I just applied through my lawyers last week-ish. Anyone have recent data points on how long it took to get preliminary approval?
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My experience was about 10 weeks. Documents were submitted mid December 2020 and preapproval received early March 2021. Recent comments on another thread have reports of about 2 months.
You probably know that the next step (SEF biometric appointment) is a completely different matter. 
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Thank you! Yeah the biometrics will be a great adventure Iām sureā¦
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Have you any updates on your biometrics appointment?
I just spoke with my lawyer today and she received a preliminary approval for another client yesterday and that one took 8 weeks from submission. She said in June/July they were running about 10 weeks which was in improvement from as high as ~18 weeks last year. The ānormalā processing time is ~6 weeks so it seems like things are getting better (ā¦at least until the flood of applications rolls in at the end of the year).
for what itās worth - I had a chat with a lawyer last week who indicated 6-8 weeks from submission to pre-approval.
Hi All, Just wanted to let you know that I got my Golden Visa residency card issued for an initial 2 years last month. It has nothing but a roller coaster waiting ride from the beginning. Kindly shoot me anything you want to ask, shall be happy to answer.
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Hi Everyone, iāve been anxiously waiting for my Residence Card - Itās been almost ONE whole year since my biometrics in Oct 2020. I flew down to Lisbon as had an appointment and got the biometrics done as the primary investor. But i keep on being told that my Residence card (which should have been ready in 3-5 months from the biometrics) is in the last stage! Anyone here on this forum whoās had the biometrics done and is now waitingā¦and waitingā¦and waiting?
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Hello
As a lawyer working on Golden visa procedures, I can confirm that the immigration office didnāt release any slot for several days, except slots with very little antecipation.
What we have been suggesting our clients is to travel to Portugal and wait (and hope) for a slot to appear.
My firm has divided a 24 hour schedule between all of our member of the golden visa team and we keep searching for slots with very little antecipation for our clients that are in Portugal
Another issue, is that many often, people that have appointments done and donāt have the means to come to Portugal, donāt cancel the appointments in the ARI portal, so that other applicants may take it.
If the situation is already complicated, if people donāt cancel the appointments when they know that they are coming, this makes the situation a lot worst.
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Hi Mate, as per information I know there are no backlogs at this point of time as the Residency permits have been processed quite quickly in the past recent months. I got mine & the family members cards have been delivered to my lawyers office in Lisbon within 4 weeks after the fingerprints. You should check with the law firm if you are using one. It is impossible to make a phone call to SEF but the lawyer should have the Technical Administrators email, who shall be able to respond to the Lawyers request on a priority basis. 1 year is bit of a drag, I share your pain but you have to work with your law firm to sort this out.
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Thank you for your prompt reply.
Yes, everything is being done by the lawyers and all i get as answers from them - is that it will happen soon.
When did you do your biometrics?
Your mail gives me greater push to ātake this up stronglyā with the lawyers.
Hi Tommy,
Just wanted to clarify again - after i spoke with my lawyers in Lisbon citing your case (of having received the Residency Card 4 weeks after biometrics) and they were very surprised.
- You did your biometrics/fingerprints just a few months ago and recieved the RC 4-5 weeks later?
- This was not a renewal but a new Residency card - for the first 2 years?
- Did you do your biometrics in Lisbon?
- During pendency of the RC, did the SEF require any clarifications or additional documents from you/your lawyers or was it just straight through processing?
Any other information that may help me to get my lawyers to sit up, take notice and act with the SEF for my Residency Card.
I Must add in my case the SEF DID ask for 2 clarifications (though both had already been provided in all documents submitted in Oct) as late as April 21 and July 21 and were once again provided with the information. (Biometrics were done in Oct 2020!)
Could this have led to delay?
Sorry - piled you with lots of questionsā¦but much appreciate your time in answering
Thanks
-
You did your biometrics/fingerprints just a few months ago and received the RC 4-5 weeks later?
Correct -
This was not a renewal but a new Residency card - for the first 2 years?
Yes, this is the initial application and not the renewal -
Did you do your biometrics in Lisbon?
Nope, not in Lisbon, it was in Algarve -
During pendency of the RC, did the SEF require any clarifications or additional documents from you/your lawyers or was it just straight through processing?
They have requested me to submit the latest papers from the Financas and one more certificate (issued within portugal), I have designated the POA to my lawyer to do the same and it was taken care by the law firm and everything went well. The new card issued is in Light Blue Colour with 2 years initial validity.
-Any other information that may help me to get my lawyers to sit up, take notice and act with the SEF for my Residency Card.
I started my GV application in early Nov 2020 and got the ARI cards issued in the first week of Aug. So, it was close to 9-10 months for the whole process to be completed.
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Hi, everyone! My mother submitted her application (via lawyer) back in January 2021 and was āvalidatedā in April, which the lawyer said means we are now just waiting for the biometrics appointment. We;ve been waiting ever since, unfortunately. My mother was also told that this was due to Covid, so all we can do is wait on SEF to open their books up.
One question did come to mind for me though, does āvalidatedā mean the same as āpre approvedā? Iām not sure about the difference. I read that you only move on to the biometrics stage once youāre pre approved, but our lawyer said my motherās application was validated. Any idea, folks?
Thanks!
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Validated being the status of the GV application is unheard of. Your lawyer should have received an email with the following text " foi admitida a candidatura de AutorizaĆ§Ć£o de ResidĆŖncia de Investimento" This status means the application has been pre-approved and proceed to make an appointment with the SEF for the fingerprints.
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Thank you for that. Itās been a long wait so Iām hoping to hear about an appointment soon!
We were approved in May and still waiting for a Biometrics appointment to open up. Wondering if anyone else can share their waiting times from āapprovalā to āappointmentā to āreceiving cardsā? It took us about 4 months chasing documents, bank accounts on the front end.
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Appointments are not taken chronologically, so the information you are requesting would be largely irrelevant to your situation.
There is a thread on this topic already Timing of Portugal Golden Visa in COVID-era 2020 (and risks) - Residencies & citizenships 
/ Portugal Golden Visa 
- Nomad Gate
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Since I opened this question, I figured I would add my data point. It was just under 11 weeks from my application to the preliminary approval. Now wish me luck in finding a biometrics appointment!
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Hello, I did my fingerprints on September 20 and still waiting for the approval to pay the fees and get my first card. Anyone can help with his experience how long do i need to wait more ?
Thnks
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