Perhaps ask/insist that your lawyers write to SEF to seek a simultaneous appointment for wife and child. A couple of posts suggest that an email to SEF works. At least it would be worth a try since your appointment is in January. Awaiting Biometrics (Stage 3) - #1327 by mecht3ach. Good luck!
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quiet as crickets, unfortunately, on our end. we submitted/paid late dec 2021.
– arun
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It’s the same for us, we paid after Christmas 2021. Hasn’t heard anything from Sef. I guess the whole process is giving way to the reconstruction.
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what ‘reconstruction’ are we talking about? maybe i missed the memo on this.
Same situation. Tumbleweed!
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So SEF had been waiting on reconstruction for 2 years, and they finally started the process since last November ( I believe), and it is supposed to be done by March this year. I was hoping they can approve cases while doing all that, but it seems they are incompetent in multi tasking. So there’s a chance no pre-approval will be given until March.
Got my pre-approval email today.
Submitted: 10 Dec 2021
Paid: 17 Dec 2021
They’re definitely still processing applications during this restructuring period.
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good news. thx for sharing (and congratulations).
any word on when you will get a biometrics appointment?
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ouch … i hope this is not the case and @spencer noted they got their pre-approval today for a “paid” date of 17 dec 2021. we are a paid date of 27 dec 2021.
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It’s good news that they are carrying the work along with reconstruction. Our main applicant paid on Dec. 29 , 2021. Hopefully they sort all of us out quickly.
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My application was 14th December 2021. So 13 months today, and still not heard anything
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If it makes y’all feel better, when you get pre-approval doesn’t seem to matter too much since appointment invites are for certain dates of applications anyway. I got my preapproval but I don’t expect they’ll open up biometric appointments until the end of march, when hopefully all of december is processed
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Good thing we’re still seeing pre-approvals, as apparently the transition is going to take years!
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Saw the following: Vistos de residência para imigrantes: renovação online voltou e abrange os gold | SEF | PÚBLICO
General sense I get (I can (somewhat) read PT) is that it’s now possible to renew residence permits online, and this includes GV applicants.
Not much more than that, I’m afraid.
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SEF
Residence visas for immigrants: online renewal has returned and covers the gold
The online renewal of national residence permits for foreigners will be available again this week and will cover gold visas for the first time.
This time, the functionality of automatic renewal is in a first phase available for the approximately 21,500 visas that expire between 1 January and 31 March, according to the SEF, “ensuring compliance with safety rules and mitigating the consequences that resulted from the health emergency situation” caused by the pandemic, and should then be extended in stages until the end of the year.
Citizens who can automatically renew expired residence permits are those whose biometric data has already been previously collected and whose documentation is already known by the SEF.
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This is a positive development. Happy about it
That gives me hope that the GV program won’t immediately wither on the vine. Only having to go through the biometrics rigamarole once is a big improvement; hopefully that sticks around for all future renewals!
Will all the refreshed and apostilled documentation still be required for online renewals? If so, at least you can presumably just upload them when ready, instead trying to time document availability to biometric appointments…
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S-for $hit
Paid Dec 27, 2021…
Some how it would be awesome to get credit for the 12+ months of just waiting towards that 5 years?
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Anyone get pre-approval lately? Is SEF still processing Dec '21 applications?
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