The judge accepted our petition for a subpoena and after reviewing AIMAās response (which comprised simply of our case file) he ordered AIMA to process it within a defined timescale.
I donāt think this process is the same as the rather dramatic sounding US lawsuit from what Iāve seen on US legal dramas. Here itās a summons, or subpoena, to respond to the judge if the judge considers your case has merit based on the legal arguments made in a written submission by your Portuguese lawyers. Hence it is very important that your lawyers are clued up enough to make convincing arguments in the original written submission to get past the first step (the argument has merit). From what Iāve seen here, if youāve got past this step then AIMA does not put up a defence but rather simply supplies your case file and the judge orders them to process your application.
Hello everyone
I can see many lawsuits filed 5 or
6 months ago, dont have answers yet and many lawsuits filed in october got the biometric scheduled
Anybody knows how it works, isnt it on 1st come 1st serves basis. And for those who filed long tome back without answers from court/Aima yet, did you get the opinion of another lawyer than the one you filed with to see if this delay is normal or if anything can be done. I can see good reviews on NSM lawyers, Valadas Coriel & Associates if someone reached out to them for a 2nd opinion
Maybe some were filed under normalcy and others under urgency. If filed under normalcy, it may take months to see light of the day but more often than not AIMA will give an appointment even before the hearing starts. Urgency matters will be taken up on priority sometimes even during holidays but if u r not able to give sufficient grounds for urgency, u will be denied more often than not.
When people on Nomadgate were posting about their experience with lawsuits, it was very hit and miss. In April this year I saw that a member on Nomadgate with similar circumstances to me (ie non-resident in Portugal) had won their lawsuit. I spoke to them to get some more intel, and contacted my lawyer. Initially they were slow to respond, I was also very busy with work and travel, so I really only kicked off the process in late July 2024.
Remember, itās not like you go straight to filing a case, your lawyer will write a formal email to AIMA threatening to sue (we then waited for a month for a response), she also sent a letter by registered post in between and then finally submitted my case in September (there were delays as my lawyer was on summer holiday for a bit).
As I wrote earlier, waiting for even a longer period (ie 3 years) might only weaken my case. There is no guarantee of a positive outcome ever with a lawsuit, the result can go either way.
There isnāt a minimum time you have to wait - you can file a lawsuit earlier, infact some on this forum applied in June 2023 and filed their case earlier than me. I would speak to your lawyer or find one if you donāt have one. Mention that youāre reading of cases being won. In my case, I believe I was the first client they have successfully won against AIMA, although they may have had other lawsuits already in progress.
I read on portugal news that AIMA has processed 200k now applications in few months and is processing 5k application per day which means hopefully we can get an answer from AIMA very soon. Fingers crossed
Hi all,
Can anybody share his/her experience regarding lawsuit for the renewal of the gold visa? I heard that it used to be fast but now itās taken many months to get response from the court.
Our experience is the same as several others here. We filed a lawsuit in Aug this year under urgent, and our lawyers at Valadas Coriel said it would take 3-4 months to get the court decision. Then we magically received a biometrics invitation in Oct, this being āofficially unrelated to the lawsuitā.
Initial application: Jan 2023
Lawsuit filed: Aug 2024 (urgent, we want to move full-time to PT)
Notice of preapproval from AIMA (with one biometrics date provided): Oct 2024
Biometrics appointment (in Porto): Dec 2024
According to what our lawyers had mentioned in the initial meeting, our lawsuit would continue, irrespective of whether we moved a stage ahead, since the lawsuit is in essence asking AIMA to look into our case, given the āextended period of silence and delay in the processing of our applicationsā.
Now that we have finally stopped jumping for joy about the biometrics being done , we will check with our lawyers if our original lawsuit is still valid - I am guessing not.
I am also wondering if given this recent news of all applications being reset means that for any new lawsuits going forward for those awaiting pre-approval, lawyers will have to find some new reason for taking legal action, since AIMA has now ārespondedā to all applicants.
Based on our experience, I would have 100% recommended taking legal action for anyone looking to move their process ahead more speedily than it otherwise would. But with this recent development of applications reset coupled with the news that AIMA is planning to clear all pending cases by May 2025, I am wondering if there is a chance that things will start moving more quickly on their own.
Did you have to provide up-to-date documents before they gave you notice of preapproval in Oct 2024? Since they were almost two years old i assume some of them were out of date correct?
I have a pending lawsuit, and am just wondering whether it might make sense to preemptively update the documentsā¦
Our lawyer asked us to wait until we got our date and thatās what we did, since we didnāt want to risk the documents expiring before the biometrics appointment date.
The documents submitted at the time of the appointment need to be valid as of that date. But we were able to submit one document that wasnāt ready on that date later on, via our lawyer. The most important thing is for you to make it to the appointment when you get it. Any missing documents can be submitted later on. (I think it takes the actual officer to get to your case file a few months after the biometrics date, so there seems to be some leeway).
One more update - I just spoke to a friend who got the reset notice - apparently, once you get the notice, you resubmit your documents, and then immediately get a biometrics appointment. So itās possible that with the latest change in the system, you can (should?) get your documents updated preemptively - please do check with your lawyer regarding this, I have new clue about the new process first-hand, and am only relaying what my friendās lawyer told my friend.
Wouldnāt AIMA worker have to at least validate/analyse the documents that have been uploaded before a biometrics appointment is issued? Iām just trying to understand the timeline here - the email to everyone in āapplication under analysisā state came out on Dec at the most on Dec 23/24 (I got mine on the 26th), and then we came into the weekend.
Seems very unlikely that an appointment was directly issued this way given the Christmas period.
Anyhow, one thing is for sure that there is positive moment for applicants stuck in limbo for a while.
Ah I see, so the lawsuit and pre-approval should be able to proceed with the outdated documents, and itās only at biometrics that the up-to-date documents need to be presented?
(or at least is this the way it worked before the whole āresetā thing, where AIMA is preemptively asking for updated documents from some people?)
Yes, we only needed the up-to-date ones at biometrics. And we had the leeway to send one missing document after the appointment.
But now, from what Iām reading in the Stage 2 posts, it seems that AIMA is asking everyone to upload updated documents? I guess once all our lawyers get back to office after the holidays, then we will all get more concrete info
, we will check with our lawyers if our original lawsuit is still valid - I am guessing not.
