A family reunification application for my mother-in-law was submitted by our attorney Jan 29, 2024. My husband is the primary gv applicant, and we both already have our residency cards (which expire this March) from our application 4+ years ago. We should be able to apply for citizenship this November, since it will be 5 years since application.
There had been no movement on my mils application, so October 17 I filed two yellow book complaints. Two days ago, Jan 8 2025, I received notification of her appointment, in Lisbon, February 24, 2025.
Yesterday I received another email with the response to the yellow book complaints, namely the scheduled appointment.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this as a point of reference.
Good to know! I’m in a similar situation (already have card, but added new baby in 2023). Our lawyer never suggested yellow book, just lawsuit. But now I’m just waiting for the new process.
Out of curiosity, did your lawyer say what happens to your MIL’s GV family reunification card if you become a citizen? Can she still renew her GV if the main applicant is no longer on GV? If the investment is sold?
Our lawyer didn’t suggest the yellow book either, I just can’t by nature sit around and wait.
I’m not sure of the answers to those questions, but they’re good ones and I’ll ask. My understanding about the investment is that after 5 years we can sell it regardless, without having any impact on our citizenship application or her reunification application (there isn’t a requirement to have the investment in order to apply for citizenship, is my understanding)
once the dependent has their first card they can renew it even after you become a citizen.
however the original investment must be maintained.
Jim - Your comment about selling the investment after 5 years probably only stands if you don’t need to renew the GV during your citizenship application process. You have to maintain residency during that process, and you’ll need the investment still if you want to renew the card.
@jimhock3 Which specific entity did you select on the Yellow Book site? Was it one of the many AMA ones, and if so, how did you know which one to pick?
If you enter “SEF” in the search bar on the yellow book, 33 AMAs will appear. I randomly chose Porto and Madeira. Both of the complaints seem to have been consolidated, since the notification I received from AIMA included a PDF of both complaints that I submitted.
When I submitted my complaints, “SEF” was included in the description of the ama location, and it now appears that it’s only “Saude”. So my guess is they received so many complaints that way that they removed SEF as an option, but the search engine is still returning the offices.
And it definitely sped things up as other family reunification clients of my attorney who applied well before we did are still awaiting appointments.
Thank you for your detailed explanation. I had tried searching for SEF as well, but like you noted I only got results for AMA/SaĂşde. Hopefully if you write that the complaint is for SEF/AIMA they will still process it.
