Residency

I have not seen any posts about acquiring residency in Portugal, as a UK citizen, so I thought I would share my experience of getting Permanent Residency and maybe helping anyone interested or about to do so.

Getting Temporary Residency from the Câmara was very easy, passport, Caderneta and proof of savings (I do not work, do not yet get a pension, but have savings to live on). I thought SEF would require more, and would ask lots of questions. Far from it. All they wanted was passport, temporary residency certificate, caderneta, and proof of savings (I also took a copy of the pension statement that I will receive in 4 years time). That was it. No need for a Medical Number, no need for a social security number, there was even no need for a NIF, although I had one, I was told I did not need it for permanent residency. No need to take along two photographs. I had already completed the necessary document (Mod 0011 from SEF website). No need for private health insurance. No questions about tax. Nothing like that. In all, 9 pieces of paper.

A very easy and straightforward process. It was in the SEF office in Portimão . you can go to any one and I did not want to go to Beja (nearest to me), having been informed that they were very very busy by the British Consulate at the meeting they held in Ourique last December.

Getting the actual appointment was much more difficult.

Thanks for sharing. I'm sure that it will help others in the future. My experience was similar except I was never asked about savings. I did take a copy of my bank statement, but they even handed that straight back to me. They took the photos and that was that.

That's a very interesting comment about not needing a NIF, though I cannot imagine a permanent resident not having one as it is necessary for a bank account.

- Jetlagged

... That's a very interesting comment about not needing a NIF, though I cannot imagine a permanent resident not having one as it is necessary for a bank account.

If the NIF was a pre-requisite for registering residency after the first 3 months, then it's effectively already on record so there would be no need to produce it again, except as a form of identification.

Thanks "Jetlagged". I wonder if some are put off or a but scared of having to go to a government agency, but as I said it was friendly and easy. It could have been done in 15 minutes if my interviewer had not chatted so much (but I am not complaining one bit)

We moved house in November 2018 and are required to renew our residency card. Our appointment with SEF is May 27. As we have held residency for twelve years and our current card is valid for a further eight years, one would have thought the procedure could have been done online instead of having to attend in person. The same applied with changing our address with EDP and Agua we had to visit their offices. Our bank and Finanças also wanted us to produce an invoice from one of the utilities. We thought it strange that they needed proof of the new address considering we had paid Finanças the Purchase Tax on the property with a cheque from our bank!