Perfect, thanks @tommigun. That’s just the info I was after. Also can we just pause to consider the bureaucratic brilliance that is an online portal for immigrants which is only accessible outside Portugal with a VPN 
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This is older–open for 2021 now.
I have seen no reports of anyone getting past the initial registration on the portal. No booking, no fees, no nothing. I’ve seen reports of many people hung up trying to get that far because of NISS issues.
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Right, good to know. My card doesn’t expire for a couple of months yet, so hopefully it will be operating better by then (hope springs eternal …). In the meantime, I’ll check if my lawyer has had any success with other clients on the portal and report back.
would you know if renewals for dependants are happening?
My card expired in late June 2025. On 22 July, my lawyer received an email from AIMA informing my renewal appointment on 26 Sept in Évora:
“A Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (AIMA) informa-o(a) que tem um agendamento para comparecer em Loja AIMA - Évora situado em Avenida Lino de Carvalho, n.º(s) 7 e 7A Évora no dia 26 de setembro de 2025 - xx:00.
Mais se informa que, para efeitos do pedido de renovação de autorização de residência para atividade de investimento de que é titular, considerando terem sido recolhidos dados biométricos há menos de 10 anos (adultos)/5 anos (menores de idade) e não tendo sido suscitadas dúvidas supervenientes quanto à sua identidade, poderá, querendo, formalizar o pedido junto da mencionada Loja AIMA através de representante legal, munido de mandato com poderes especiais para o ato, estando, por conseguinte, dispensado(a) de nesta fase comparecer pessoalmente.
Na área pessoal do Portal da AIMA (My SEF) poderá alterar ou cancelar o seu agendamento (funcionalidade disponível para renovação de Título/Cartão de Residência e Prorrogação de Permanência). Caso tenha efetuado o seu agendamento, via Portal SAPA ou Portal ARI, poderá alterar ou cancelar o mesmo por essa via."
I have no dependent in my file and my lawyer requests following documents:
- A complete scanned copy of each passport (all pages, including blank ones);
- Proof that you and your family members have spent at least 14 days in Portugal – this includes boarding passes (entry and exit) and invoices issued in Portugal with your Portuguese tax identification number (NIF).
- We will also need the following documents:
Criminal record certificates* (duly legalized and apostilled):
- From the country of residence for the last year – for the main applicant;
The lawyer asks for transfer all of legal and government fees before the appointment and they will make payment on my behalf. She future said:
“Please note that this is a new procedure, and while we are moving ahead promptly, we do not yet have full visibility on all the steps that may be required. In this case, as is not official, we cannot guarantee you that the authorities won’t ask for fresh documents again.”
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I think that is wording agreed by the association of advocates as they really do not know what will be required. AIMA HAS NOT EVEN NOTIFIED FEES OR REQD DOCS so they are just requesting what was given in the past.
Not exactly. My lawyer did not request for proofs of investment (mine is PE fund) which were required at initial biometrics.
(First message in this forum. I hope I did not miss any introduce yourself section.)
From the links posted above and elsewhere in the forum, I gather the following:
For Holders of residence permits expiring before 30 June 2025
Holders are notified (email) by the Mission Structure, in chronological order of the expiry date of the permits, i.e. from February 2020 to June 2025.
Has this process started, has anybody received an email?
Had they made an online application for receiving the email?
What’s the latest expiry date for which an email was received? Are they past 2020?
(My GV expired in 2023)
Yes.
Yes
2023.
Your GV expired in 2023? As Desi said to Luci, you got some spaining to do.
Here is the “spaining”, naturally including a lawyer!
When our GVs expired, my wife (the dependent) was able to use the online system for renewal, but mine required an appoinment. I still don’t know why.
Our lawyers insisted they were following the issues with SEF and it turned out I was actually given an appoinment. But the lawyers missed it! I found about it later when I logged into the old ari system out of curiosity. (And the lawyers’ excuse was that they were supposed to receive an email.)
So, now I’m a bit worried that have I been kicked out of the systems? Will I every be able to join back?
I was able to travel to and from Portugal in the meantime.
Way back in mid-2021 we were told by multiple lawyers that you could expect to renew your residency card two times - year 2 and year 4. Presumably one would then be able to apply for citizenship at the expiry of the 5-year term. My question for the community is this - since by all accounts, the application and waiting time for citizenship is upwards of 3 years, are people having to renew their residency cards while waiting for citizenship?
We are trying to ascertain approximately how many times we may have to renew our cards if the legislative proposal goes from bad to worse. A low estimate right now for 3 of us is about €12,500 per renewal. 5 or 6 renewals would be the most bitter of pills.
There probably exists a figure, on this forum, of how much a citizenship application costs but I am far too tired to scour the pages looking for it. If anyone has a number of what AIMA is charging and what the estimated legal fees are, I would be most appreciative.
Happy Sunday! 
The fee to apply for citizenship is EUR 250,00
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Yes, you need to renew your residency while waiting for your citizenship. I think you need to have a valid residency at the time they examine your documents, about a year or so after nationality application
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That depends on whether you are on the investment path or the old real estate path, and whether you are tax resident or not, and when you expect to pass your language test.
If you are on the investment path, you renew the temporary or at year five move to permanent GV, renewable every five years. If you are resident, you could move to permanent, renewable every five years at a low fee.
If you are on the real estate path, you renew as a D2 for three years at a much, much lower fee. Or you could go permanent, renewing every five years at a low fee.
The idea of renewing only twice kind of fizzled out around 2022, when the citizenship application was clearly taking more like 18 months.
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Thank you Ernest.
We are on the investment path, tax resident in Portugal (for now) and no idea on the language test!
So you could pass the language test, then move to the regular permanent visa with the low fee for five years, and then again if necessary. The downside is that you have to be tax resident, in effect, through the next necessary renewals until citizenship is in hand and you could again have the option to exit residency. If you want to keep the option, you have to stay on the GV path, pay the higher fees, and also pay IRS.
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Article here from a few days ago on the ‘NISS issues’ when trying to renew. I have no idea if the AIMA workaround makes sense or works… I leave that to people who actually have their residency cards 
Did you do the property investment or the fund investment? I see there is someone on this board that has explained that the property investment is the one that is converted to a D2 and then has the lower fee. Not sure if that is correct.
Did you do the property investment or the fund investment? I see there is someone on this board (thanks elorimerlogin) that has explained that the property investment is the one that is converted to a D2 and then has the lower fee. Not sure if that is correct in your case?
We did property investment, the rehab €380k option, and our attorney said a definite “no” a year ago, when I asked, if we would be converted to a D2. She said we’d always be golden visa, and at our renewal appointment this June were charged the €3k per person fee.
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