Residence permit for FNL in Portugal after receiving a waiver

Alexey R., came to us in April 2021 after an unsuccessful attempt to apply for a Portuguese residence permit as a financially independent person. He was denied a D7 visa. The client did not understand why this was the case. The amount of his income and savings in bank accounts was higher than required by the program. He submitted all the necessary documents to the embassy and indicated the source of origin of the capital. He had previously rented an apartment in Porto. However, to his surprise, the consul pointed out the lack of funds as the reason for the refusal.

We began to find out the details of this story. First of all, we were interested in the financial question. Why the real income of the client was not seen in the embassy. It turned out that the statements and reports on brokerage accounts provided by Alexey did not highlight the operations that became profitable for the applicant. It was difficult for the consul, who is not an expert in brokerage, to understand these documents. Which was one of the main reasons for the denial.

Alexei also demonstrated a minimal connection to Portugal:

• Visa had no money in his Portuguese bank account;
• the client had not previously resided in the country; 
• The doctor had medical insurance only in the Russian Federation.  

Working on the case

Having sorted out all the subtleties, the lawyers started preparing a package of documents. In addition to the standard list, they emphasized the cover letter. To strengthen the applicant's connection with the country, we obtained medical insurance from an accredited Portuguese company.

We also recommended Alexei to transfer a certain amount of money to his Portuguese bank account.

However, the client refused to do so, having had a negative experience from his first attempt to obtain a visa. Then in the motivation letter we described the client's intention to transfer income from brokerage operations to an account in Portugal after obtaining a residence permit.

All the documents were ready in three weeks. In May we submitted them to the embassy, and a month and a half later we received a positive response.

At the end of the summer the client visited Portugal.

We submitted the original documents to the Portuguese Service for Foreigners (SEF) to obtain a residence card, and in a month Alexey received it in his hands.Sequence of document collection

Case results 

After analyzing the client's first attempt to obtain a visa on his own, we realized where mistakes had been made. A detailed description of the sources of passive income and providing evidence of the client's connection with the country ensured a positive result in the second application.

It took 6 months to obtain a residence permit for Alexey as a financially independent person.