agree with your conclusion on one point: the priority now is protecting and recovering our capital. My concern is that many of us invested based on representations about the process and expected timelines that deserve much closer scrutiny.
Rather than each investor fighting alone, I think investors across all promoters should compare what they were told before investing. If there was a common pattern of material information not being disclosed, there may be value in pursuing a coordinated legal strategy against the promoters and intermediaries that marketed these investments. Sharing information and legal costs would put investors in a much stronger position than acting individually.
Clare, thank you for sharing. Your timeline is particularly important because you invested in early 2022 through Mercan. I’m trying to understand whether investors were given consistent information about expected processing times and whether any known delays were disclosed before funds were committed.
If enough Mercan investors compare what they were told before investing, we may discover a common pattern. If so, it would make sense for us to coordinate rather than each pursuing this individually
Upon application, We were told that citizenship would be 5 years from getting the card. We were told that the card would take circa/minimum 6 months. But that it could take a little longer as process was a bit delayed. It ended up taking 3 years and 3 months to get the cards (one for husband, one for me, mine issued twice and still incorrect - AIMA incompetence).
Regarding the 280k investment, my recollection is that we were told that we would get it back in roughly 6 years from investment.
The approx 6y timeline I believe was based on 5y to PR /citizenship eligibility plus processing /approval times .
In the current environment , the above assumptions don’t hold - PR application is only post 5y of residency and not from the application time - plus processing times are likely to be 12-18m I would suspect . So using an approx 2y period from application to residency card , this takes us to 2y+5y+1y min = 8y we will need to keep our investment , before it is no longer required to reside in Portugal .
This is of course unless the govt changes the rules for golden visa and allows investors to no longer require the investment to be in place once they have completed 5y of residence - good luck with that 
We invested €350k in Heed Capital’s Aston Gold fund in July 2021. Our application was September 2021.
Our original firm was DLAS (we’ve long since left them) and they were parroting the 6-9 months from application to first card. Looking back on our notes, almost every firm said the same thing. One firm was a bit more conservative and said 9-12 months.
The first we heard about delays was when I got on to this form in June 2022. I then spoke with the lawyer and was told that card deliveries are about 9-12 months from biometrics. That was never mentioned at any point post application.
We are currently waiting to have two of our DUCs paid and applied to the AIMA accounts. I’m the primary and I paid up 6 weeks ago. Due to unexpected issues as well as the AIMA portal throwing up error codes, two here are still waiting to submit documents for renewal.
It all seems a moot point though as we are selling our villa and getting ready to bail on the program and Portugal. Once our fund expires (April 2028) I will be liquidating as soon as humanly possible. We are done living in this constant state of flux and chaos.
Thank you, Clare. This is exactly the type of information that is important.
Being told to expect approximately 6 months (or slightly longer) for the first residence card, only to wait over 3 years, is a very significant difference. The key question is whether those marketing representations were consistent with what Mercan already knew internally at the time.
If other Mercan investors have similar recollections or documentation, I think we should compare notes. A consistent pattern across multiple investors would be far more compelling than any single case.
Samit, I agree the current rules create a much longer capital lock-up than most investors expected. My bigger question is whether Mercan knew, or reasonably should have known, that these delays were already becoming systemic when many of us invested in late 2021 and throughout 2022, and whether that was adequately disclosed before funds were committed.
If enough Mercan investors compare the representations they received before investing, we may find a common pattern. That would be far more powerful than each investor trying to fight this individually.
That’s exactly why I believe we need to hold the promoters and intermediaries accountable. The issue is no longer just Portugal’s delays, it’s whether investors were given complete and accurate information that they were entitled to before committing hundreds of thousands of euros.
Many of us locked up our capital for years, through one of the highest inflationary periods in decades, while losing the opportunity to invest elsewhere. If material information about the extent of the delays was known or reasonably foreseeable but not disclosed before investors committed their funds, that is something that deserves very careful legal scrutiny.
Rather than each investor fighting alone, I hope more of us compare what we were told before investing. If there is a common pattern, we should consider pursuing it together.