Our D7 / Residence Timeline

Posted by: @martinhardy

For anyone interested - just wanted to share the timeline for our process from deciding to buy in Portugal through to Residence cards issued. You notice I say issued, not "in hand"!

Timeline 2021/2022

May / June – living in Singapore, listening to Munsen and others on the joys of living in Portugal, always one of our favorite places in Europe.

Late July – flight to Portugal in search of a property to buy for GV, definitely NOT in Algarve. 18 days target. House hunt via WeChat - wife in Singapore scouring websites

August – 2 changes of flight and hire car to extend hunting trip. Not much property of interest to fit our tick boxes. Gazzumped on my eventual choice.

September – 2 more changes of flight and hire car extending trip again. I'm not leaving till Ive bought! Offer accepted on Jojo’s choice of house. Now planning for D7 as advised.

October – back to Singapore, moving cash to Portugal from NZ / Singapore. D7 Visa Application lodged and passports must be surrendered for duration.

November – Completed purchase of house – IN Algarve! Fun (NOT) moving cash within Portugal to make payment deadline.

December – passports are returned complete with D7 visa 28-12-21 to 28-04-22. With SEF Appt for May.

January – fly to Portugal for one month to see if ‘er indoors approves.

February – decided to stay till SEF Appointment in May. Bought car and motorbike

March / April – enjoying the amazingly green Algarve, new challenges, pastel da nata, Super Bock and super wine!

May 10th – a positive SEF Appointment, departed Portugal (although Res Cards not yet issued) heading for NZ / Singapore to sort out property affairs

June 14^th – Residence Cards still not issued and no news from SEF via Agent - checked with airline in Singapore on acceptability of our SEF docs – can’t board without Res Cards.

June 24^th – Agent collects Residence Cards from SEF. Waiting for advice on courier and tracker.

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Our "adventure" has taken about a year with a number of challenges along the way - some of our own making I suspect, but probably indicative of the general flow of the thing towards the conclusion that we will hopefully have those Residence Cards delivered to Singapore and in our sticky hands in the not too distant future.

If anyone would like to have a chat and attempt to avoid some of the pitfalls we encountered I'm happy to share.

Best of luck to those of you going through, or considering the D7 / Residence process.

Martin & Jojo

 

Great to hear you have made it, we are waiting for the visa to come through, and are going to move to the algarve in Silves - renting first as buying fell through, and  would always like to hear advice and stories from your move !

@misticjeff Hey Jeff, does your spreadsheet have any information on the time taken by New Delhi Consulate for processing D7 visas. I submitted my application 12 weeks ago. Still waiting. Thanks in advance.

@martinhardy Thank You, for sharing another Expats Portugal success story! We joined the same time as You & Jojo. We would not be living in Lisbon currently without all the help from the Premium Plus program and this forum.

@martinhardy How long are you in New Zealand? I'm here in Auckland. We are looking to be Lisbonites by July next year or, if I can get a remote job, Algarvians 😉