Please share your timeline to help make sense of the SEF Portimão office workings for others in the same situation as you from the time you submit your biometrics till you receive your resident card. Thanks, I appreciate your input, I’ll start:
Biometrics: 13 October 2021
Final Doc Submission: 23 November 2021
Approval received: Not yet or Yes (date)
Payment made: Not yet or Yes (date)
Card/s received: Not yet or Yes (date)
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Is the portimão location notably slow or something?
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Not necessarily, started this post specifically to help people who have applied to the Portimão SEF office for their GV to compare/share their timelines.
Biometric taken 12 Nov 2021
Updated docs Submitted 20 Dec 2021
Still waiting
It seems only very few did the Biometric here . If there are others here it will help to know the timelines
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Thought I’d post my question here as this thread was specifically dedicated to the SEF Portimao timeline. Judging from how quiet this thread has been either not many people have done biometrics in Portimao or else they are just not on this thread - most likely the latter!
So my question - just wondering if anyone has recently done their biometrics at SEF Portimao and if so what their timeline has been from biometrics to issuance/receipt of residence card?
We (family of four) have our biometrics appointment this coming Monday 6 March in Portimao. Happy to post afterwards as to how it went and update with our timeline in future.
Might be important to know if anyone did biometrics and DIDNT have to submit updated paperwork a month later. Anyone show up with everything they need and get final approval more quickly?
Just completed biometrics today. All went smoothly and staff were very friendly. Lawyer estimates 3-6 months from biometrics to cards at this office. Fingers crossed! I will update as to when we get our final approval and cards.
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We completed our biometrics at Portimao on Feb 17th. We had a few documents that took us until March 15th and receive confirmation.
Haven’t heard any further info on this yet. Now we just wait according to our lawyer.
Biometrics: 17 February 2023
Final Doc Submission: 15 March 2023
Approval received: Not yet
Payment made: Not yet
Card/s received: Not yet
Anecdotal evidence indicates lower volume biometric sites like Portimao have had better turn around times. So we are hoping for the better. 
They have also been very accommodating - I had an appointment, my wife did not. But after a little bit of back and forth, they accepted her biometrics even though she didn’t have an appointment the same day. (We were both pre-approved on the same date, something got lost in the system)
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Looking at the database it sounds like no one is getting approvals from Portimao recently?
My recent conversation with our attorney indicates just about the same. 
My husband and I had ours January 5, 2023. Updated documents about 6 weeks later. Still waiting. I am wondering about those at the start of this thread that had biometrics in late 2021 or 2022.
When applicants achieve approval or receive the card they report on this thread: Awaiting Final Approval (Stage 4).
The last reported approval of a nomadgate poster with biometrics in Portimão was for 1st Nov 2021. See the listings by location here: Awaiting Final Approval (Stage 4) - #830 by Onward.
The GV timeline database, (By biometrics location — Crowdsourced Golden Visa Timeline Database by Nomad Gate) is now more user-friendly. Use the spreadsheet grouped by Biometrics location SORTED by date of biometrics for Portimao (with some columns hidden) and it provides the same picture - ie no recent approvals :
It is a long waiting game for us all …
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Update:
Lawyer now saying (recently) that it’s 5-7 months from biometrics to cards at SEF Portimao. To be fair it was a different lawyer but from the same firm, but they have all been involved in my application. I don’t know if they have new information - they initially estimated 3-6 months - or if they’re just giving themselves some extra leeway.
Anyway, my timeline so far is -
Main applicant:
Applied & Date of payment (DUC) - 26th October 2021
Pre-approved - 9th March 2022
Biometrics (Portimao) - 6th March 2023
Final approval - not yet
Card received - not yet
Family members (spouse & 2 kids):
Applied - 8th & 12th November 2021
Date of payment (DUC) - 10th & 13th November 2021
Pre-approved - 13th May 2022
Biometrics (Portimao) - 6th March 2023
Final approval - not yet
Card received - not yet
If no one is getting final approval from SEF Portimao maybe we can all launch a lawsuit to try and speed things up. I am getting truly fed up of the endless waits. Someone on another thread has recently had good success with their lawsuit against Lisbon SEF. Also I saw where a number of other lawsuits were successful.
We did our biometrics on mid-February and got all of the required documentation submitted by mid-March. No update at all on the current status.
Let me know if you are able to gather more information. We are reaching the point where its untenable for us to keep on waiting indefinitely.
As much as I feel like filing a lawsuit to get results is a very American notion, we are left with no other options.
We were also quoted 3 to 6 months. My lawyer reached out to the office a few weeks ago and did get a response last week. They basically said that they are very delayed and trying to catch up. The office apologized. I am reticent to pursue a lawsuit as of yet. I do think that this process has been unfair given the speed of the of other visa paths that require no investment at all. However, I feel it is my fault for choosing it without doing enough research. I will give them another month or 2 before I think about legal action. My husband and I have also been living here full time since June 2021. The Portimao office knows that. It hasn’t helped move our case along.
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@ripatel1971 @Mohaak Since you had some of the earliest biometrics appointments in 2021 - did your applications get approved or are you still waiting for an approval? Hoping it’s the former.
welp sounds like Portimão is a lost cause 