I also had my biometric appointment scheduled yesterday in Lisbon, and in the process got a glimpse into how things operate that I thought might be helpful to the community.
The system crashed early afternoon, and they spent several hours trying to restore it before they began rescheduling everyone. Unfortunately, I was next in line when everything crashed. I was told that it would not be possible to reschedule any time in the next two weeks, and that if I wanted to choose my own date it needed to be after July, otherwise I needed to give a range of dates that I was available and they would email me a new appointment of their choosing. That stance softened somewhat, and I left with an April appointment. After I got back to my hotel, I got a call from my lawyer saying that she was able to work something out and that if I came to AIMA when they opened they might be able to squeeze me in for only the biometric portion of the appointment. I did, and was able to get my portion taken care of. A photograph, index finger scans and a signature. Took 2 minutes.
My actual appointment though is still in April, where they will review the documents and take payment. That can thankfully happen with just my lawyer, so I won’t need to come back.
Just to summarize the key points:
- The system is functioning again, and what happened yesterday is rare but does occasionally happen.
- AIMA seems to be verifying all of the documents during the appointment, which makes this more than just about biometric collection. Yesterday’s outage split my process in half.
- Absolutely do not attempt to do this without a lawyer.