Key figures — as of 2026-08-31: Applicants who submitted Golden Visa files by end-2025 are now being scheduled for biometrics in Q4 2026 — a gap of roughly 12 months between submission and fingerprinting; card issuance after biometrics still runs a further 9–12 months; AIMA inherited some 55,000 pending Golden Visa files when it replaced SEF in November 2023, out of ~400,000 cases overall; the government's October 2025 pledge was to clear the backlog within 2026.
The bottleneck moved, it didn't disappear
For most of the last three years, the Golden Visa horror stories were about dossiers sitting untouched — files filed and then simply not looked at for a year or more. That specific wall has come down. What's replaced it is narrower, later in the process, and arguably more frustrating for people who thought they were close: getting AIMA to actually schedule the in-person biometrics appointment once a file has cleared review.
According to Global Citizen Solutions' legal team, "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." The same source notes that card issuance remains the slower stage of the process and has not yet kept pace with the volume of appointments being processed. In plain terms: AIMA has gotten better at telling people "yes, your file works" — and much slower at turning that yes into an appointment, a fingerprint, and eventually a card in an envelope.
What's actually driving the wait
The roots of this go back further than most applicants realise. When AIMA replaced the old SEF border service in November 2023, it inherited a queue that had built up over years of pandemic disruption and institutional handover — roughly 400,000 pending immigration cases of all types, including around 55,000 Golden Visa files. Golden Visa applications were also deliberately placed behind other residency categories in the queue: according to Minister of the Presidency António Leitão Amaro, residency applications such as D3, D7, and D8 Visa are being prioritized, and Golden Visas are deliberately handled last.
The government has been promising a fix for over a year now, with mixed results. AIMA asked all Golden Visa applicants in early 2025 to resubmit documentation with expectations of 30 to 90-day approvals — a target that was never achieved. By late October 2025 the tone shifted from speed to scope: AIMA proclaimed that it will resolve all outstanding Golden Visa applications in 2026, and officials point to genuine progress elsewhere in the system — Amaro said that 93 percent of pending immigration cases (all types) have been resolved, alongside a huge volume of criminal-record checks and biometric collection work. That progress just hasn't reached the Golden Visa biometrics queue at the same pace.
The two-year gap nobody budgets for
Here's the part investors and their lawyers tend to miss when they hear "approved." Being cleared for biometrics is not the same as holding a card. Once someone actually attends their appointment, AIMA still needs to issue the residence permit, which typically takes an additional 9 to 12 months after biometrics.
Run the arithmetic on a file submitted in late 2025: roughly 12 months to reach a Q4 2026 biometrics slot, then another 9–12 months of post-biometrics processing before a physical card exists. That puts a realistic card-in-hand date somewhere in Q3 to Q4 2027 — the better part of two years after the original filing, and a full year or more after the applicant was told their file had cleared review. GrowIN Portugal's reading of that arithmetic is simple: a Golden Visa approval announced in late 2025 buys you a queue position, not a timeline. "Approved" is a milestone in the Golden Visa process now, not a finish line," notes GrowIN Portugal Editorial.
The fee structure adds a practical wrinkle too. Applicants only pay AIMA's residence permit fee — currently €8,418.90 for a single applicant — in person, on the day of the biometrics appointment itself. That means capital already committed to a CMVM-regulated fund or qualifying investment sits waiting alongside the applicant, with no card, no fee paid yet, and no fixed date until AIMA sends the slot.
What to watch
Two things matter for anyone currently in the queue. First, whether the government's pledge to clear the backlog within 2026 actually holds through the final quarter — a promise this administration has already missed once. Second, whether card-issuance capacity, not appointment scheduling, becomes the next chokepoint once the current wave of Q4 2026 biometrics appointments actually happens. If card production doesn't scale alongside appointment volume, the queue simply moves one stage further down the pipeline rather than clearing. For a fuller breakdown of Golden Visa routes and current eligibility, see GrowIN's visas hub — and applicants dealing with a stuck file may want professional advice on escalation options before assuming the wait will resolve on its own.