I would never apply by mail.
I plan to apply by person at IRN office.
Very simple. You send required docs (see the list on IRN), get into the line, and at some point yr process starts moving and IRN sends requests to “external agencies” including AIMA. AIMA replies to IRN if you are fine with residence requirements (which are 5 yrs for the date of application and is resident at the moment of reply). If AIMA’s reply is negative you get first preliminary refusal with explanation, and if you could not solve the problem fast or explain how it happened and receive more time, you get the final refusal.
Well, in person it is more difficult. And may give some comfort that yr docs are fine, yes. Then you may use yr old contagem de tempo, because IRN officials who accepts yr docs may differ in their treatment of docs. However, it is not them who checks yr documents.
“Old” contagem do tempo? What do you mean by old? It states clearly the validity of the resident card. And if my card is still valid, how can it be “old”?
Of course, irn is like a reception. They do not give decision immediately. However, if the IRN staffs refuse to receive and tell that this/that document is missing, then we know immediately what we need to improve and prepare. If they are OK to receive the document, at least from the check list point of view, it is OK.
Just one more time. The longest period of validity for the document that states some fact on the particular date is 1 year in Portugal (birth certificate, my lawyers by the way recommended 6 mo). I guess same applies to contagem de tempo
P.S. By the way, you have got one? As you say that it has last card validity. Mine from Lisbon had this expiry date, yes, but you said yourself that the one from Faro - doesn’t
I did not say I got it from Faro. It was somebody’s. I have a screenshot of it. I requested it at aima and we will see how it’s going to be. I only care about the initial date of legal resident. The rest I do not care. As long as it is issued by aima, it is 100% authentic. We let aima and irn fight each other for the rest of the process.
As being a single applicant, I only care what happens when Irn staff asks me about 5 years legal resident (because I am going to apply in person). I cannot show him my cards because they do add up to 5 years. Hence, contagem to tempo is obligatory. In my opinion, it does help and a big factor for someone to apply under new law. Until now, we are having endless discussion about the initial counting date. Only solution is to obtain the contagem do tempo. Without it, nobody has the power to conclude.
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I do understand you, believe me 
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This also suggests it is dangerous for a primary applicant to get citizenship before their (adult) dependents. Once the primary has citizenship, the dependents can no longer renew their GV, and therefore their citizenship via naturalization can be rejected!
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A lawyer told me dependents can still renew their GVs once the primary applicant has citizenship.
Hi - I heard before that applicants must have renewed (non-expired) residence cards at the time of citizenship application. Can anyone confirm?
(If true, then no one with a 5-year Contagem de Tempo can submit citizenship application in 2025 – even though the law decree extended the expired cards to be valid til 6/2025)
@Sonny, are all your cards up-to-date?
Yes, expiring Feb 2025.
My lawyers did the online renewal when it last opened ( I think) in Feb 2023
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My lawyer in 2021 said that it is highly advisable to renew and even receive physical card before applying. But in 2021 my lawyer believed that 2 yr would cover the whole process. In reality it happened that I had to renew once more time. Highly important is to have it valid at the time when the residency requirement would be checked. My card expired in 2023, but there was an autorenewal and lapse time between permits was about 1.5 months, because my card expired at the beginning of the quarter. At the time of application I am not so sure. It looks like nobody checked mine at the time of application. May be if I did not wait 6 month to get the slot to renew etc. and applied in 2021 via mail immediately after hit 5 yrs time, and later renewed I would not need that extra cost of additional renewal and get my citizenship much earlier as the citizenship waiting time was increasing fast in 2021-22. But just may be. Who knows. I could get a preliminary refusal.
AIMA and IRN do not consider this covid prolongation as acceptable for citizenship, unfortunately. I know example when the person have got preliminary refusal, because at the moment of AIMA’s reply she did not have a valid card, but hoped that covid prolongation would help. However, she manage to explain to IRN that it wasn’t her fault and she couldn’t get the slot. IRN accepted that explanation and she received time to solve the problem, but the process resumed only after she renewed and provided the proof to IRN. So I guess as this year people with cards expiring in 3rd and 4th quarter could not renew yet, if AIMA replies now “unacceptable”, there would not be a problem to get some time to wait/force via court for renewal and provide new card/new contagem de tempo.
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I wonder how that works. Does the investment have to be maintained?
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My lawyer had told me same. As long as I keep investment, I can apply for my dependents.
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Yes I was told investment must be maintained. But my lawyer said that across all visa types, once the original family reunification visa has been granted, it’s standalone and dependents can renew even when primary applicant already has citizenship.
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I believe you can also apply for permanent residency for them and take your investment out if that is approved.
That’s correct, but when you move to a permanent residency (as opposed to citizenship), you have to be be resident in Portugal, otherwise your residency will lapse. Depends on what your goal is.
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GV permanent residency requires that you maintain the investment, as far as I’m aware. In any event, I understand that there have not been appointments for GV PR in a long-time. I don’t know if people have been able to get one with a lawsuit.
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Hello all my fellow hopefuls,
I don’t come to this site often as I just get frustrated by the whole situation. It’s now just over 2 years since we applied for Pre-Approval after buying a quinta in the Alentejo. Can anyone give me an update on the how the wait time works as of now? Is it official? And if so, does it start from initial application date or from 1st application for a Residence Card? Much thanks.
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Answered definitively by @Sonny above on 05 December. Start date of his Contagem de Tempo was 5 days after date of payment of examination application fee - around a week after the date of initial application.
As several people have noted above, this is one data point and it may be relevant which AIMA office issued this Contagem de Tempo, but we do now have a concrete example of the start date being the (or close to the) date of initial application.
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