liveaboard

China insists that Taiwan is part of their country, and they strong arm most [all?] countries in the world into pretending that's true in any public statements made.
Any country that publicly recognizes Taiwan is immediately sanctioned by China.
So it's quite likely that many SEF internal documents add to the confusion. They probably don't even list Taiwan at all.

Given the hurdles you've faced, I think congratulations are in order!

Ninmurai

Thanks - I am already breathing a sigh of relief, it's just the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle before I draw it to a close.

They did have a dropdown option for Taiwan, we watched the agent change the details on the database, but we need the appointment to hand over the existing residence card. I don't suspect any political protocols internally, just lack of awareness from agent and her supervisor. There are only 50 Taiwanese living in Portugal mostly around the Lisbon area so this may well be the first time in this SEF branch's recent history of dealing with a Taiwanese.

The bigger issue which is compelling us to get this sorted is that it doesn't match my partner's travel documents (passport, previous residence cards etc.), nor our partnership certificate issued by The Netherlands which both state Taiwan as nationality and birthplace. Hence I told the SEF agent that she cannot just make up new details as this would cause further issues down the line.

Least of all, I don't think she (or many others) realises how insulting to a Taiwanese person it is to have "Chinese" forced upon them. Lady Ninmurai was visibly on the point of tears when the agent refused to acknowledge her mistake for the first couple of times.

liveaboard

Taiwan has definitely been shafted by the world; but it really is shocking that people who work in the field don't even know of the place!
Portugal even has some experience in the region.

Ninmurai

I'm so happy that someone knows their history! (Unless of course you were referring to Macau :-P )

For the unaware, Taiwan used to be a colony of Portugal some 500 years ago

Ninmurai

Just to update and close the chapter on this.

Our appointment to 'change' the details of our residence card was last Monday and we handed over the erroneous card. On Friday our new card arrived again which, considering Tuesday was a national holiday, is pretty efficient. If only they did not have such a waiting list to have the appointment!

Anyway. That's it, the saga is over! Time to start looking for a house in Porto...