Visited the biometrics appointment in Lisbon in Nov 2023
Submitted the last related up-to-date docs by Mar 2024
Current status in the ARI portal: Application accepted / Candidatura Aceite
What worries me is that we never received the final DUC to pay money, and, as I understand, since Jan 2025 the procedure has changed, and the payment now must be made at the biometrics appointment (which we already had).
My lawyers say that we don’t need to do anything, we just need to wait until AIMA sends a notification. From reading lots of posts here, it seems to me like it’s the opposite, and the lawyers must request from AIMA a “reset” of status to an earlier stage, so that we can get a new biometrics appointment at some point, otherwise we’re stuck forever.
What’s the “correct” course of action here?
I understand that most people are also stuck, but I can’t find posts of people stuck between Bio and the final payment, and I see more and more people with “ ARI granted and received” status in the Nomadgate database Main view — Crowdsourced Golden Visa Timeline Database by Nomad Gate for people who filed after me, so I feel like maybe I am not doing enough — I think my lawyers might be rather bad, but it’s hard for me to estimate where their and bureaucrats’ incompetences meet.
AIMA’s recent request that some people re-submit documents was a measure to try to speed up biometrics appointments, and AIMA later clarified that it only applied to people awaiting those appointments. You definitely seem stuck, but there’s no reason to think you would have to do biometrics again. Your lawyers advice to wait it out doesn’t seem correct to me. I’m not a lawyer and would never offer legal advice, but this just sounds like AIMA forgot to send the DUC. If it were me, I would ask my lawyer to bug them about it.
Hi @JustTim - folks like you (and me) are in the “Awaiting Final Approval (Stage 4)” thread:
Be sure to also scroll up from that post above and read the warnings if you should finally get a DUC but it’s not for the right amount - don’t pay the wrong amount or you may never see that money again!
That said, people who are doing biometrics this year under the new process (where you pay your 6k € at the AIMA office during bios) absolutely are being treated better, with final approvals and cards a few weeks/months after. I haven’t heard of anyone repeating bios just to get in on this new process, however.
Application : Dec/2021
Preapproval : Nov/2023
Biometrics : Feb/2024
Wife biometrics : March/2025 (they called her 13 months later than me(I do not know why we filed both in dec/2021 !), she paid 6k duc during biometrics - new system)
I do not think we need to do bio again. We will just wait until Lisbon office finishes 2023 spring / summer biometrics. Then they will notify us. I hope.
Its really a nightmare that we will get our cards 5 years later than our first application (2021->2026). I hope I can get my card before passing away. By the way for similar date Lisbon biometrics (like autumn 2023, winter 2024) we can make a watsapp group to update ourselves.
ARI granted and received” status in the Nomadgate database Main view — Crowdsourced Golden Visa Timeline Database by Nomad Gate for people who filed after me, so I feel like maybe I am not doing enough — I think my lawyers might be rather bad, but it’s hard for me to estimate where their and bureaucrats’ incompetences meet.