I would like to know how to renew D7 visa

Hi @yubayashi,

You can apply online at SEF website (with your login SEF account):

You can only renew if you already have a valid residence permit or if it has been expired for less than 6 months.

https://www.sef.pt/pt/Pages/pre-marcacao-online.aspx

https://justica.gov.pt/Servicos/Renovar … Residencia

(Translation required)

Regards

@JohnnyPT Thank you very much.

I understand.

I do not have SEF account, so I have to make one first, right?

Also, when will I be able to apply for online renewal?

Can I still apply for online renewal when I have 4 months of validity left?

Cumprimentos

I'm in the same situation you are. SEF is being phased out, so in mid-December, I asked an attorney friend for help.

Here's what I was told:

"As you may know SEF suffered a major change a few months ago and for renewing your residency cards you now need to get a slot at IRN (Registry Services) what's been impossible. But you have until 6 months after the cards expire to do that. Here is the link where you make the appointments - check it every day for new slots. Assunto (marcacaodeatendimento.pt)."

Good luck, Rick

@yubayashi,

To do that, you will need to create a SEF account.

You can try this way suggested by @rbecker100:

https://siga.marcacaodeatendimento.pt/Marcacao/Assunto

Combo box:

Tema = "cidadão"

Subtema = " autorização de residência"

@rbecker100

@JohnnyPT

Thank you both.

I tried to make a reservation, but I cannot.

Because there is no available time.

The site displayed the following message.

~~~~~~~

1. ENTIDADE: IRN Registo

2. ASSUNTO: Cidadão / Autorização de residência / Renovação de autorização de residência / Nº de Casos 1

3. DISTRITO: AVEIRO / LOCALIDADE: TODAS AS LOCALIDADES

Não existem horários de marcação disponíveis para os critérios selecionados.

Os horários apresentados são referentes ao fuso horário no local de atendimento.

~~~~~~~

It's going to be a struggle to get an appointment.

I understand now why rbecker100's friend said, "check it every day for new slots".

By the way, if I make an appointment, does that mean I go to the counter on that date and time and can renew my visa on the spot?

By the way, if I make an appointment, does that mean I go to the counter on that date and time and can renew my visa on the spot?       -@yubayashi

Yes, check the place /address where you're making the appointment and be there in advance with all the necessary documents. Try every day at IRN or SEF websites, slots should open up periodically.

@yubayashi

You can renew residence permit online but your permit is Saudi Arabia .then you want a Saudi id person.

Thanks for the information here and especially to JohnnyPT for such useful advice all the time. I have tried the form for days/weeks now and no luck with any available slots, weirdly it always selects the district for me too which isn't convenient?

I realise we have some buffer time once the residence permit expires but I have some flights this summer (important trips I cannot cancel) which would be after my permit expires so my concern is if my permit expires and i cannot show border patrol a scheduled meeting for instance? Thanks and good luck all!

Hi @AdamDR,

The AIMA website is still being built. There isn't even an English version yet. I suggest you go to a Registo office. Use the SIGA app and choose a office to renew you residence permit.

https://justica.gov.pt/en-gb/Servicos/R … nce-Permit

Ok thanks for the advice but I think this is the same route as the above thread? I've tried for days and weeks to get a slot but also the Subtheme is now not even showing Residence Permit anymore. I assume Citizen Card - Request/Renewal is incorrect but tempted to schedule a meeting just to meet with someone from there!

Ok, try one of the CLAIM service points. At least to get some info / solution to your case:

https://eportugal.gov.pt/servicos/centr … tes-claim-

Select city / CLAIM office:

https://plim.acm.gov.pt/contactos/contactos-rede-claim

@AdamDR I'm tempted to do the same. Thx.

@AdamDR I requested a May 7 appointment on the Siga/IRN site for citizen card renewal. In the dropdown, it accepted my shorter D7 visa number. Yesterday I received a reminder email. Fingers crossed. 

@rbecker100 do you mean a normal Citizen card renewal? Ok good luck, I also booked one with my residence card - just in case I couldn't arrange another meeting/option which I haven't so far. Do you have an account on SEF and are able to login? My lawyer said you can go to one of the AIMA HQs or Lojas do Cidadao to request and reset details as I have nothing but errors trying to access.

Out of curiosity, which district are you applying from too?

@AdamDR

Yes, I used the Citizen card renewal slot. My appointment is next Tuesday in Matosinhos, Porto district. I logged into SEF but that led to nothing. In February I went to the Porto SEF/AIMA office and was referred to the Siga/IRN as the only way to schedule an appointment. Another dead-end. At least now I can talk to a human. I’ll keep you posted. As always “boa sorte”. 

