Portugal Introduces Online Applications for Visa Renewals, Including Golden Visas

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Some welcome news for those awaiting renewal appointments for their (Golden) Visas as renewals will now be possible to do fully online, with no in-person meeting with SEF.

Hopefully this will give SEF some breathing room to catch up with the flood of GV application that came in at the tail end of 2021. Currently they are processing applications submitted and paid for in mid December '21, meaning a processing time for pre-approvals of upwards of 13 months, something that used to take about three months.

According to @minimaxr all you’ll need is you email address, expired permit number, and date of birth. The online renewal application can be started by registering on SEF’s website here.

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If I understand correctly, it will now be possible to renew ones GV without a new background check, certified certified copy of passport, etc, etc? Or were such documents never required for a renewal anyway? I am specifically interested in the question of whether ones GV is linked to the country of ones permanent residence at the time of application and initial issuance of the GV. Because what happens if a GV holder is a multinational holding several passports, applies and obtains a GV based on one nationality (the one corresponding to their permanent address at the time of application/issuance of the GV) and subsequently changes their permanent residency to another country (either Portugal or one of the other countries they are a citizen of) and relinquishes their citizenship in the country they were a resident of when they first got their GV? Anyone know?

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Currently only seems to be working if the visa is expiring between 1 January and 31 March 2023, as a first phase: Vistos de residência para imigrantes: renovação online voltou e abrange os gold | SEF | PÚBLICO

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Yes, and they will open up for new batches of 3 months at the time for at least the rest of the year, hopefully longer :crossed_fingers:

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I checked the website of SEF and it’s true that now it’s open for automatic renewal online (currently for VG which expires between 1st Jan - 31st March 2023).
However what happens after you click renewal on SEF website, and after payment of processing fee? Do you still need to submit scanned copies of all UPDATED required documents on the website of ARI? And do you need to send original documents to SEF? It seems unclear to me. Anyone knows?

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There’s a lot of discussion of the mechanics of how the GV online renewal is working in this thread: ARI Holders (Stage 5)

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Cards issued through the online renewal process have been received by those whose previous cards expired in 2022. So the 1 Jan - 31 March window isn’t strictly observed. Please see the thread mentioned in the above post for details :point_up:

You don’t need to submit any documents or biometrics to SEF and the card is issued within 1-2 weeks of payment.