Documents required to live in Portugal

What documents do you need to have in order to live in Portugal, and which ones do you need to have in Portugal?

As soon as we decided to come to Europe, a thousand questions arose: after all, what documents do you need to live in Portugal?
Well, I have dual citizenship, but my husband doesn't, so what should I do? Even if I have dual citizenship, what should I bring?
I have a degree in Physical Education in Brazil, how can I validate my diploma?
There was so much doubt about the documentation that we didn't even sleep properly during the last few days! There was so much uncertainty, we didn't know what to do, even after reading a thousand articles on the subject. Every article we read raised a different question, some people's advice was contrary to others', in short... After how long will my husband be granted citizenship? Some said no, others said yes, but the timeframe varied from 3 years to 5 years.
We surrounded ourselves with everything we thought we needed and decided to sin more rather than less, which was great!

Documentation issued in Brazil

Citizenship

I did the whole process of issuing my citizenship in Brazil through a Portuguese broker, which made my process much simpler. As she had already taken care of other family cases, it paid off in terms of the price charged, and I ended up joining the "package". I heard that in Brazil the demand for citizenship is so high that it's difficult to schedule any services at the consulate and dispatchers have easier access to some issues, which was another reason for choosing a dispatcher.
One interesting thing to know is that having citizenship doesn't mean having a passport in your hands at the end of the process. The broker who took care of mine, for example, doesn't issue passports, but rather registers you as a Portuguese citizen and issues you with the Portuguese seat, which is equivalent to our birth certificate.

Cris, so your father is Portuguese? No, it was my great-grandparents who were Portuguese.
But can you do it through a great-grandfather? If it's passed down from generation to generation, yes!
My grandmother took out her citizenship, then my father and then I did, and I've already taken out my little one's citizenship. It seems that if I had taken it directly from my grandmother it wouldn't have passed to my little one, he would only be entitled to it after years of living in Portugal.

Well, with my Portuguese passport in hand, I went to the consulate's website to book my Citizen Card.

Citizen card

This was the second document I took out after my citizenship, it's like our identity card.

Getting it in Brazil is easy:

Go to the website of the consulate in your region;
Schedule the service;
Print the fee slip for payment;
Show up on the appointed day, taking the Portuguese seat and the paid guide, as well as your Brazilian ID;
Wait for the PIN letter by post;
Pick up the card at the consulate.

What is a PIN card?

The PIN letter, as the name implies, is a letter that contains a password to pick up your document. It indicates that your document is available for collection. Normally, once you've applied to the Portuguese consulate, it takes an average of 45 days for the letter to be delivered and it doesn't usually take much longer than that, but if you don't receive it within 90 days, it's recommended that you go to the consulate to request a duplicate. I, for example, was "lucky". Mine took more than 4 months and I even had to send an e-mail explaining what had happened.

Obs: I entered Portugal only with my citizen's card and I could have entered only with my Portuguese seat. I learned this as soon as I arrived in Portugal, that it would be easier to get a citizen's card here.
When you get your citizen's card from the consulate in Brazil, it doesn't come with the NIF (tax identification number).
I had to redo the card here in Portugal to have everything on one card, but I could have taken out the NIF separately.

User Card

This is the number that allows you to receive medical care in the public network.
This is one of the most important documents required to live in Portugal!
But I didn't have to do anything, it came beautifully on the citizen's card, which guarantees us hospitality the moment we set foot here.
However, care here in Portugal is a little different: it is first provided by the "family doctor" in the Health Centers and also allows care in public hospitals.

The Hague Apostille

What is it? It's an agreement between countries that makes our lives much easier.
More than 100 countries are part of this treaty, which came into force in Brazil in 2016.
We no longer need to authenticate certain documents at the consulate.
This makes everything easier and less bureaucratic when it comes to mutual recognition of documents abroad.

Before we came to Portugal, we apostilled a lot of documents that we thought were necessary.
My diploma was the first of them and several of Igor's documents joined the dance.
As he is not Portuguese, he would have to apply for residency, so we used and abused everything.
Luckily, we apostilled even more than we needed to and we had extra documents to live in Portugal lol.
He served us for the wedding.
In Igor's case, we apostilled his criminal record, diploma and birth certificate.
His birth certificate wasn't needed for us to stay, but it was needed for us to get married here, but that's something I'll talk about in a moment.
If you have non-Portuguese children, it's a good idea to apostille their birth certificates.

