Sally1605

Me again!

apologies if this has been asked before, I have checked but can’t see the answer.

my understanding is I need to exchange my uk driving licence for a Portuguese one within 90 days of moving to Portugal, I need to provide my visa, existing licence, passport, completed form and pay the fee.

Can I do this whilst still in the UK when I get my temp visa?

im under 60 so am i right I don’t need a medical?

Red Eric

I think there may be a special arrangement for recognition of UK licences until 31st December this year but assuming you want to go ahead ASAP with the exchange, no, you can't start on that until you are in Portugal and have been issued a residence permit.

And you will require a medical in order to exchange, for which you'll need to be enrolled in the health service (which you won't be able to do until you have that residence permit).

Sally1605

Thank you. So what happens if I don’t get sorted before December? Please don’t say I have to take a test?

Red Eric

I'm a bit unclear as to exactly what the 31st December extension means, other than that UK licences continue to be recognised as though they are EU licences until that point (and there may even be a further extension or some other arrangement). Don't know whether any action required on the part of new UK licence-holding residents, though - normally you'd have had to register the licence with IMT.

As things stand, after 31st December, UK licences become 3rd country licences and the 90 days rule applies, starting the count on the date of issue of your residence permit. As long as you're within that when you start the exchange process under those circs, you'll be fine to continue driving in PT with a document issued by IMT testifying that you've made the application.

Sally1605

Ok, thank you. So is that my temp visa issued in the UK, or the one issued once I move over?

Although as the battle for an appointment with vfs goes on, so this is all theoretical as I may never as get further than the planning stage with this if they don’t release more appointment dates 🤦‍♀️

Another random question, I am interested in a property which the estate agent says the land is not licensed yet? It’s not a new property, is this a big deal or a simple thing to get sorted?

thank you so much for your help, there seems to be so much to sort, I have lists of my lists now, but I am starting to tick stuff off, so I will get there in the end. 😁

Ferretofthemata

I'm under 60 and needed to get a medical. I went to a private doctor and he had to fill out a special form online and print it out and give it to me.

Nypool1e

On a personal note, I am moving back to the UK in two weeks. How do I go about replacing/renewing my old British drivers license, I still have the pink paper one that they issued without a photo. Also, am I able to buy a car in Britain with my US license?

Red Eric

Not the visa, the residence permit you apply for after you've arrived in PT.

Red Eric

Just for clarification here, given my previous mention of the requirement to be enrolled in the public health system.

The medical can be done by any doctor, public or private. However, you need to be registered in the public health system in order for the submission to be made electronically to IMT, as is now the practice.

andywally

Hiya Sally

On the driving license issue, I would not worry about it too much, in my time here I have met two people who did not exchange their driving license for 17 years...........I am not condoning that or suggesting its the route to go down, just put it on your 'to do' list and get around to it eventually so to speak.

As for the land being licensed or not, I do have some very recent experience of this problem.......and from what I am told it went/goes a bit like this.............the PT gov announced an amnesty in 1964ish that meant that ppl here could register land and property that had previously been unregistered (for tax avoidance purposes, you will notice that is a recurring theme when you get here) this was then registered with the tax office, after the amnesty everything was supposed to be registered (supposed to be) they also had to register with the local notary, which incurred a fee for registration, some people registered with the tax office to gain the benefit of the amnesty but didnt register with the notary to avoid the registration fee.............the land will need registering by the current owner before they can sell it to you, this takes about 4 weeks and could cost up to 500euro in total.....there are all sorts of fancy terminology involved 'justification deed' 'negative certificate' etc etc.................but the current owner needs to register it first in their name in order to be able to sell it...............if you buy it unregistered then try to register it somebody might try to claim ownership when the registration is made public in your name ............it has to be displayed publicly for 8 day from what I was told by my estate agent, that gives ppl time to contest it........!!!.....please tread carefully.

Red Eric

That would have been while the UK was in the EU.

Things are rather different now.

Sally1605

Thank you Eric and Andy, that sounds doable, as long as I don’t have to take a whole new driving test, that would finish me off!!

Re the land, that makes sense, the house I live in currently had a similar issue, with a bit of the land being unregistered, it was a fairly simple process in the uk to register. But as I am learning about Portuguese bureaucracy I will proceed with that in mind, I have yet to see it in the flesh so to speak, so it may be a non runner anyway.

Just tried again to get an appointment with VFS Manchester online, still none available. I rang a few days ago and was told the appointments for early May are released on the 15th April, so either they have all gone straight away, or if it’s a manual process maybe the person I spoke to forgot it’s a bank holiday. I will keep trying.

sportpix

Curious about the residency documentation. I spoke with a HK person yesterday who arrived in January and still doesn’t have the doc as the earliest date sef have given her for an appointment is June. Thinking of my other half arriving at an unknown date, if she has to wait a similar length of time just for an appointment then she will run out of time to swap her UK driving license for a PT one and so would have to have costly lessons and a test. Am I right in thinking this?

Red Eric

Not in my opinion, no.

It has crossed my mind that delays of this nature would put a prospective resident beyond the legally allowed span for driving as a tourist on an exchangeable third country licence. However, as the clock doesn't start on the exchange process until the residence doc is issued, you can't be timed out on that prior to getting to interview stage with SEF. And even if you did dilly-dally after getting your residence permit, you have up to 2 years to exchange (although you can only drive for the first 90 days of that time).

I would guess - and it is merely a guess on my part - that if you are in a position where you might go over the 185 days allowed for driving on a foreign licence prior to an appointment being available with SEF, as long as you could demonstrate that the residence process was in train, common sense would prevail and you'd be fine. In the past, Covid-induced delays have led to varius docs being automatically valid beyond the normal periods but I don't know for sure whether that applie(d/s) to this particular circumstance.

Maybe for a person potentially in that situation, an email to IMT asking the question might be prudent?

a_user_has_no_name

Just FYI: I asked a friend to call IMT and double check that 31st December 2022 extension, since I've seen no mention of it on the IMT website.

She was told that they didn't know about that extension. The 90-day limit still applies to UK licence holders.

What could be different after 31st December 2022 is that the supporting documentation will have to be legalised and translated, but more things could be different as well.