SEF payment not reflected after 2 days

Residencies & citizenships 🛂 Portugal Golden Visa đŸ‡”đŸ‡č
#1

I made the payment to SEF using Bison Bank. But the payment doesn’t seem to be reflected in their page after 2 days. Did anyone face this before. Did it get resolved?

Thanks,
Ravi R

1 Like
#2

Follow up with Nuno?

#3

Nuno, confirmed that the payment is made. But no change in SEF portal

#4

Do you mean 2 business days passed but your application status did not change on the SEF portal?
If so, how did you pay? Using the ‘payments to government’ option in your online banking?

#5

I paid using ‘payments to the state’ option in bison bank

#6

Yes, that sounds correct.
I think such payment should reach SEF in 1 business day.

#7

It doesn’t reflect after 3 days now. My lawyer has emailed SEF but he doubts that SEF will respond

#8

I’d give it a couple of days, and if it doesn’t get sorted, email SEF directly with the ‘comprovativo’ (bank payment confirmation) attached.

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#9

Just an update for others. The payment didn’t reflect after a week in SEF and finally got expired. No response from SEF for the email and we were not able to contact SEF. The money we paid was lost forever.

My lawyer was able to generate other payment. This time I was careful to wait for 48 hours to make the payment and it reflected the next day in SEF website. So please wait for 48 hours to make the payment. Thanks to JP for the tip.

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#10

Lost?!
As in completely gone, or merely disappeared into the government without a specific acknowledgement?

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#11

Yeah. Completely lost. I’m not surprised based on what I have seen so far.

#12

When I attempted to make my DUC payment straight away, it got rejected in my online banking with an error message saying smth like “reference does not exist”.
That’s when I re-read the small print on the SEF invoice and realized I need to wait 48 hours.
So I am a tad surprised how you were able to make the first ‘early’ payment without an error.

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#13

Yeah. Bison bank allows you to pay early. Did you use bison bank?

#14

OK, it may be a particular problem with Bison then.
I am with Millennium BCP as I did not invest in funds.

You may want to try and get a refund from Bison, however it’s ‘only’ 533EUR so may not be worth the hassle.

#15

I dont know about foreign systems, but with FED wires the payments cannot get “Lost”. They may bounce around for a couple weeks but will eventually come back.

The entire electronic payments system is so archaic it is ripe for new technologies such as crypto or fintech. No traceability of payments in 2021? Come on


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#16

Blockquote it’s ‘only’ 533EUR so may not be worth the hassle.

ah, so the initial payment is only e533? when is the larger amount (~e6k) assessed?

#17

I believe it will be due after the biometrics appointment.
Initial submissions on the portal are charged at 533EUR per person.

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#18

Thanks! I had assumed it would be due as a condition of scheduling the SEF appointment. Either way, it’s good that the large fee is not assessed until pre-approval has been granted. This important detail alleviates a prior concern I’d had about spending >e20k on a family application without any guarantee of actual approval.

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#19

I got the 533€ after 3 weeks back in my account

#20

Who is Nuno?