PB4

What is it? It's a health insurance policy that the Brazilian government has signed between Portugal, Italy and Cape Verde.
It's free and valid for public hospitals where foreign citizens receive the same care as native citizens.
It's worth remembering that even though the hospital is public, you pay a small fee for exams and consultations.

To be seen, you just need to present the document at the emergency units.

How to remove it?

Getting your PB4 is very easy, you just need to go to the State Center of the Ministry of Health.
See the list of state centers here

Remember to bring your documents

Documentation we took in Portugal

TIN

The NIF is the tax number, like our CPF in Brazil.
You can't do anything without that number.
So that was the first document we came to resolve since we set foot in Braga.

However, if you are not Portuguese or do not have a European passport, you must have someone responsible for you, who is Portuguese, with a fixed address where correspondence from the Portuguese tax office will be delivered.
The procedure is done very quickly in any citizen's store.

Documents required:

Obs: Your address, or as they say here, your fiscal address, will be linked to that of your representative, and all correspondence will go to that address. It is important to update your address as soon as you have your own residence.

NISS

It's the social security number, the worker's number.
It's already on the citizen's card, but if you're not Portuguese and you're applying for residency, you'll have to wait.
This number can only be taken when you have a job.
It's the employing companies that issue the NISS, you can't issue it yourself.
This is not a document required to live in Portugal, which you can get on your own. It only comes after you have been hired, where you will receive a letter at home informing you of its number.
It is legal to provide this number when renewing your residency, so that it appears on your next card

OBS: If you are already a Portuguese citizen or have citizenship, this number comes automatically on your citizen card.

Application for a residence permit and documents to live in Portugal

There's no way you can live legally in Portugal without a residence permit, which is undoubtedly very important.
I would go so far as to say that it is one of the most important documents required to live in Portugal.
It's where you'll find all the numbers you need to live legally in Portugal and get a job.
Without this title you won't be able to be employed in anything, only once you have your residency title will you be able to work.

There are different types of residence permit, whether for married couples, parents of Portuguese, work, study, internships, etc.)

It all starts at the citizen's store, in the foreigners and borders service sector (SEF)
That's where you pick up the nugget and schedule the interview.
We arrived in March and only managed to book for June! But it was easier as we decided we would get married in the meantime to speed up the process.
Lol, we weren't even in a stable union and we weren't married.

There are a few ways to get your visa to live in Portugal, but I'll talk about two in particular that we've tried.

Married or in a stable union.

In this case, don't forget to bring your marriage or common-law marriage certificate!
We think it's more advantageous because then you'll be entitled to citizenship within 3 years of living here or if you've been married for more than 5 years you'll also be entitled to apply for citizenship.
It also costs less, around 15 euros.

Portuguese father.

In principle, Igor's application for residency would be made by Emmanuel, since the little one is Portuguese.
However, it would take longer for Igor to get his citizenship. He wouldn't be eligible until he had lived here for six years, which is twice as long!
The process is also more expensive, at around 38 euros.
As the child is Portuguese, you don't need a Brazilian birth certificate; the Portuguese birth certificate is enough.

After the interview, it takes an average of one month for the residence permit to be issued.

Getting married in Portugal.

As we're not married and don't have a civil partnership, we decided to get married in Portugal.
This will open some doors, give Igor the right to citizenship and make a lot of things easier.
We weren't sure what documents we needed to live in Portugal and the certificate, which was theoretically extra, was useful in this case.
The process was very easy.
All we need to do is go to a Conservatory (like our registry office) and apply with the documents:

After that, we had to pay 120 euros in fees and wait for the wedding to be authorized.
The registry office sends the paperwork to SEF to check that everything is all right and then contacts us to arrange the date of the wedding. Then you just have to go back, book and get married.

Diploma.

I'm still working out how to actually validate my diploma here.
I've brought the diploma apostilled with the Hague treaty, but it seems I still need to go to a college to present it.
I'll let you know as soon as the legalization is finished.

That's it for now, I hope I've helped and cleared up some doubts.
If you have any more tips, don't hesitate to leave them in the comments.

There will be a few tears along the way, so don't go thinking it's easy to say Goodbye.

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