No, thatās not correct.
For D7 SEF outsources the initial approval but not the biometrics.
ahh, ok. i misunderstood
Just an update on GV processing timing. I have confirmed this with my lawyer in Portugal
1.) Time from submitting to SEF, the applicantās documentation (including confirmation that you have subscribed to a fund), the approval is ~2 months.
As a note. This is the most important date to hit before the end of this year. Once you are in the SEF system you have met the deadline for adhering to the 350K Euro minimum investment and are not subject to next yearās 500K Euro minimum
2.) Once approval is granted the wait time to get a Biometric appointment with SEF is currently ~3 months. After that it is up to a couple weeks for your residency card to be created and mailed
So if you add in the time to get a lawyer, a fund, collect your documents and apostilles, get them translated, your bank account and NIF (tax) number, funds transferred you need to add that time to the 2 months and maybe a little extra padding to be safe before the end of the yearā¦ieā¦Start the process very soon!
Here is a good website that breaks it down: Portugal golden visa processing time is 10 months - Best Citizenships
Awesome, thanks for the update! Iām anxiously awaiting SEF approval. If itās two months, Iāll hopefully see something around the 4th of July.
Eric,
I hate to burst your bubble but I would guess there are at least 50 people in this forum that would disagree with this statement. 
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- We just completed our biometric and are told that we are looking at around another 3 to 6 months. That includes renewing our background apostile. The pandemic has slowed things considerably, but even prior to that 3 to 4 months was the norm after the biometric visit.
another 3 to 6 months for whatā¦ to receive the actual card?
For SEF to complete the process after the biometric appointment until rewarding residency. or, as you put it, āto receive the cardā.
From Portugal Golden Visa: The Definitive Guide 2023 | Get Golden Visa 
Step Seven: Get Your Golden Visa And Renew
Bingo! You and your dependents receive your Golden Visa residence cards. Your law firm or your professional advisor will collect the cards and send them your way. Each card is valid for two years and at the end of the validity period, you will renew your Golden Visa card to receive a new one.
In standard times, it takes roughly four months from your biometrics appointment until you receive your cards.
One has to wonder out loud. If it takes +3 months to get pre-approval and +1 year to get biometric appointment and +6 months to get visa issued, that is pushing 2 years after application. You must hold the investment for 5+ years after visa received so this is actually a serious risk of the Portugal GV from the investor perspective.
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I am experiencing longer than 02 years.
I would be very lucky to get the first card within 3 years.
If things go bad, it can easily go to year 04 and i will still be waiting for the first card.
This is no way as easy as it is advertised.
I would not be surprised if I can get the Portuguese citizenship realistically within 10-12 years. It is impossible to get it within 8 years as the clock now shows 3rd year is reachingā¦
Why do you need to renew your background check apostile if you have already completed your biometrics?
+3 months for pre-approval and +1 year for biometics. I was expecting much less than that. Where do you have these figures from?
If that is the case, this timeline puts the investment schedule in an entire new perspective.
My experience:
December 2020 - online documents submitted
March 2021 - pre-approval notification received
Still waiting to schedule biometric. Our attorney has confirmed the same as is being reported hereā¦ a few months ago the scheduling calendar opened, but just for a few slots. It has been closed since then, except for last minute cancellations.
Yes, this is not new information. I have posted about it several times. There are posters on this forum who have pre-approval in early-mid 2020 still with no biometrics appointment. I am not happy about it, but it seems to be the reality for some. I can tell you personally I have been pre-approved for several months now and my lawyer says not to expect biometrics anytime soon. There are massive backlogs. So, yes it does put the investment schedule into question which is the point I have been making.
Will everything work out in the end? Probably. Does it add new uncertainty and risk? yes.
On this item, after consulting with my attorney, she said the way to deal with this scenario is that you would have to invest again in a new GV fund or some other investment such as real estate to have 5 full years of investment while holding the visa.
Itās fairly demoralizing thinking you are hurrying to beat the increase in the GV investment by end of year, but regardless it will cost 850k and 8 years instead of 350k and 5 years, so what is the point?
To ensure that everyone is treated fairly, I think the only way is for the government to backdate the visa to the date of pre-approval and give applicants credit for this time toward perm residence or citizenship.
850k? where is 850k from?
