Eddie5425

Hi
Having negotiated two visits to the VFS Global London Office and complied with their demands for a years travel insurance with repatriating included I take out two six month AXA Schengen policy's and I get granted a four month visa.
I go to my pre booked appointment today with SEF in Castelo Branco to be told my insurance is no good I must take out Private Medical insurance.
I now have a valid EHIC card issued the year before Brexit, A years AXA Schengen insurance, and a S1 I would like to use to register with the health service

I'm at a loss to understand why I am being asked to pay large amounts of money for insurance I'm sure I do not need and how to negotiate the problem as the SEF official tells me email me the policy and I'll grant you a one year visa.

Is there anyway around this that anyone knows of.

Thanks
Eddie

Alan PT

The problem may be that your UK EHIC and your travel insurance are no longer valid once you become resident? Just guessing?

Though if you have an S1 then you'll be able to register for the SNS as soon as you become resident, so it seems you maybe found a very officious official who is quibbling about cover for a day or two

You could try arguing, check the wording of your AXA policy to see if it is valid, but perhaps the easiest path would be to comply with their rather daft request by purchasing a low cost basic private medical policy - try logo.pt for a pretty cheap option

SgtTroy

...and perhaps also opt to pay for that low cost medical insurance by direct debit.

el barto

I think the reason is that it can sometimes take several months to get your S1 accepted and become registered on the system and so you are required to have private insurance to cover you in the meantime.Travel insurance doesnt have the same level of cover that private does. travel insurance doesnt cover eleective treatment or continuing treatment of chronic conditions.Also I believe you are limited to 90 days cover in schengen area,and have to leave and then return to reactivate it for another 90 days. Although 90 days should be more than enough time to get registered on SNS, but then again this is Portugal where nothing happens quickly. As mentioned you could take out private insurance and pay monthly, then once properly registered on SNS cancel it.

Red Eric

I think the point is that it isn't a listed requirement in any of the information published about obtaining the visa / residence permit, where the only thing mentioned is travel insurance covering medical costs up to x amount and repatriation if need be, and which the OP has complied with.

andywally

Hiya Eddie

The EHIC has been replaced with the GHIC card (G for global rather than E for european) you can apply for one through the gov.uk site and they take about 2-3 weeks to arrive at your UK address, when we opened our bank account at Santander PT we opted for the 'take out health insurance' option to qualify for the account, it is paid monthly and there isnt a contract, so once you have satisfield mr jobsworth, maybe cancel it and rely on the ins you have already got (obv checking the smallprint to ensure it is actually valid for your circumstances).............just a thought..........good luck.

Alan PT

Just to correct a small point on the EHIC, UK residents are now issued a GHIC instead of an EHIC on new application/renewal.

For Portuguese residents, they may still be entitled to an EHIC from Portugal or an EHIC from the UK, depending on their circumstances, check Red Erics explanations in this thread: Worldwide travel insurance

In any case, there is no need to replace a currently valid EHIC with the (inferior) GHIC

Eddie5425

Hi
Thanks for all the reply's. I'm not sure what was going on.

My partner went in before me and said she had a hard time with her flicking through paperwork to do with banks and making remarks and referring it to her partner who said they were OK, Complaining the house deeds were photo copies not the original. Making jokes with her partner about are you from the UK,, Great Britain or Reino Unido.

I was allowed in before my appointment time threequarters of an hour later had no problem and was out in fifteen minutes as she had all the info from my partner.

The UK were no better I asked for both our S1's to be sent to our UK address before we left mine arrived not my partners I know I can add her on mine, but when she asked for hers she had all kinds of hoops to jump through to get it that I did not.

We think we will opt for the Logo.PT option it looks reasonably priced and will hopefully cross the bridge so thanks to you all for your help.

Eddie

Red Eric

They do have a bit of a thing here for original documents or authenticated photocopies, which might strike newcomers from the UK as unusual or over-zealous. You'll get used to it and it might even strike you as perfectly reasonable after a time.

I wouldn't have thought the talk of country names was anything untoward - possibly just a bit of ice-breaking or maybe genuine curiosity / bafflement. I don't imagine it was done with a view to making anyone feel uncomfortable.

You're probably wise on the health insurance front - sometimes the path of least resistance is best. The only alternative I could think of was to ask for an explanation of where it's laid down as a requirement but that's probably not something you want to be doing in your first dealings with PT immigration procedures.

Eddie5425

Hi Red Eric,
I would have taken original documents we did with the financials but after the experience of VFS London who we thought would want original documents we stuck to Copies. We turned up with originals then and were directed up the road to a newsagent with a copying machine and that was just one of the problems on the first visit. We met one guy on his third visit. Travel insurance on a one year policy only covers short visits and return to UK so your paying for something that's not valid but its valid for VFS. I opted for the Schengen as it covers six months at a time with no return to UK needed. As you say "Travel Insurance" is the wording problem. Had Millennium Bank London who we discussed the situation with after leaving our first visit to VFS been listening he may have sold us an account like Andywally's with Santander so all would have been sweet. It would have been sweeter still to go to VFS Manchester rather than London but that's not allowed geographically. VFS London is a nightmare.

You get no direction

But, like the director said to the actor who asked "What's my motivation" to get the reply "Money". It was the same at SEF as VFS I knew we had got somewhere when they asked for the money.

Best Wishes
Eddie

Alan PT

Have also run into this copies thing in the UK - in fact I was asked to take my original document, get it copied and then get the copy certified, in order to then scan and email the certified copy

Think about that - I couldn't scan and email the original, that wasn't good enough. But all a certifier does is say "yes, this copy matches the original"...

But since the UK is even more inclined to "rules is rules" I shrugged and complied, sometimes craziness is too deeply embedded to argue with