Thank you! This is very helpful.
That chart is outdated, they compressed the 7 old stages into 4 new ones
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Updated above.
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Four now, not five.
4, 5 or 6, depending of the process and conservatory. New chart for process tracking allows not to show some of stages, such as āAguarga respostasā or āPara ministerioā, so it is really depends of your officer who ticks or not those stages. 4 are obligatory and are shown in all processes.
Regarding expired card.
The process of docs checking by IRN is long. First, IRN sends requests to so called āexternal organizationsā. Those are AIMA, police (for internal criminal cases) and some portugal agency which deals with Interpol. Than it waits for answers. And only then analyze all documents - submitted and received answers.
You need valid card at the time when AIMA write an answer to IRN. Period. Otherwise AIMA gives negative responce to IRN. I have real examples with people who gets preliminary refusal because their card expired.
If you card is expiring during the process it is better to renew.
If you could not renew, do efforts to accumulate proofs that you have done everything to renew. In that case after you receive either request to submit new card or preliminary refusal, you may reply to IRN with proofs that it is not your fault and most likely IRN will give you time to renew. The process would be paused until you get new card.
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Dear all;
Iāve just spoken to my lawyers and let me share what Iāve heard.
- As expected, theyāve told me that, their expectation is extension of existing cardsā validity till end of 2025 - right now extension is till end of June,
- What theyāve also told me is exactly as below;
"In a recent meeting with AIMA, it was clarified that the IRN (the institute responsible for evaluating and deciding on citizenship applications) is legally obligated to accept the residence card as valid, even if the card itself does not have a printed expiry date covering the entire citizenship process. The validity recognized by law is sufficient for this purpose. "
This gives me a major relief as my card is only valid till early May and as far as I know no immediate renewal appointment is available.
I was also told that online renewals will no longer be possible, and one has to show up in person.
With regards to online applications approval which are mostly diverted Porto; the latest approvals that Iāve seen are from Mid Feb - (Feb 13)ā¦ There was a one outlier from late April but it is an outlier and there was just one screen-shot of that.
Edit: It would be great if few others can cross check this info with their lawyers as well. The reason is my lawyers have been cautious throughout this process and have been realistic about timelines and the overall process. This is one of the cases, where to my surprise, they are not cautious and have made a call in one way.
Regards
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Would this imply that once you have gotten a card issued for the first time, that you never need to renew it for purposes of getting citizenship (assuming you donāt have other reasons for renewing, such as residing in Portugal)?
Was s/he referring to that AIMA meeting? We should all double check but I didnāt pick up this point (as least from the translated transcriptā¦)?
I was recently approved for my initial 2 year residency permit and I will hit 5 years from paying for my initial GV application within the 2 year period of the initial permitās validity. My lawyer agrees that following the recent guidance from AIMA, that I will be able to apply for citizenship or permanent residency at the 5 year point from paying the initial application fee.
I asked my lawyer yesterday whether I would be required to apply for a renewal of my residency permit after I applied for citizenship while the citizenship application was pending, and they responded that I would need to apply for a renewal or permanent residency while the citizenship application was pending. However, if they continue to extend the validity period of existing temporary residency permits due to the unavailability of renewal appointments, then that would seem to be a situation where one would never have to seek a renewal of the residency permit once one made their citizenship/PR application.
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Fully true!
This is the actual situation
We will see from now to the end of Jume 2025 ā¦
I donāt think PR is covered by the new law? Only citizenship? AFAIK for PR you still need 5 years of cards.
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Yes agreed only citizenship covered
PR still need 5 years residency cards
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There were a number of posts from @seagu77 pointing out that an expired but extended by decree residence card is no good for the citizenship application.
Only a truly valid residence card would be valid in the eyes of IRN, moreover it needs to remain valid for some time after the citizenship application is made in order for the IRN checks to return positive result.
I donāt know what new information we have on this subject, if anyone has any links or quotes on this from AIMA or IRN please can you share.
In the absence of such new info, I would rather play safe and renew my card so it would cover some reasonable period (1 year?) after the citizenship application is submitted, and not rely on extensions by decree (which seem to be perfectly valid for travel purposes, but not for the IRN citizenship process purposes).
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Agreed. As far as I know, AIMA has no authority over IRN to tell them how to process citizenship applications. I suppose the only caveat to that is that when IRN sends inquiry to AIMA āIs applicant holding a valid residence permit?ā, AIMA can respond affirmatively if the permit is valid by decree or applicant holds a valid card.
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Thanks, this is helpful information
Yes she was referring to the AIMA meeting.
Iāve added a note to my original post; Iāll copy paste here.
" It would be great if few others can cross check this info with their lawyers as well. The reason is my lawyers have been cautious throughout this process and have been realistic about timelines and the overall process. This is one of the cases, where to my surprise, they are not cautious and have made a call in one way."
But this only matters until June this year, unless they give further extensions, which they say they donāt plan to
For the time being yes but my lawyersā expectation was the extension getting extended till end of 2025 - and as mentioned above this is based on that AIMA meeting that was held. It would be good to understand if this is the common understanding of the lawyer community and not just my lawyers.
ermā¦ as Tommy noted we went over that, just 4 days ago - above in this very thread:
I see a bunch of new posts from others asking already-answered questions about PT bank accounts as well 
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