Yes, it's a small program but it has created some negative side effects - although you could also consider them positive, depending on your viewpoint. I've been living in Lisbon for 14 years as a EU citizen and currently have to renew my permanent residency card. Unfortunately, the authority SEF responsible for that is not reachable. Online processing doesn't work, making an appointment online doesn't work, writing emails returns auto-replies to call them, and I've given up via phone after more than 60 trials. Even when you get a connection, they don't respond. So I've contacted an immigration lawyer, and they several times mentioned "Gold Visas" and later sent me an offer: 500.- EUR for an appointment they would make with SEF. This might sound like nothing to people from elsewhere but these are substantial amounts for someone with a Portuguese salary. However, this would be peanuts for a Gold Visa applicant.
Problem is sef has been extinguesh (but not really) a few years ago due to an high profile case with them beating to death a ukranian man. For the ‘left’ in this country it is also considered a racist institution. Problem is, as with all that is done in this country, they announce the end, make no real plans for alternatives, leave the people working there in a limbo, noone gets hired and people leave, but they get more and more work to do with the immigrant influx.
The golden visa wasnt already the big deal since it wa slimited, but the digital nomad visa (over two thousand issued in just a few months) and the open door policy of this government (you dont need even a promis eof work anymore to just come to portugal) overwhelmed the services. And then there is the stupid laws that lawyers and other classes working in behalf of clients have priority in these services
Are you claiming that a few thousand of these visas a year overwhelm the system? Then the investment visas are not the problem. The problem is the agency responsible for processing these and the attorneys knowing of the service shortage take advantage of people. Supply/demand. It’s not meant to be affordable for people, it’s meant to be expensive because if you’re reaching out to them to renew, you’re probably desperate.
In UK just filing an application for a normal work visa for a family of 4 costs o
£10,000. This is what the government 5akes, no lawyers
For each applicant, there is a ~1500 application fee and ~1500 healthcare fee ( NHS, 3 years). Ofcourse you will be paying for NHS twice because you also pay the taxes to fund NHS. Spesifics will differe with individual case, but thats the broad strokes.
If you need a lawyer to explain something, they rarely get up for less than £500
Yes, but we're not talking about a work visa, e.g. my case is about a process that would normally be automatic by the press of a button. They even have a web form, it just doesn't work. As someone else noted, the problem is that this agency has become virtually nonexistent and unreachable due to re-structuring and Covid, yet nevertheless keeps being required by law for essential services. I've been tempted to start a EU solicitation process, but then again, being confrontational with an immigration police who have already unlawfully killed an immigrant in the past does not seem to be a good course of action.
SEF has spent a significant amount of time, energy, and money dealing with the Withdrawal Agreement situation for post-Brexit British immigrants. An entire program was set up to convert EU-standard residency paperwork into a customised biometric residency card for around 46,000 people.
That process will be over soon, and SEF may find it has time to spend on other issues.
That may be true and I'm sure individual SEF employees are not to blame, but that still doesn't explain why they've made a web page with a button "Schedule Appointment" and when you press the button it says in red letters "Making an appointment online at this time is not possible" or why they have someone who seems to read emails you sent to them and chooses different replies each time, only to tell you in different ways you need to call them by phone, or why their phone system accepts calls, opens the line (as a technician by the telecom confirmed), but no machine or person actually replies.
