campos

If the NIF appointment system is the only deal in other cities too it might be very useful if one of the Portuguese speakers here (cfs...?) could call the natoonal call centre number on 217 206 707 and take note of the menu options which should be selected to get to the correct help.
I called back and just pressed randomly to get to speak to anyone. The woman i spoke to helped by tranferring me but after a few rings the line went dead.
Then i called back Portimao Financas and got through but nobody could speak English.
Aggghhhh!!

santaanita

Iwill probally be ridiculed for this comment but how many different tongues should they speak,dutch german french italian its never ending so a friend of mine who worked in the financas office told me

campos

No, fair point. But considering the lingua franca status of English it might be useful, if not expected, for some customer-facing work. The onus ought to be on us to speak their language.

macliam

Well, to be fair, considering you are looking for a Portuguese tax number, you might be expected to speak some Portuguese.

You should try speaking to HMRC in Portuguese and see how far you get......

bons

I'm trying like mad to learn Portugues. The only decent online language course that I can find is duo lingo and that's Brazilain Portuguese. I'm great at reading it, but I can't understand a word when I just listen to it. On top of that, the proncunciation is different. I always speak it properly as far as I know, final s sh and middle s followed by a constant sh, but I am such a novice.

Red Eric

If you still need this, there doesn't seem to be an option for making an appointment, so it's the "none of the above" option.

Sequence would be 1 and * (or nothing, and wait).

campos

thanks for the feedback
That number was displayed in fi ancas window so i wasn't sure it was good for my purposes
The financas woman gave the e-balcao site
https://www.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt...Ebalcao.action
But i found the options here leading nowhere to book an appointment, juat the auto emails i referred to above. Any thoughts on which menu path to choose here?

cfs

Hi, just saw this now, for the form the options you need to choose are:

Click on:

Informações a Não Residentes e Entidades Públicas
Information for Foreigners and Public Entities

Then in the First Box put for "Tax or Area" put "Registo Contribuinte"

Second Box Question Type "Identific"

Third Box Question "Atrib/Alter NIF Singulares"

Then fill out the subject and your message

campos

Thanks for that, very useful to me and maybe others
i asked for an appointment, givi g various dates and locations and got the following auto reply. "Exmo. Senhor

Para agendar o atendimento presencial por marcação num

serviço de finanças ou alfândega/delegação aduaneira da

AT precisa de aceder ao Portal das Finanças ou ao Centro de

Atendimento Telefónico (CAT).

Através do Portal das Finanças, na página inicial escreva

Atendimento Presencial por Marcação e pesquise. Clique

em Aceder e autentique-se em sessão segura (número de

identificação fiscal + senha de acesso)

Marcar atendimento

Ou

Através do Centro de Atendimento Telefónico,

telefone 217 206 707.



Com os melhores cumprimentos"

So they appear to offer the ineffective phone number or an option which requires one to book by entering an NIF.
correct me if i have misunderstood.

suiko

You need to go to an office to book an appointment, I think. That's the impression I've got from my dealings with them regarding my (more complicated!) NIF issue, anyway.

Red Eric

I don't know about the phone number being ineffective but you're right on the other bit for sure.

According to information published online, you can't just pitch up at Finanças at the moment but must make an appointment via phone or e-balcão. That is the number given if you're doing it by phone, so presumably they field all enquiries and either make the appointment for you or pass you on to the relevant office.

campos

I think at present you are expected to book online or via phone. The former seems impossible according to the feedback on the menu options, posted above to my query. At office 4 in Lisbon at least you couldn't just make an appointment physically at office. Will see if different here in south.

macliam

Most online "Portuguese" is actually Brazilian, due both to the relative size of the Brazilian population and tn American preference to learn that dialect. Have you looked at Practice Portugese online? (I'm not sure if posting the URL would be considered advertising - PM me if you need it). This site concentrates of everyday European Portuguese, run by a Joel, a Canadian living in Portugal and Rui, a Portuguese guy who has lived abroad. The conversations and podcasts are well made and "real".

Have a look and see.

campos

by being ineffective I meant the national number. Maybe local office numbers are different if we can find them and we speak portuguese or they English

Red Eric

I know you said you tried the number yesterday, and got cut off while being transferred but that may have been due to the random button pressing taking you to someone who was expecting to deal with something specific and other and not an adept call transferrer.

If you dial again and respond with 1 and then * to the voice prompts, at least you'll be getting to someone who is there to field general enquiries not covered by the menu options. Yes, it's a national number but that doesn't mean they couldn't book you an appointment at a local office, assuming there's a common computerised bookings system in use. Or alternatively they might try transferring you to the local office and be successful at it.

The online advice definitely doesn't say ring your local office, although if you can there's no harm in trying and hoping you strike lucky with someone who speaks English this time.