On 19 April, the Portuguese Bar Association met with the Minister of Internal Administration to convey their concerns regarding the "difficulties lawyers are having in scheduling appointments at SEFâ, as well as on the improvement of other protocols for assistance to those who require support from SEF in Portugal.
Today (22 April 2022) the Minister confirmed that SEF closure / transition to existing entities will be deferred - either until the end of the summer or end of the year - in order to enable a smooth transition to GNR /PSP/IJ. Adiada a extinção do Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras
The creation of the new Portuguese Agency for Migration and Asylum (APMA) to manage the administrative functions (eg authorization and processing of residency visas) is explicitly mentioned in the 2022 budget proposal, which has yet to be discussed or approved by Parliament. Broad discussions are scheduled for 28/29 April, with more detailed discussions thereafter. Votação final global do Orçamento do Estado marcada para dia 27 de maio na Assembleia da RepĂșblica - SIC NotĂcias
For ARI purposes, one conclusion is that SEF will continue with its current administrative functions until further notice (ie APMA created and functional).
Several political parties and the Bar Association have voiced valid concerns, which have been heard by the Minister in charge of ARI. With the Ministerâs decision, SEF employees have increased job security.
Is this good for ARI applicants? My lawyers indicate that SEF have re-commenced review of application documentation (as they did between Dec 21 and late Feb 2022), getting in touch for missing documents and pre-approving. Hopefully, appointments for biometrics will restart â but we will only know that when others post.
In my view, there are unlikely to be major changes until the budget is approved, and funds are released. What is positive is that we donât have a major SEF reorganization without appropriate preparation. This would likely have had negative repercussions â halting processes for existing applicants, for potential new applicants, and for funds to the country.
I believe the overall process is mainly determined by the intention and the priority setting which is evident by the process time of the D7 visas. Strikes, shortage of staff, Covid, these are all valid for D7 applications as well, yet they are usually processed within weeks if not days.
It seems GV applications are pushed to the back of the pile and are always the first ones to be postponed when there is an issue or a shortage of resources - perhaps based on the idea that GV applicants usually continue their normal life outside of Portugal. I do think that this type of treatment is not fair to investors and is not in line with that is stated in the law - as the process time that is stated is 3 months.
Therefore I strongly believe this situtation has to be addressed. Perhaps more importantly this has reached to a point where potential investors have started to look for other programs that actually stick to their original timelines and are more predictable.
Hi, great conversation by all. Thanks for the enormous amount of information shared. I have a question, isnât hague apostile validating the document? Mine doesnât have an expiry on it. So all the documents except the criminal clearance should be valid forever. Did I get it right or am I missing something here?
I completely agree. Over the last 12 months I have seen (on other forums) a countless number of people who have applied for D7 visas and received them (valid for 2 years) within weeks of applying.
It really does seem that GV visas are being treated differently and to be frank - unfairly.
Yes the situation needs to be addressed but the question is how to get our voices heard?
There was an effort here last year to get media attention. It wasnât too successful. If the bar is raising it then thatâs probably as good as it is going to get. Itâs not like GV applicants are likely to get a sympathetic view from the public.
As a rough guide, final approval is around 6 months for Lisbon. You will be able to pay fees as soon as you are approved. Lisbon is the busiest regional SEF.
i) the bar raising it; in the end there are much faster approvals taking place for other visa applicants (e.g. D7) making all the excuses redundant and there is the legal time frame stated in the law. So from a legal perspective this is not a fair and equal treatment. It would be great if the bar and the legal companies continue providing feedback on this and we should be pushing for that in our best capacities. A majority of our feedback may not be voiced but there is no harm of us stating our concern.
ii) the situation impacting the programâs KPIs ; I believe the more the current situation becomes public and there is noise, the more will be done to care of it, especially if it starts to make new applicants think twice before joining the program. I already read few people shying away from joining the program. Even an article on imildaily might create that noise as many investors check that platform as well.
