Cancelled appointments, delays in attendance and a sea of
problems - This has been the scenario in the relationship between
Golden Visa applicants in Portugal, and the Foreigners and Borders
Service (SEF).
Since March 2021, only few vacancies for scheduling biometric
data for obtaining residence permits for investment activity, also
known as the Golden Visa programme ("ARI"), have opened
in the SEF online portal and, as if the complexity that this type
of process requires were not enough, this problem has raised even
more difficulties for the investors and their family members
lifes.
Although much of the impact on SEF services was due to the
pandemic and the security measures that had to be adopted by SEF,
it should be noted that during this troubled period there were also
strikes by employees, which affected mainly the border and airport
services, but whose results were also felt in the immigration
offices where the aforementioned bookings are typically made.
