HI all,

First time in Portugal forum, previously I have been living in the UAE and hanging out in that part of the site.

I arrived with my wife (who is a non-EU national) and two kids 3 days ago. We're currently staying just outside Cascais. Our intention is to stay in Portugal, I will be self-employed, my work is largely overseas, via the internet.

For the avoidance of doubt, I want to be legit, register here, pay taxes, etc.

We went to the SEF office to enquire about residency, they gave us a card with a phone number to call and a web site to make an appointment. We could not use the web site, because it required a residency file number, which we didn't have (that's what we're trying to get at the SEF).

After some time on the phone speaking to someone very rude, it seems we need to go to the local 'Camera' (town hall) now and not the SEF.

My wife is Brazilian, so can speak the language, even so it is proving hard to get anyone in officialdom to tell us how to do something which we are legally entitled under EU law to do. I will be self-employed, which is perfectly legit, but the guy at the bank I spoke to suggested I would need to have labour contract and so on, which I won't have.

ALso, can we rent an apartment without residency (as that seems to be a requirement for residency)? Do I get something immediate when I register, and does my wife? They implied it can take 3 months, but a schengen visa is only 90 days. My wife is worried what happens if they don't issue her papers before the expiry.

I've had some contact with the EU's signpost service in the past, and they're very helpful. If the local authorities start putting up unreasonable hoops to jump through, I'd sooner get them involved that go on pointless arbitrary paper chases, because in my experience, the more you dance to their tune, the louder they turn up the music.

I have to say, considering Portugal's economy is on its arse, the impression I get is they really don't seem to be that worried about encouraging people who want to come live here, work, pay tax, rent apartments, buy cars, and maybe if things work out, employ some people.

Working on the assumption that YOU have an EU passport then you need to go to the fiscal office of your local camara where you will be issued with a fiscal number & they will be able to direct you to the office (probably in or near the same building) where you will be issued with a (usually 5 years) residencia.

I'm not sure about your wife but you'll be able to ask when you get your residencia & I'm sure that it won't be too much of a problem.

Prepare for fun and games....or not...brother in law registered at Olhao instead of Tavira and whole process took 5 mins...for us, not the case
http://www.movingtoportugal.org/2011...y-in-portugal/

We're in the central zone & FWIW, every time I've gone into a Govt office to get something like residencia & fiscal number etc, it's been great.

Offices have been clean and no queues, staff helpful and my applications have been processed within the hour at the very longest and usually within minutes.

My wife is an EU national, I am not, so we're in a similar situation.
In our case, she was registered first; this was done at the local camara and was very quick.
After that, I went to the nearest SEF office which was nearly empty. I had to make an appointment by phone to meet an officer, which I did later. it was a national call center, quite strange and inefficient it seems to me.
The officer was quite friendly; he told me their main concern was false marriages. I had a lot of paper with me and he wasn't worried in my case.

The EU national has to be able to show sufficient income to support the non-EU applicant. I didn't quite get the sense of that, because as soon as residency is granted, the non-EU national also has the right to work. This might be tricky in your case, but it's definitely the SEF who deals with it. You just have to jump through those hoops and get your appointment.
In general, I found that the attitude is quite positive towards immigration. They know they need people, they aren't xenophobic like many countries where I've lived in the past.


They said it would take a few months to get my residency card issued.
In the meantime, they gave me a temporary paper that said my application was in process.

We opened a joint bank account even though we have no local source of income. We do own property though. Whether to let you open an account or not is a decision for the bank.

It's the same with renting a home, it's up to the property owner whether or not to rent to you; but there are powerful tenant rights in Portugal that lead to owner's reluctance to sign a legal rent contract.

Thanks for the feedback everyone... we went to the fiscal office and spoke to a lady who suggested we should just bring passport and would get social security numbers and take a particular ticket from the machine at the entrance. It wasn't giving the ones we needed, so she suggested we need to go first thing in morning before they get busy. We haven't had a chance yet as out looking for apartments everyday, that's our most pressing need at moment.

We have up to 3 months, so it's not super urgent at this stage and I am sure we'll figure it out.

Showing enough funds should not be a problem. The real estate agents and landlords seem fine with renting to us as far as we can tell. We've generally been able to negotiate prices down 10-15% too, so I get the impression they're happy enough to just get the places filled.

Don't know chap. Seems like you had some complicated issues. Tavira Trog and Joao seemed to have had their registrations for residencia processed in a straight forward enough manner. In Tavira too. Wish me luck. Love my gingabike by the way

I am a EU national and my wife is South African. The PT embassy in South Africa gave us these instructions:

Wife must get Apostilled police clearance for emigration.
She must get our marriage certificate Apostilled. (We have been married like forever).
She must have proof of funds or I must.
Get fiscal numbers.

These we must take to SEF for her residency.

Residencia was straight forward enough. Apparently I had already registered myself correctly back in April. I think it becomes a whole different game if you want to register as self employed and get on the Portuguese National Health system. At the moment I am still registered for tax back in the UK and now have dubious health cover. Does anyone know how I would be taxed if I earned anything here. I read earlier on some thread that if you are registered for tax in the UK you pay a flat 20% on any earnings. Is this true..?

Only if you have NHR do you pay +-24% flat rate on PT earnings. It went up this year from 20%.

If you are UK reg for tax then on PT earnings I think it is increasing to 28%
Your employer/customer has to deduct this before you receive any monies.
To avoid this if " resident " you can use the Green Invoice system and then submit a tax return but of course you then fall into the Social security system.
As a UK tax payer you will be credited for the PT tax paid .
AS HMRC are much easier to deal with than the PT financas this is by far the best option.

I think if Blackbeardie has residencia, then he is now liable to pay income tax in Portugal on his worldwide earnings.

You quite right. He has to advise UK tax authorities that he resident in Portugal. If he wants to limit tax liability in Portugal (at least for the next 10 years), he should register under the non habitual residency scheme.

If he is already a resident and property owner and has been for some time is the NHR scheme applicable ??

If he has become a resident before 31 December 2013 - nothing to be done. Should be submitting his tax returns like everybody else. Submitting tax returns and paying tax in the UK, does not exempt him from his Portuguese tax obligations - end of story.