@rbecker100 Wow, ok thanks for the info. So I also went to a loja do cidadão and they said they couldn't arrange a meeting there or help so they advised the same. I haven't been able to get into the SEF portal as my credentials aren't working but I can't reset password or do anything. I was advised to go to a SEF/AIMA HQ to reset the password but it sounds like this won't even lead to much. It's unfuriating.

I also have a meeting in Matosinhos (end of this week) so I'll hopefully be able to post some information here to help you for yours.

Excellent.

@rbecker100 Hi, only suggestions so feel free to still attend yours or do what you think is best, but I really wouldn't recommend going to the Matosinhos IRN. It was a whole wild goose chase this afternoon with them stating they can't help with anything re. residence permits so they recommended going to the Loja do Cidadao in Porto, which I've seen listed online as a place for resident permit renewals also. We of course didn't have an appointment but were promptly seen fortunately and the woman there told us they simply get appointments handed over by AIMA and that they can't manually register us one so to keep trying to book one and to phone and email and plead our case to try and get one of the cancellations. She said there's a big overflow currently and lots of people have expired cards.

She said a few other bits like the residency permit will remain valid for a while post-expiry and you can still enter and exit the country with your passport but I'm very wary when it comes to explaining this at border control and have quite a bit of travel coming up this summer. Separately, I have issues with SEF portal which she mentioned some cards and people will qualify for online renewal and this opens up periodically so you can keep trying on there but you also said you got dead ends there too. She couldn't help to recover my password or sort my account so we had to go to AIMA/SEF offices in Porto and what a mistake that was - of course just ages queuing only to be told they can't help in the office and you must email/phone AIMA who will be able to assist with my account access, and of course they couldn't help to book a renewal meeting. So options look incredibly slim, it's either fail to get a meeting on the SEF portal or fail to find a meeting in the SIGA app. A lot of info above so please let me know if anything is unclear and I'll try and clarify.

@AdamDR

Thanks for the prompt and thorough report on your adventures yesterday. I’m taking your advice and canceling our Tuesday IRN appointment in Matosinhos. Like you, we’d planned travel this summer – around the Schengen and US. Another expat told us to avoid the Schengen if we fly in and out of Portugal. But we don’t want to tempt fate at the border, especially after renewing our lease here.  Over the weekend, I’ll email my attorney in Lisbon for suggestions. If she has something new to offer, I’ll let you know. We’ll use this time in limbo to improve our Portuguese, see parts of the country we’ve overlooked, and wait for the government to resolve this mess. Good luck and best.

.. and wait for the government to resolve this mess.
    -@rbecker100

The right thing to say here is to wait for the new government (that just began a month ago) to resolve the mess created by the previous government...

Agree. Thank you.

@rbecker100

Today the SEF portal was open and I was able to renew my D7 automatically online. They sent me a PDF payment form with my info included. Tomorrow I'll verify it at the local AIMA office. Good luck.

@rbecker100

Congratulations!

I'm wondering if you updated your card with a two year expiration date (the first time) to a three year expiration date (the second time)?

Yes. Two to three.

@rbecker100 congratulations! Very happy for you, if not a tad envious I hope it arrives soon and you're able to travel once again but if you've got official confirmation from SEF/AIMA, it should be more than enough for border officials combined with your recently expired card. May I ask what month your permit expired as I've read that eligibility for online renewal is based on that?

I have the fun job of trying to get into my SEF portal as I never set this up but my details are attached to an account apparently and literally no one can tell me the email address or reset the password or help in any way it seems. Hoping once I do, I can renew like you did. Thanks for your updates

Thx. We’re overjoyed.

I don’t remember signing up with SEF, but here is the registration page: https://www.sef.pt/pt/Pages/registo.aspx

If you remember the email address you used when you arrived to finalize your D7 then I think you can recover/change your password like any other website. The recovery message will be sent to your email address. Worth a try. I use a Chrome browser with the free Google Translate extension.

Likely SEF has your email info somewhere. After I recovered my password, I followed links to Automatic Visa renewal, and it walked me through the process. I double-checked the info, hit enter, and waited until the computer quit spinning. Patience. When it stopped, I hit refresh and there was the PDF confirmation. It takes 48 hours after you get the PDF before you can pay the fee. You have a week - 177.40 euros. We went to our bank this morning and paid the fee through the ATM with the help of a clerk. Everything matched. The approval is only valid with the ATM receipt. I stapled them together. We’re good to go.

My expiry was January 7, 2024

Hope this helps.