I imagine at least some of the funds will be able to, if nothing else, just sit on your cash for an extra year or two. Most of these funds have 10 year terms so they arenāt going to just fold up and die at year 7 or whatever.
I quite imagine any fund that has a significant number of GVsā¦ all of the GV holders are likely to be affected in the same way, so if everyone just speaks up at the next shareholder meeting and says āhey we need to hang in longerā then the investment advisors can just dial that in and plan for needing to begin exiting in year 7 instead of year 5, say. Maybe not every advisorās strategy is amenable to using a longer time horizon, but I imagine most can figure something out without screwing the works. For BlueCrow, itās just sitting on the same real estate for longer - trivial. For Rock, either they finish the second construction cycle then just expand the property-rental side for a couple years, or maybe thereāll be time to do a third, if the delays run long enough. Portugal Gateway already makes no statement about being out cleanly in year 5 or 6 or 7 anyway; theyāre going to exit their investments when it makes to do so, not to meet an artificial timeline. If they know three years ahead that the investors need some more time, theyāll just keep the startup-investment-mill going another year or two. They already generally work the redemption schedule such that the GVs get their money back at some reasonable point; all they have to do is give the money back to the GVs last. Not hard.
This is potentially actually harder for the Mercan-route folks. Those contracts have hard timelines built into them, and actual penalties for running longer, meant as an encouragement for the developer to āget on with it and get outā. Maybe itās in Mercanās interest to re-do the contracts, but maybe not - if the plan is to run the hotel for 7 years then sell it and reinvest into Next Project, then maybe Mercan has to execute the buybacks to get full control of the property in order to sell it in order to free up their invested capital for the already-scheduled next project, or to pay back loans/bonds they may have coming due. They might not want to screw the GV holders but they may not have a choice. Anyone Mercan-route might want to ask.
But no fund is likely to argue getting paid another yearās worth of management fees and incentives.
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As I understand, 850k is being seen as worst case scenario. Letās assume that:
- 350k in 05 year will turn out to be 0 due to bad investment
- the fund terminates after 5 years
- and after 05th year you will be most highly likely not getting the citizenship yet. Then you will need to invest GV again (500k for fund route) to maintain your status and hopefully get the citizenship in the subsequent years.
I agree that most funds have the duration of 10 years and even have the option to re-invest for one more cycle (another 10 years). However, most of GV applicants want to have a short time with required investment. Most of them want to get the citizenship eventually as early as possibly, and then have the complete freedom with their money.
To be honest, I think 08 year is very optimal under all facts that I have been witnessing about the process in Portugal. Having the first card in hand does help a lot, but still does not guarantee anything. Because the renewal process to get the 2nd card and 3rd one is also terrible, a lot of people face difficulties to renew it. It is not an automatical renewal process. If i get the citizenship in hand within 10 years, I will be very happy. After reading all information from many groups on the internet, I have never seen anyone shouting out that he/she got the citizenship within 08 years or even submitted his/her citizenship application after completing 3rd card. So it is not easy and straightforward as it is advertised.
Not sure how many months that others have to wait to get the 1st card once completing the biometric appointment. According to my lawyer, it takes 07 months if biometric in SEF Coimbra, 10 months if biometric in SEF Porto, 13 months if biometric in SEF Lisbon.
According to my lawyer, it takes 07 months if biometric in SEF Coimbra, 10 months if biometric in SEF Porto, 13 months if biometric in SEF Lisbon.
I am trying to believe that most of the issues we have been seeing are due to the pandemic. Golden visa program started in portugal around 2012, not that many people went through the full 5 years cycle before the pandemic.
That is offcourse considering we are talking about a country that is bureaucratic by essence, things are complicated by default
My experience:
Purchased Apartment in March / April 2020 in Lisbon. Due to the pandemic, it took 3 months to arrange necessary paperwork for the application and after submitting the application, pre-approval arrived in November 2020. Since that time, no biometric appointment could be scheduled, despite my lawyers claiming that they are checking for slots on a daily basis. sigh.My agony is compounded by the fact that I need a Schegen visa to travel to Portugal along with my wife and daughter; and the Portuguese Embassy in my home country would take at least a month to process it, and then there is the uncertainty regarding whether any there will be any travel restrictions in place if and when our appointment date arrives. Under these circumstances, I would consider myself extremely lucky if we are able to complete the biometrics within the year 2021.
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