ricko

I have now got my:

NIF
Residence card (A4 sheet)
Health card (A4 sheet)

And I've applied for the EHIC.
Is there anything else I should be doing at the moment?

On the horizon, I can see that I'll have to fill in my first Tax Form.
I'm not relishing doing this in a foreign language.
(I've been attempting to learn Portuguese, but I'm disappointed with my progress)

Is there anything I can do to prepare in advance for the tax form?

RichardHenshall

Register for online access to the Portal das Finanças. This is necessary for you to submit your own tax return and will also allow you to apply for the NHR scheme if it's of interest to you.

See http://info.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt...acao_PF_EN.pdf.

Red Eric

If you're a driver, you're required to register or exchange your licence - this should be done within 60 days of establishing residence.

AliceCaroline

You could go straight for the exchange and get a Portuguese driving license.
We did this as we didn't see a downside for us.
You will need to exchange it at some point & if you lose your UK license the DVLA won't issue a replacement to a foreign address.
If you move back to the UK they will issue a new UK license.
The only problem with exchanging your license is that they will take your UK one from you and it takes time for your new PT one to arrive. They give you a bit of paper to cover you here but I don't think they will recognise it outside of Portugal.

ricko

The NHR process was so easy in comparison to the others, that I'd forgotten it.
I did register online for Financas, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy registering for NHR was.
However, I expect filling in the first tax form to be much more daunting.
Are there any preparations that may reduce the pain?

I'm experimenting to see if I can survive without a car, by staying in medium sized towns, and starting to cycle again.
So I don't think I need a driving license at the moment.

dingg

Hand your first one to an accountant to complete, if its quite simple it should cost less tha 100e

mfesharne

UK passport holders have until 90 days after Brexit is complete to exchange their driving licences & if they don't they have to do the practical part of the Portuguese driving test again & UK Embassy advice is to do it sooner rather than later & up to date advice on all Brexit related issues available on the UK Embassy FB page below but be sure to use that one only as there are other sites that claim to have links to the Embassy but do not.

https://www.facebook.com/BritsInPort...epa=SEARCH_BOX

Diddion

Red Eric

Very laudable - good on you.

However, owning a car and holding a current valid licence are 2 entirely different things. For the sake of a very small amount of admin and negligible cost, it might be prudent to keep your options open for the future.

Entirely up to you though, of course.

ricko

That's a good idea.
However, I was also looking for some suggestions that would force me to learn some useful Portuguese.

I followed the link, and found that you do not need to login to Facebook, but it's not easy to see the whole webpage.

I have a bank account, and got a Portuguese sim, though I've only made two calls due to language problems.
I haven't come to any decision on medical insurance, as, on this site, there are conflicting views on its benefits.
Do people join AFPOP just to get the medical insurance?

There was another reason for not exchanging licenses - my house sale fell through just before I came over, and so I need to make a few trips back to the UK

Red Eric

That's exactly where registering a driving licence has the advantage over exchanging - you don't lose the licence from your possession as you do with the exchange process.

Diddion

Telephone: google translate and messaging works very well, even if your linguistic skills are embryonic!

Health: I understand that the right to benefit from the Portuguese NHS is based upon residency. Prior to obtaining residency, of course, the EHIC arrangement will work. The fly in the ointment is, as always, Brexit, so EHIC has the potential to vanish overnight. Portugal is a very welcoming country, and is keen to maintain good relations with other nations, especially Brits, for long-standing historical reasons, but I personally wonder how far that will go if the UK becomes bloody-minded and obstructive.

Until things have settled, I think it wise to obtain medical insurance, because, whatever anyone says, there is right now a non-zero chance of it being needed. Once you are confident about being able to receive health cover, and once you are confident about the quality of that cover, just cancel it. I obtained cover at an incredibly competitive price through afpop.

ricko

I have found Google Translate useful for short and medium length pieces of text, but problematic when trying to translate a web page.
So I didn't think it would be useful for filling in the tax form on the web site.

Is it possible to see the actual form to be filled in, at this moment, so I could become familiar with it; or does it only become available in March?

RichardHenshall

If you did around https://irs.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt...regaIRS.action you'll probably find some of what you're looking for but you may have to copy and paste from the screen into Google Translate a phrase at a time.

ricko

That was what I was expecting, but at least I would become familiar with the terminology.
However, whenever I follow a link, on this site, to a specific government section, I always get redirected to a general purpose section.

How can I arrange to get to the specific section that the poster has indicated?