Key figures — as of 2026-09-16: Submission-to-biometrics gap now running at approximately 12 months, down from 18–24 months reported earlier in 2026 — applicants who filed by end of 2025 are being scheduled for Q4 2026 — card issuance still adds a further 9–12 months after biometrics — AIMA issued 386,000 residence permits across all categories in 2025, a 60% increase on 2024.
The number that matters
Roughly twelve months. That's the current gap between filing a Golden Visa application and getting called in for biometrics, according to legal analysis from Global Citizen Solutions, whose team notes "the gap between submission and biometrics is now running at approximately 12 months, with applicants who submitted by end of 2025 being scheduled for Q4 2026." That's a meaningful shift from the 18-to-24-month range other specialists were quoting for the same stage earlier this year, and it's the clearest sign yet that the investment-visa queue at AIMA — the Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo — is genuinely moving rather than merely being described as moving.
For context, biometrics isn't the finish line. It's the fingerprint-and-photo appointment that has to happen before AIMA can even begin the final approval and card-production stage. GrowIN Portugal has previously reported that the biometrics slot itself had run 12 to 30 months for some applicants in 2026, per specialist analysis, so a consistent ~12-month figure for anyone filing through late 2025 represents the tighter end of that range becoming the norm rather than the exception.
Why the wait has been so long — and why it's easing now
The root cause is structural, not a one-off glitch. AIMA replaced SEF in late 2023 and inherited a backlog of over 400,000 cases across all permit types. Golden Visa files sat inside that pile, and biometrics — the in-person step requiring the applicant to physically attend an AIMA office — became "the single largest bottleneck" in the whole chain.
What's changed since is a combination of political pressure and capacity investment. Minister Amaro pledged that all remaining outstanding Golden Visa applications would be resolved during 2026, projecting EUR 85 million in associated government revenue. On the volume side, AIMA has been pushing files through at a pace SEF never managed: it issued 386,000 residence permits of all kinds in 2025, a 60% jump on the year before, evidence officials point to as proof the system is finally working through the queue rather than just growing it.
The digital shift has helped too. Since 2 February 2026, Golden Visa holders have been able to handle renewals entirely through AIMA's Portal das Renovações (https://portal-renovacoes.aima.gov.pt), cutting the number of in-person visits needed for straightforward cases and freeing up appointment capacity for new applicants still waiting on their first biometrics slot.
What still isn't fixed
Getting fingerprinted is not the same as getting a card. Card issuance remains the slower half of the process: after biometrics, applicants can still expect "an additional 9 to 12 months before your residence permit is issued." That's partly an AIMA review question and partly a production bottleneck — biometric cards are manufactured by a separate state entity, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, adding a stage that AIMA itself doesn't fully control.
GrowIN analysis: Stack the two most-cited timelines together and the improvement is more concrete than the headline suggests. Under the worse-case figures circulating earlier in 2026 — an 18–24 month wait for biometrics followed by 6–18 months for card issuance — total submission-to-card time could stretch to 42 months. Using today's ~12-month biometrics figure plus the current 9–12 month card stage, the realistic total drops to roughly 21–24 months. That's a cut of close to 43% in worst-case total wait time, even though the absolute number — nearly two years — is still far beyond the 90 working days Portuguese law technically allows AIMA for a decision.
"A twelve-month biometrics wait is real progress against the 2024 horror stories, but it's still not the fast lane investors were sold," says GrowIN Portugal Editorial.
What to watch next
Family-member biometric appointments continue to lag behind main applicants at some offices, and processing speed still varies considerably by which of AIMA's regional offices handles a given file. Anyone who filed before 2025 and has heard nothing should not assume they've been forgotten — but should also consider whether an Ombudsman complaint or court action (an intimação for the agency to act) makes sense given how long their specific file has been open. That decision depends on individual circumstances and should be made with a lawyer, not on a forum thread.
Investors and their advisers should keep documents current — criminal record certificates and apostilles expire, and a lapsed document can bounce a file back into the queue. For the fuller picture on Golden Visa routes, eligibility and current investment thresholds, see GrowIN's visas hub. Outcomes still depend entirely on AIMA and individual case circumstances, and nothing here should be read as a guarantee of any particular timeline.