Thanks Matt. This would seem to be goodish news, though I share skepticism on the precedential citizenship point given how long that process is taking. Would you mind sharing the name of your firm?
I’m using Valadas Coriel & Associates (VCA). I might have heard the wrong thing about citizenship applications being approved - perhaps it was just the applications being accepted or deemed complete for analysis based on the 5 years starting at online submission. I will say this was a 40 minute conversation with probably the best English-speaking legal authority I’ve come across in PT who provided a lot of background info that got past my bullshit detector. Wish I had taken notes. To be clear, she said there is nothing to lose by filing a lawsuit (which she explains is not really a lawsuit but more of a subpoena for information on your file/process), other than the ~1,500 Euro cost and probably one additional renewal fee for speeding up the process.
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And the travel costs of meeting the 7 day requirement for a few extra years!
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Thanks Matt, excellent info. They were probably referencing the “Contagem do Tempo,” the official count of time that I believe AIMA issues at the beginning of the citizenship application process. So the total timeline is not necessarily discrediting. (Though I don’t know much about how that process unfolds, being a ‘22 applicant myself!) If AIMA is issuing these now using the online submission date, that is good news.
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Thanks Matt, can i ask when did you submit your GV application?
Andrew - I submitted in June 2023, so I’ve got ~3.5 years to get through the queue. My attorney is pretty confident that AIMA will resolve the backlog by then due to political pressure, but who knows.
They always give optimistic responses ofc, good for business
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Joel - I tend to agree, but in this case she effectively talked me out of giving them a piece of business.
Also posted in another discussion: Flood of lawsuits against AIMA: 500 lawsuits filed in one afternoon alone | Portugal Immigration News
Latest lawsuit count, on AIMA’s 1st birthday.
In its first year of existence, AIMA has faced a partial strike by employees and a flood of lawsuits, with more than 20,000 decisions awaited, according to the latest report by the Higher Council of Administrative and Tax Courts (CSTAF).
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Does anyone know why these lawsuits are going towards the Tax courts?
They handle both Administrative and Fiscal cases
…so like Burgers and Fries, Fish and Chips 
Why are some people being invited after lawsuit for Biometrics and whereas others are not?
What is called here a “lawsuit” is actually a summons by a judge in Portugal. Each case is assessed independently by the assigned judge as there is no principle of precedent. Your lawyer applies to a judge to issue a summons against AIMA. The judge assesses whether there is a grounds to issue the summons first of all and this is where there is a lot of variability of outcome depending on the judge and the arguments your lawyer makes in their submission.
Once the summons has been issued against AIMA, they should respond with a defence but history shows they simply send your case file to the judge. The judge then orders them to respond to your application in a particular timeline. Again, history shows that AIMA doesn’t stick strictly to this timeline but they do prioritise the processing of your case from this point onwards.
Hence, some summons are successful and some are not. There is now a backlog of summons creating a new bottleneck in the system so this avenue is proving less expedient than it was during 2023 and early 2024.
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Thanks for the explanation, richn4. As someone who “filed” a lawsuit this week, might you have any idea what the current backlog of summons is?
Thanks. That sounds bad but I am more curious about processing times and how long I should expect to wait for newly filed lawsuits.
That sounds like a lot, and it is, but when one remembers that AIMA’s current total backlog is somewhere between 250,000 and 400,000 cases (depending on which report you read), that still means that filing a suit cuts a whole order of magnitude. Thus, I still think it’s worth it.
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Yes it’s probably still the only way to get your GV (or even D7, etc.) application moving, but don’t expect results in 2-3 months like last year’s suits.
We lost-out on “judge lotto” and had to appeal, which took from mid-July '24 until mid-Sept before we got vague signs that our appeal was accepted (note it’s still not actually ruled on), and then until very end-Oct before AIMA gave us biometric appointment dates for mid-Dec.
I would not wait to file a lawsuit. I filed in early September and received a positive decision yesterday (just over 2 months):
Date of GV application: March 6, 2023
Date of lawsuit filing against AIMA: September 4, 2024
Date of positive decision from the court: November 13, 2024
Biometrics date and location: January 6, 2025 at Porto
Resident in Portugal: No
Basis: Injunction to protect rights and showed the intent to move by submitting my A1+A2 Portuguese language qualification as part of lawsuit.
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