Received this from my consultant (Henley)
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Current delays: the GRP program continues to experience delays due to a backlog in the number of applications to be processed by the immigration office (AIMA). This applies to the stages of acceptance, biometrics, approval and issuance of residence cards. Although we as a firm cannot intervene with the internal backlogs of the Portuguese Government, we are systematically pressuring the Government and continue to monitor the different wait times. The backlog is expected to be improved but it is important to know that wait times are continually subject to AIMA’s inner progresses. On a positive note, it is now confirmed that a number of the Lisbon Immigration Office files are being sent to other Immigration Offices around the country (including the islands), to facilitate and speed up the processing of the total amount of files still to be reviewed.
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Subpoenas: applicants can choose to subpoena the Portuguese immigration office. Even though subpoenas based solely on the delay of the analysis of the applications were initially working because it was a new proceeding (the court had no option but to accept them and issue a decision in favor of the client), please know that the lawyers have been receiving a much larger number of rejections from the courts in this regard. This has to do with the enormous volume of subpoenas - one might say even an abuse of use of this proceeding; the court is now much more demanding on the fulfillment of the requirements to issue a favorable result. For this reason, most lawyers are only recommending this legal proceeding for cases of applicants who are living in Portugal or have actual plans of relocation to Portugal in the near future. Important to understand that this has also added to the pre-existing backlogs.
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Citizenship diploma: a new diploma has been added to the citizenship law which entails that, for purposes of citizenship application, the applicant will be able to count 5 years from the date of a) online submission of the application, or b) initial biometrics visit. The reason why it is not yet certain which of the moments will count is because the diploma has not yet been published. When this happens, there will be confirmation on which of the moments will be considered, as well as the paperwork requirement for such application. In any of the two possibilities, this is certainly favorable to you and all applicants who come in to the program. We will keep you informed as soon as there is final clarity on this.
This has been discussed ad nauseam in this forum, right?
The only new information that I could glean from this is that Lisbon bios are now being sent to other offices around Portugal for ‘faster’ 
processing.