Finally, my candidacy has been approved as well, more than a month after my wifeās who is my dependent co-applicant.
Final dates:
Applied on Oct 10th, 2021.
Added my wife on Oct 19th, 2021.
I am pre-approved on Mar 7th, 2022.
My wife is pre-approved around Feb 1st, 2022.
Now, it is waiting game for the biometrics. Letās hope I can get an appointment with SEF before Putin will occupy Lisbonā¦ 
wow. the pre-approval was reliably 3 months for so long, then 4 months, and now 5 monthsā¦
I have heard from multiple firms of massive numbers of applicants in December. Larger or boutique firms with 100+ applications in December which means likely 2,000+ applications total in December? Nothing like a deadline to get people moving. If I recall, there were about 2,000 people applied for GV during an entire year not that many years ago so this is a big increase.
I think my case was a bit more complex for SEF: I went with 500K property purchase. It should have been straight forward, butā¦ this is COVID times. The apartment I bought in Lisbon was technically ready September 2021, yet the developer who essentially re-built the building from the ground up in Principe Real couldnāt get all the bureaucrats in the Building Department to approve the final as-built versions of plans, architectural changes, etc., and thus couldnāt get the property recorded (not just me, the entire building consisting of 51 units). Hence it took SEF some time to understand, with a help from my lawyer in Lisbon, that we have paid for the apartment as evidenced by the bank; however, we couldnāt yet receive the title to the property since the Building Department was well behind due to COVID-related staff shortages.
Once SEF finally realised what was happening, things started to move relatively quickly. This is probably why my wife was approved ahead of me since technically it is I who was purchasing the apartment (so much for the International Womenās Day) 
Anyway, patience appears to be an essential ingredient in this process.
Congrats!
Just got my pre-approval today too:
Now ready to add family. Per lawyer there are 2 options:
Anyone had any thoughts between the 2 options?
Dunno why waiting. Could have done family reunification apps alongside. Fingerprints donāt all happen at the same time one way or the other, though there does appear to be a blocker that the primary app has to be approved before the other apps will be fully processed (understandably).
Thank you, and congratulations to you as well! Looks like our time-lines were about the same.
You could have started adding family members almost simultaneously. I added my wife almost right away, and she is approved ahead of me. Now you will most likely have quite a delay to have them processed. Consequently, I have opted for Option 2 you have listed.
Good luck!
Thanks.
My lawyer believed that submitting family along at the beginning would delay the approval.
Apparently that is not the case for you.
Thanks.
My lawyer believed that submitting family along at the beginning would delay the approval.
Apparently that is not the case.
This is quite certainly not the case. Unfortunately misleading advice from your lawyer on this occassionā¦
Like Tommy Gunn mentioned, your lawyer might have misled you a bit unless you have a potential complication with your family membersā past history (such as you might need another background check from a country of birth that takes forever to provide and/or apostille it).
The good news is that you, the primary applicant, is in the queue and will be processed under the āoldā rules.
Thanks.
Yes, that was not a good advise from the lawyer and there was no complication of any issues.
Anyway, hope the family case will be queued under my application submission date.
Pre-approval now received for Main Applicant. Still waiting as regards Family Members whose applications were submitted after.
Main applicant - applied and paid: Late-October 2021
Family Members - applied and paid: Mid-November 2021
SEF Pre-approval for Main applicant: Early-March 2022 (4 months +)
SEF Pre-approval for Family Members: still waiting
Do you receive a document stating that you are pre-approved or is it just the status of your application on the SEF portal ?
Itās a status change. Thereās no document.
I have registered myself directly with SEF site ahead of my lawyer. Hence I can monitor the status remotely. My lawyer receives notifications from SEF, but I just see the status of application changed to the āCandidatura Aceiteā. No other documents were sent to me.
We received email notifications of the pre-approval.
Adding my process to the thread:
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 - Still Waiting
Be great to hear from anyone with a 2021 Q3 SEF pre-approval who has a biometrics date already setā¦and good luck everyone! 
All the delays with the biometrics are making me so hesitant to invest now. If people from Q3 2021 onwards are waiting, then Iāll probably get an appointment next year. I feel bad for all the investors who poured all their hard earned money. Hopefully the situation picks up.
Well, the world has changed dramatically after the Feb 24th of this year. Nobody could have predicted such a major upheaval in Ukraine and for that matter - in Europe. If you are an optimist, you should consider going through with GV investment. However, if you are pessimistā¦ then it might be better to wait to see how this conflict would unfold further and just how much more disruptions to the normal way of life it would bring throughout the world. Very sad situation, indeed.
Right. On one hand I think Portugal is unlikely to be invaded by Russia. So that is a positive. On the other hand, it is quite possible Europe (and Portugal) will be mired in recession for years to come. The whole situation is indeed sad because it is so senseless.