Legal, 6k, brutal but worth the cost to me
Probably not for two weeks - nothing here works that fast, short of medical system which is excellent. You might want to be here for couple of months at least to show you are really living here.
Hopefully else could help you with your second question.
My only home is in PT. I follow the 90/180 rule by wandering the globe, which is expensive and does not allow me to create and maintain family and friends in my new home country. I don’t mean to cry online, but it really has been an emotional drain. I want only to be in PT and support my local businesses and help others. In hindsight, I should have done the D7, but changing direction at this point would mess up other aspects of the changing rules (NHR).
