We submitted our applications in December ‘22 and have come to realize there is no way we will get approved in time for our September travel arrangements.
Does anyone know whether we can keep our GV applications active BUT ALSO submit D7 Applications in hopes that one will be approved in time?
As per my lawyer it isn’t possible to have more than one open case in SEF. In order to apply for D7 your GV application must be rejected
If you could outline your travel arrangements, perhaps there is an alternative solution out there.
I think in theory you still might get your GV pre-appoval before Sep 2023 but as others noted it is very unlikely.
Obtaining your full GV approval (with the permit card and all) before Sep 2023 is, in my assessment, impossible.
We are sailing from NY on (yikes) 9/11. The ship is the only way for us to transport our dogs without having to put our big guy in a cargo plane, which I can’t bear to do. It books 2 years in advance, so our next chance would not be until 2025, and we have already sold our house here and are living in a temporary situation on reliance of assurances that we would receive our GVs. (Lol.) We have to pay in full for the cruise on 5/11, so we are hoping to know by then what our visa situation will be.
Ok, so in that case you may expect that your GV pre-approval comes before 5/11 so from then on you could rely on having a ‘pending process with SEF’ for your residence right in PT.
Even if you decide to cancel GV and switch over to D7, I guess you should be able to apply for D7 from PT?
I am not a D7 expert, I suggest you check the requirements and if all stacks up you can relax and wait for the GV to play out. And if it does not play out for some reason, then you switch to D7. But not now.
Just curious, are you saying there are no ships sailing from US to EU other than once in 3 years?.. or you specifically want a direct ship to PT?
No, there’s only 1 ship that offers kennels, and it books 2 years in advance. It actually sails to the UK and then we’d drive from there.
In December '22 it was well known to everyone paying attention that delays for pre approval were 12+ months. I would be pretty angry at your lawyers if they claimed otherwise.
On the other hand, selling your house and planning to move before you even receive pre approval was a pretty gutsy move. Sorry it probably won’t work out…
Yeah…we were assured it’s non-discretionary and that as long as we complied with investment parameters and application requirements and didn’t have anything shady in our backgrounds, the visas must be issued. Our lawyer said he was seeing GV applications speed up and D7s slow down given the D8, and also was (reasonably, I think) confident that the court order against SEF in August or whatever it was meant they would certainly start to speed up…. It turned out to be a bad, overly optimistic take.
Once SEF finishes processing the Dec '21 flood of people rushing to beat the Jan '22 rule changes, I am hoping things speed up a little. I do not have enough confidence to bet money on it, but I imagine there were many times more applicants in Dec than normal.
Plus SEF didn’t really accept (m)any applications until like June or July '22, so the processing timeline should jump forward quite a bit after Dec '21 is done. Whether or not 6 months of post-rule change applications is enough to continue crushing the system, who can say!
Right now my optimistic hope is that our Oct '22 application receives pre-approval early enough to then be invited for biometrics in Q1 '24. But that may very well be unrealistic.
My lawyer says, in their experience, 2022 had significantly fewer applications than 2021. So it IS possible things will speed up after Dec '21 is processed…
Actually, Amanda, in accordance with Portuguese law (paraphrasing my lawyer), you can remain in Portugal even before the actual pre-approval: once your application is submitted and fees are paid, your case is considered “pending”. This means they won’t kick you out of the country after your initial 90-day automatic U.S. tourist visa, but you won’t be able to travel outside Portugal. If you are flying out, leave for a non-Schengen country like U.K., Ireland, U.S., Canada, etc.
Also, there is a bi-lateral agreement still in force between U.S. and Portugal that gives you additional 60-days past 90-day tourist one. I have the text of this treaty referenced in the following thread: U.S. - Portugal bi-lateral treaty.
Between all these, amounting to 150 days after your arrival, you should receive your pre-approval and maybe even an invitation for biometrics if SEF, with its newly-created special task force to clear the backlog of applications, would pick up the pace.
ah, this was my question. How are we able to stay in Portugal more than 90 days if we don’t have preapproval. We applied in Dec 2022 and want to move to Portugal July 2023 as my child got accepted into our top school of choice. Our lawyer says we can just live there, but I was hoping to find some actual legal reference when I show up at the airport at immigration…