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Who gives the decision on initial D7 visa, embassy or AIMA?

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maeren69

Hello,


As mentioned on several topics, different Portuguese embassies around the world have slightly different requirements for D7 visa. For example, some embassies do not require you to have a bank account or rental contract while applying for the initial D7 visa, whereas some other embassies are very strict on these requirements.


However, I recently contacted the Portugal embassy in my country to ask the status of the visa application, -- which I made 6 months ago and received no result yet -- and the embassy said that all evaluations are made by AIMA (former SEF), and the embassies do not have any control.


I find this hard to believe.


Do you have any idea about this subject? I earlier thought that the decision about the initial 4 month D7 visa was made by the embassies, and the final decision (i.e. the issuance of residency card after AIMA/SEF appointment) is made by AIMA/SEF. But the embassy says that even the decision about the initial 4 month visa is made by AIMA/SEF.


Look forward to hearing from someone with credible information on this.

donn25

How are you going to determine whether you have a more credible source than the Portuguese embassy?

h9654004745

@maeren69

Hello  I'm from India ,maybe AIMA takes the decision ,or the embassy  of Home country ,No matter who gives the decision, the decision should be come on time.There is different time for taking decisions in all countries worldwide ,Of course, the time for taking the decision is written in the websites of all the countries embassies as 60 days.I think that the result of Asian country is taking much  longer time.

Which country have you applied from?

JohnnyPT

@maeren69,

This visa analysis is centralised in Portugal and not decentralised through embassies. The credible information you're looking for is given to you by the PT embassy...

maeren69

@donn25 So you say that the personnel answering phones at the embassies always tell the truth, ok.


If all the decision are centralized, how come some embassies issue the visa without asking for a Portuguese bank account or rental contract?

donn25

We get conflicting information about the requirements for the D7 visa -what will meet the requirements, how rigid the requirements are, maybe it's best 3 out of 4, who knows.  Portuguese bureaucracy isn't known for its rigid conformity to published standards.   But direct information from representatives of the government seems to me like the best you can do.  People like us on forums will try to help, but we're as likely to spread myths as anyone.

pwinternational

@maeren69

Our Canadian experience 

In Canada we have several Portuguese consulates and one Portuguese embassy. We brought our application  to the consulate in Vancouver BC. We asked the official where the decision to issue a D7 visa is made, and she said Lisbon. I think this is consistent with an earlier response to your question.

We received our approval this week, 65 days after we applied. We did the work ourselves but asked the consulate a couple of questions via email, along the way. They were very helpful. However, while Canada is one of the largest countries in the word by area, it has a small population compared to the United States. Therefore it is likely that less people from Canada apply for the visa than more populous countries.

Best wishes and good luck.

JohnnyPT

India is ""just"" the most populous country in the world... It's only logical that there should be annual visa quotas for that country, especially for a destination that is small. Making comparisons with visas from other countries doesn't make any sense ...

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