This was tried last year, right here even by people from this board. There were articles in the news last year. Nothing happened. Performance may be down now but political risks are up too - sure they want the money/investment but you also donât want to upset the voters and it feels like a toxic/touchy subject. Letâs face it - rich people buying their way in is NOT going to be at the forefront of the minds of the average Joao making EUR10k/yr and if it is it may not be all that positive of an impression.
There is likely going to have to be a significant drop in actual approved applications over a period of time before thereâs any real noise. Which will take a while to happen - the backlog is huge, few of the people in the queue are going to back out, the vendors in the space are likely to continue not to say a peep about the timeframes thereby continuing to fill the queue, and as long as SEF keeps plunking some people through it wonât look that bad on the monthly reports. Given that the government canât even agree on whether or how to slice SEF⊠changing how it operates to speed up GV throughput is probably at the bottom of the list.
What is probably highest on the list is bringing in all those wonderful young Ukranian refugees bringing their kids and their youthful energy, all of whom are going to be happy to take all of the unfilled bottom-tier jobs that businesses canât get filled, catering to all of the existing retirees and improving economic flow, coming from a nice friendly European-like country with at least some sort of existing alignment of values so not having to deal with the immigration issues so much, with the populace having lots of goodwill towards themâŠconvincing them to stayâŠ
I wonder how badly Portugal even needs more capital right now. Just got off an investor call; theyâve got tons of cash theyâre still trying to deploy effectively, and now theyâre going to be facing the flood of EU-next-gen money too. WRT real estate, itâs clear from watching the boards that there are batches of Americans on D7 and now Brits who are being driven by post-Brexit realities who are happy to bring hundreds of thousands of thousands of euros each to buy houses in addition to their passive income, without the GV incentive.
I understand how you feel, but frankly itâs quite possible no one in government actually considers GV all that important at the moment whatever we think.
I am with you with on many of the things you have stated. I wonât mention all. Facts are facts⊠Below is how I think.
Doing nothing and waiting is the base scenarioâŠ
Covid which has been used as the main excuse is no longer an excuse in the way it could be used before
I donât necessarily see/accept why D7 and GV holders should be treated so differently. Yes, D7 holders live in the country and I understand a degree of prioritization but weeks vs years shouldnât be normalized.
Even though the legistlation is not enforced - 3 months of time frame to process application is there⊠Thatâs the reason why I believe the case is a legitimate one.
Agree that there are many obstacles, especially the one around the back-forth discussion around SEF restructuring, the current perception & pressure on CBI / RBI programs⊠receiving and helping people of Ukraine being one of the priorities for SEF⊠Just checking the SEF facebook page clearly shows thatâŠ
Yet I think as the rules are there, set in a clear manner, there is nothing wrong to raise the concernsâŠ
Do I expect any significant change no; most likely preapprovals will speed up a bit and enough applications will be approved so that the monthly KPIs are at worst at par with last yearâsâŠ
When it comes to renewals, who knows; perhaps the renewal appointments will only be issued only after the last batch of 2021 applications are overâŠ
As I stated in one of my earlier post, it all comes to the intention. If they want to address the situation they can do it, if they want to enforce the legistlation on process - there is nothing to prevent them, solutions can always be created - e.g. just like they have enabled applying through any SEF offices within Portugal, applying through local consolates in countries can be allowed which would then greatly speed up the applications that would be helpful for all.
PS: I am also amazed how some vendors still promote, residency in 6 months etcâŠ
How about outsourcing the biometrics and the application submission? There is a wotld company called VFS and they do that for many countries visa processing. You get an appointment with them and you bring your visa application, all supporting documents and they do the biometrics. They make sure you have everything in the check list. Once that is done they send your application to the embassy office the processes visa applications. Oh yes, you also include a prepaid FedEx envelope so thattheycansend your passport back. That would definitely speed things up. No pre approval, you either get it or you donât! I just did this to get a long stay visa in France because the Portuguese visa is taking too long.