@rbecker100 Hi, thanks for much for the quick replies, it helps a lot and I really help all of this information can help others as the systems and processes are an absolute mess and as I've read elsewhere, it's meant to be fairly difficult or tedious but not near-impossible or a true test of your patience and will! Others have sunk 100s of hours into the phoneline only to be told they need to use the SIGA app and to hope and pray on a cancellation but you're up against thousands of applicants.

Anyway thanks for your concerns on my portal access but honestly I have tried every possible thing imaginable - it's insanely frustrating as I also don't remember signing up so I believe SEF just assigns your card to an account but I never received the details. When I try and reset the password, it hits an error and the employees at AIMA (quite unhelpfully) told me that's because it must be the wrong email but I've tried every single email I have and my lawyers have tried also. When I try to re-register it says "Já existe um utilizador registado com o mesmo número de identificação." so basically my card/details are already used with an account. For others - use the Chrome extension google translate, the site fails if you try to use their inbuilt translation. Simply no one can help me login or find my correct details and the phone line is busy 24/7.

Fortunately, I think I've found one possible solution and hope I qualify for automatic renewal but your expiry is Jan and I've read it opens quarterly so you qualify with Jan, Feb, Mar. I only expire now in May so with a little luck, I'll qualify soon enough - online it says it's valid for 6 months post-expiry, but IRN woman said it's 1 month post-expiry. Thanks for info on payment also, glad you sorted everything out and I hope your renewed permit arrives shortly.

For anyone in the future, hopefully there's some information above and in this link which helps you also, and this experience sounds exactly the same as yours, rbecker100. I've tried to get ahead of my expiration due to travel this summer but it looks like Automatic Renewals open on the portal in the weeks after expiration. You only qualify if SEF/AIMA have your details stored, otherwise presumably you still need an IRN meeting via SIGA to do it. Best of luck

https://expatsportugal.com/new-forum/re … post-36026

Many thanks to all this has been very informative, our visa's don't run out for 9 months but we'd been told to get a head of the game and get started asap. However it would appear that we won't be able to do anything until our visa's expire. I can't even find an option for automatic visa renewal on the SEF website.

Thanks AdamDR and rbecker100. Our residence cards expire end June 2024. Tried all of the routes to renew online and went to IRN and  AIMA. No luck with either. IRN meeting in May very informative but no help. Lady just said AIMA had stopped issuing appointments for residence cards and she had no idea when it might restart. Today 1st June logged onto SEF portal and the website allowed renewal of one visa (need to pay fees in 8 days). However my partners login failed and reregistering or changing password did not work for unknown reasons. So we are still in the boat of looking how to renew without access to portal or service. Any info on how to get back into the SEF portal or get help from AIMA appreciated.

@Cwilson Hi, I hope some of the info above helped though I can't assist too much as I still haven't successfully renewed mine and am waiting on it to become available on the SEF portal. Looking at your situation, it all sounds familiar but I'm impressed you're able to renew your card already to be honest, given your card has yet to expire. Mine has expired in May and still no luck - remember your card is valid for at minimum 1 month after it expires (there's conflicting information where some say 6 months too). I'd go ahead and renew yours if you haven't already then just focus on your partners as that's at least part of the headache resolved.

The SEF website and backend is quite bad and I doubt it's being maintained. I too had the errors with logging in or resetting the password - see my posts above where all the AIMA immigration office told me in person is that my credentials are wrong and it must be the wrong email to get that message so keep trying...

Unfortunately I can't advise on how to reset the password or gain access however it should be mentioned in the thread and elsewhere that the ability to renew online in the SEF portal should only become available in the months following your expiration.

To make matters worse, apparently there's even more staff leaving AIMA due to the workload and stress and almost in protest to how bad it has all got, so this won't help matters. https://www.portugalresident.com/new-im … -to-leave/

That's the bad news. The good news is that the government is going to change the rules for receiving new immigrants today. The pressure on AIMA will be less, so let's hope they respond to pending requests (+400k) more quickly...

https://expresso.pt/revista-de-imprensa … a-83f9228f

I didn't get much out of the write-up on Diário de Notícias.  I mean, there was much discussion of a couple of situations, but not ones that I see people here asking about.

• ending manifestation of interest -- that seems like it's more of an issue than the article was making of it, because many people in this situation are here relieving the lack of workers in some industries, am I right?  Now what - apply and wait a couple years to take that job?
• trying to improve the treatment for Brazilian and other CPLP immigrants

For the folks I see asking questions here, for the most part, I guess the good news is they're going to try to do better, maybe put more resources into it.