Obtaining a D7 residency visa

Hello, I just found your very informative site. So I thought I would ask you a question about obtaining our temporary 120-day D7 Residency Visa for me and my wife. My wife and I are retired and currently live in the US, but would like to obtain a Portuguese residency visa, so we could spend more time there. As such, we both applied for the D7 residency visa as retired persons.We both filled out the Portuguese Visa application and provided all the the info required for the Visa including FBI background checks, the owner and the address of a local apt. we have reserved for rent, and provided copies of bank statements showing more than enough assets to support our selves for decades in Madeira, where we plan to liveHowever, after 60-days the SEF officials in Madeira ”denied” both our applications. The reason provided was we could not show how we could ’access’ our US funds while in Portugal. we responded back that we plan to open a local Portuguese bank account once we arrive in Madeira and then transfer our US funds to the bank. And, in the meantime, our US banks allow ATM cash withdrawals of up to 500 Euros per day. This explanation did not seem to satisfy the SEF officials.My question is, do you know what the SEF Officials are looking for as far as accessing our US funds? Do they want us to open a local bank account in Portugal BEFORE they approve our 120-day Visa? which means opening the account before we arrive in Madeira. In reading your blog posts on this subject, it did not appear that a local bank account before arrival in Portugal was a requirement. Strangely, our Portuguese contact at their consulate in Washington, DC did not seem to know the reason for our visa denial either.Any thoughts or ideas about what we might do to meet this requirement is appreciated.Thanks in advance,-Ted Alford