Hey, jjmz and loheiman: my wife and I are reflected on rows 66 and 70 of the spreadsheet. To update, we both received biometrics appointments for October 6 in Coimbra. Probably could have gotten earlier dates - the October date was a specific request. I see others are starting to get appointments, as well.
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Anyone managed to get an appointment with SEF for renewal? My spouse’s RP expired more than 6 months ago and we haven’t been able to schedule any appointments since…
Any news on whether they will be extending the deadline of June 30th for expired documents?
Congratulations！Btw, how can you get the required documenrts updated if the appointment is next week？
Updating our process here, as we just received offers for the biometrics interview.
Investment Made - July 1st, 2021
SEF Application Main Applicant - July 14th, 2021
SEF Application Dependents - July 26th, 2021
SEF Pre-Approval - September 14th, 2021 (everyone approved same day)
Biometrics - Letter sent by SEF on June 24th, offering a window for interviews for both Main Applicant and Dependents between June 24th and July 4th, 2022. Secured slots for July 1st, 2022. For myself I went to the SEF site and scheduled on my own. My lawyer then secured interviews for my family of two others for the same day, 90 minutes later, also on July 1st. All interviews at the SEF in Lisbon. A wide range of locations and time options within the window offered was available when I entered the site, which was a surreal experience after being “blanked” for so long. Their e-mail to me led with this statement - “The Immigration and Borders Service (SEF) has changed the scheduling policy for applications to Residence Permit for Investment (ARI) in order to prioritize older applications.”
So almost 12 months from the application to the biometrics. And 9 1/2 months between pre-approval and the biometrics appointment.
We were very fortunate to actually be arriving in Lisbon for a visit on June 30th, but this ten day window that I was given could pose problems for others who cannot get into the country on such a short notice.
Good luck everyone!
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congratulations! how about the criminal/marriage certificates that have to be updated? Can you walk into the biometric appointments without the updated documents?
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Thankyou, but I didnt quite get that. But my appointment is 2 months away.
So I have some time to get and apostile birth, marriage certificates and police clearence.
Parallely ill apply for the Shengen Visa, I wont use VFS and go to the conulate directly.
Also was wondering should I book my air tickets in a way which Portugal is my first port of entry in Europe?
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Updated documents can be provided later.
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congratulations , things are moving very fast now
Hi Vidur, when was your pre-approval? SEF may give different slots for different pre-approval prriod?
My understanding is that you just need your passport at the time of the appointment and SEF allows sometime for submission of documents later. My appointment was on the 04th of March, and hardly took 5 minutes, and my documents (properly attested / apostilled and translated) were submitted on the 17th of March this year.
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Our lawyer told us we can get submit the updated documents after the interview, and that he will manage this for us. Might delay our residence card approvals, but as our interview is in a week there is not much we can do.
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hi Vidur
fly via Doha or Dubai .then you will get stump in Portugal .which is good proof for legal entry
BR
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My pre approval came around the first week of september 2021
From the information above, I find that only people who got pre-approved during (roughly speaking) June - December 2021 got the appointments. Any good news from those folks who got pre-approved before June 2021?
My wife and I secured two appointments in Portimao for GV renewal for next Monday and Tuesday (27th and 28th of June). It looks like these were the last slots available as we could not make appointments for our children and I can’t see available slots on ARI portal anymore.
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I was pre-approved on 25th January 2022. Unfortunately I can not see any open slots at the ARI portal yet.
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Did you receive email invitation to book biometric appointment from SEF?
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Thanks for the heads up. I plan to do that
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My lawyer has access to that email. I sent them an email but no reply yet.
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When we were in Portugal earlier this year for our biometric, we connected and cleared immigration in Germany - so no arrival stamp when we arrived in Lisbon. We were able to provide a copy of our boarding passes from Frankfurt to Lisbon as support we’d entered Portugal.
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