LISBON – Authorities in Portugal have now allowed renewal of visas online to facilitate citizens and foreign residents who were earlier seen queued up outside the office.
The Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) of Portugal has announced that visa renewal, including golden visas can now be done online.
Besides, it has been clarified that people can still visit the SEF centre in person; however, the move to offer visa renewal online has been taken to put an end to the queues and agony of the people.
This is the first time ‘golden visas’ have been included in the online renewals process and the initiative is sure to help people as stats reveal that there are over 20,000 people whose visas will expire in the following weeks.
A news report by media recently highlighted that the daily capacity of SEF does not exceed three thousand while explaining that during just one day in October, there were 29 million attempts by people to make an appointment during a 12-hour period.
The report went on to claim that there are around 225,000 requests or expressions of interest to reside in Portugal in SEF’s system, and the requests were awaiting reply.
Meanwhile, the government has emphasized that expired documents related to the permanence in national territory continue to be considered valid until 31st December 2023.
Portugal’s Golden Visa holders are specifically frustrated at the slow pace of service and have complained multiple times. This comes on top of the fact that Portugal’s Golden Visa scheme is attracting citizens from across the world as the country has increased the investment made through it by 42 percent as compared to 2021.
