I’d like to know if there’s a good solution to this. I applied for both my and my wife’s renewed titulo de residencia (GV) June 1. God only knows when they will come. I have to leave early August and won’t be back for almost a year. When the cards come I’ll most likely be gone. We have someone check our mail box regularly. But if the cards don’t fit inside or they come registered they’d have to be picked up at CTT. I could sign to have our friend pick mine up, or reroute it to her place. But my wife doesn’t live here (no residenve card) so she can’t go to the CTT to sign.
Has anyone successfully had their AIMA residence card forwarded by CTT? I don’t know whether CTT’s mail forwarding service applies to government-issued registered mail like residence cards.
If a card is returned to AIMA, what was the process to have it resent or collected later?
Not exactly your situation but in case it helps. Recently received 4 renewed residence cards by regular CTT mail. Standard envelope size, not registered. Simply dropped in our mailbox. D7 renewals in case it makes a difference
Process started Apr 7th, done online, payment Apr 10, all docs submitted Apr 13. No biometrics required. Cards issued June 12 and received June 29. Note that we renewed 5 and received 4. Did receive email from Aima confirming all 5 approved for renewal but one physical card is still missing.
Ours took 6 months and we wasn’t home so they took them back to the AIMA office we applied at. You will have no notification that they attempted to deliver and no way of getting an appointment for AIMA to retrieve it. After a year we finally queued up outside the AIMA office and managed to get seen the same day, although it was 6 hrs later. They still had the cards and charged us around €140 to collect them. Good luck
Joann, thank you for your response. What a (small) horror story! As an American I can stay for 3 months out of 6. So it’s quite possible ours will come when we aren’t here. First SEF, now AIMA, seem to enjoy making things difficult. We like Portugal, but I don’t know if I’d do this again.
Sincerely,
Craig
Just how small is the mailbox? We received ours in a standard envelope and our mailbox is pretty small. Didn’t even have to sign for it, we opened our mailbox one morning about a month after receiving approval on the AIMA portal and there they were.
Hi cameron_f,
Thank you very much for your response. If it’s a regular sized envelope it should fit. Silly me for thinking an important document would be sent registered mail. You said you received notice of approval on the AIMA website. Was it a case of frequently looking at the AIMA site or did they notify you? Should I be checking in with AIMA frequently?
Thanks
craig
I received an email from AIMA with the following text in March:
"Portal de Renovações - Pedido Deferido
Exmo./Exma. Sr./Sra.
A AIMA informa que o pedido de Renovação de Autorização de Residência que apresentou através do Portal de Renovações foi deferido.
Brevemente receberá o seu novo cartão no domicílio indicado.
Esteja atento à caixa de correio.
Atenciosamente,
AIMA"
I was checking the portal every day as well, just in case. After receiving this email, in the portal my status had changed from Under Assessment to Approved. The card arrived in the mail about a month later, delivered by CTT. This was a renewal for D8 though, not GV, so not sure if that makes a difference.
Next time I would strongly recommend giving your lawyer’s address for renewal. Then they can receive/chase down the cards on your behalf even if you’re not there.
We don’t have a lawyer. Our friend can pull them out of the mailbox, if that’s where they end up. My concern is if they end up undelivered in the CTT. Even a lawyer can’t get them there, unless they are signed on ahead of time and catch it within a week of attempted delivery. If they end up in the mailbox they can sit there until the cows come home.
In that case you write a complaint to CTT, get an undelivered/lost in transit document from them, and with that request AIMA to re-print & re-send the new cards to you.