@supermoira
Can you please share the name and contact of your lawyer, maybe I can contact him/her as my lawyer has been saying for quite few months that it’s not possible to book renewal appointment.
Hi Zach,
My lawyer was also telling me it was not possible until now. Perhaps they just opened them up now? I’ll send you the details in any case by private message 
@supermoira,
Thank you, I really appreciate it. I am looking forward to receive the contact detail of your lawyer in private message.
Our attorney requested renewal appointments this morning, March 20, for my husband (main applicant) and me (spouse) and by this afternoon, the same day, received a response from aima with two appointments scheduled for the same day, at 9 and 930am, in Setubal, in early June, 2025. Our cards are expiring in 4 days, 3/24/25.
Before we received the appointments, I had asked when she thought we would be able to get an appoinment, “June? December?” and she said she had “no idea”, that it depends on the person who receives the request, so she was as surprised as we were at the quick response and relatively close-in appointment.
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Congrats on the appointments, how did she submit the request? if email, which one if you don’t mind sharing?
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It was an email to geral@aima.gov.pt
Hello,
I am enquiring if anyone with the erstwhile physical real-estate visa attended a physical renewal appointment, and if so, whether the fees charged were the ARI fees or the D2 renewal fees?
Thank you
This is already answered above in the wiki. See “Fees”. If this information is inaccurate, it should be updated by someone. Otherwise, assume it is accurate. That is the beauty of the wiki
Hello, the Wiki says the fees for a GV renewal for real estate is 6610,30 but the link provided to the Official AIMA fee schedule says it’s 4030,90.
Just want to share this. After emailing Aima many times - and receiving the standard reply about applying to IRN - I received an email today from Aima informing me that I have an appointment in September in Évora! Very grateful for this, my only problem is that my husband is my sponsor and he hasn’t received his appointment yet. Our lawyer is saying that he will get an email soon and if not, to go to my appointment as well.
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Hi Terence,
Thanks, yes I did read the wiki and the amount mentioned. However, since on the other Renewal online thread, there are a mix of responses of both in-person and online renewals . I think it would be good to hear of a first-hand experience of someone with a real-estate GV who has secured a renewal appointment and actually gone through the process. I couldn’t find a first-hand account so far, hence the query. Although someone has mentioned recently about paying the ~600 euro processing fee.
Urgent: Please advise about DUC payment 
Is it true that only law firms can handle the DUC payment process?
I have done everything by myself, and now just need to pay the renewal fee. I believe I can do it on my side. They want to hold that final process in their hand and threaten me that they may stop the payment process if I do not pay their consultation fee (for no jobs/no support), or I must inform them of a new law firm to take over.
They left me for 1 year with no follow-up, no advice, no effort to make an appointment with AIMA, therefore I started to collect the latest information, then got an appointment, prepared ALL the required documents, and visited AIMA to register for biometrics. AIMA rejected my documents, and requested additional support docs, then finally accepted, so now it is at the very final stage. I have done ALL by myself, but somehow the notification was sent to the law firm which I used for the first-time application for a resident card.
I didn’t get any help from the law firm for the renewal process. They presented the cost of renewal support, but I have never said “Go Ahead” or “Agreed”, just asked them to let me know in advance “Which entity (an applicant or a law firm) can proceed”, because I was skeptical if they could work on it with the best earliest timeline, in case, I could do better by myself, as the law firms are always busy handling many cases. Although they didn’t reply to that question, they insisted as if they “assisted” and I “agreed”. The deadline of DUC payment is 30 days. They still hold the payment site and do not disclose it UNTIL I pay their consultation fee. Is it a proper business?
Please advise. Send me a DM. Thank you.
It is absurd and a scam!
DUC is just a reference number and you need that reference number to pay by the bank app or ay the ATM.
In your case, print out the email that lawyer has threaten you. Bring the printed email to AIMA and beg the security guard that you are only here to ask for the reference number. It is better that all emails from Aima go to you directly, not the lawyer. It is painful to read your story. I wish you good luck!
Thank you so much for your warm message… (very emotional by reading it 
)
Yes, I have done ALL the communication directly by myself (struggling for portuguese language, unknown documents, etc), especially it was hard to find two local witnesses who could sign on my “atestado” and come with me at junta de freguesia during Mon-Fri daytime…
The law firm holds up my payment site. During the past year, I was unable to go abroad, or even visit my home country. The time has finally come. If the DUC reference number expires due to the fault of the law firm, I can’t stay sane. I would seriously go to AIMA to finish payment with all the printed paper of communication evidence. Your comment energized me a lot.
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One important thing. Make sure that AIMA does not send the card to lawyer. Instead, they inform you to pick up the card at AIMA’s office. Keep fighting and know that we are on the same boat. My lawyer is even worse than yours. I am thinking a way to get rid of my lawyer too. Now I can do things on my own.
Better yet, see if you could change address (since you already have “atestado de residência”) to the one in Portugal, that would be the address AIMA would use to send your card.
That’s a good point. I will definitely emphasize that.
This time, I expected to receive the notification and card at my home address, but somehow AIMA sent a notification to the former rep (= the law firm). In this way, they hold up my final step.
Thanks for encouraging me. Once it’s resolved, I am happy to help you, sharing my experience/knowledge.
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That’s true. As I have lived in Portugal for a few years, I am the one who represents myself, doing tax declarations at Finanças every year, already managing my daily life here independently.
At the AIMA office, I have clearly written my home address on the application form of renewal, so the new card should indicate my address. Otherwise, I will promptly take action to revise the address on my card.
Thanks for your insight.
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I would probably threaten the firm with making a formal complaint about them. Assuming you never formally instructed them to handle your renewals (you didn’t sign anything upfront?), I don’t see how they can be holding you to ransom in this way, it’s deeply unprofessional.