MGFR

From 90 days up to 2 years one can no longer drive on a licence issued by the UK, but can still apply to IMT for an licence exchange during the period without a driving test. A medical test is required.

wellinever

so you mean that I am driving illegally in PT?
Having applied back in March, with no reply whatsoever, medical now expired, Cert received from DVLA also expired.
Surely this extension makes it legal to drive on a UK licence, regardless of the 90 day ruling, from becoming resident?
I would have guessed the reason for extension is that so many would be driving illegally due to the various delays in UK and PT..

Bomber Harris

That is the rule for non EU licences.
The PT Gov have extended the recognition of UK licences as EU licences until 31/12/21, and the proposal is to further extend the recognition until 31/12/22, an EU licence isn't subject to the 90 day validity.

appman999

Thanks Bomber

1Steve

Here is a translation of the Wiki regarding Decree-laws in Portugal. They only have to go to the PT parliament if the president of the republic vetoes the decree-law approved by the council of ministers. So if Marcelo is in a good mood then it should be approved and published in the next few days. The last one took only 4 or 5 days so I am inclined to believe the info on Wiki is correct.


There are two processes for the formation of decree-laws by the Government: that of successive signatures and that of approval by the Council of Ministers .

In the first process, the text of the diploma is submitted, separately, to the signature of the prime minister and that of each of the competent ministers . Once the signatures are obtained, the diploma is sent to the President of the Republic for promulgation.

In the second process, the text of the decree-law is presented and approved by the Council of Ministers, and then sent to the President of the Republic for enactment .

If the President of the Republic vetoes a decree-law, the Government can file it, amend it, or send it to the Assembly of the Republic in the form of a draft law .

Each decree-law enters into force five days after being published in the Diário da República , except when it indicates another date of entry into force (which must necessarily be after the date of publication).

wellinever

lets hope so

campos

I cancelled my exchange request some months ago, and asked for my UK licence to be returned.
On Monday morning IMT called me (in Italy) telling me I had an appointment at 8am on Tuesday. The woman didn't speak English and I almost no Portuguese, (She could say 'appointment 8 o'clock tomorrow').
I suspect that the appointment was for the next stage in my licence exchange process, and not related to my revoking the exchange, though I can't be sure. I fired off an email straight away afterwards. Anyone any ideas about this?

Alan PT

The biometrics appointment would normally happen shortly after you pay the 30 euro fee. If you haven't paid this yet then it would be a bit odd for them to make the appointment, but who knows, maybe they decided to take payment in the office to try to expedite the process

EDIT - sorry, I missed your comment "asked for my UK licence to be returned" - so you already paid the fee and sent the license, you are just waiting for the biometrics appointment?

Once I paid my 30 euros I received an email telling me to phone a number to make the biometrics appointment but before I had a chance to do that (literally within a few hours) I received another mail telling me I had an appointment the next day. So one you reach the end of the looooooong queue, the process is pretty quick (in most cases)

Not sure why you cancelled, but if you do have PT residency then it is necessary, so if they somehow didn't process your cancellation you might take it as an opportunity to retake your place in the queue rather than start again

campos

i paid the 30 as instructed but i didn't get an biometric appointment soon after.
When i sent request to cancel exchange the woman said in email that they would issue me with a code for multibanco, to be refunded. Several weeks ago i got an email out of the blue (and after a couple of pointless speculative email requests from me asking about the progress- which just generated the auto response) saying the procedure is continuing.
After what you say above, maybe the appointment was related to my licence return...

Alan PT

Hard to tell, unfortunately. Could be a normal (albeit very late) biometrics appointment because they gave up on processing the cancellation or could be a "oops this is all a bit screwed up, need an appointment to sort it out"

Might be good to take a friend who speaks Portuguese (or have one on the end of the phone at least) if you go for an appointment, since something is clearly "out of the ordinary" and might take a little discussion to sort out

sportpix

Where did this 30 euro come from? I haven’t been asked to pay anything. I was told by email to wait until I’ve been contacted again and at which point I will be given a date to have the biometric tests conducted

Alan PT

Yes, you don't pay when you initially apply, you will be asked to pay just before you send your physical license and get your biometric appointment. But the fee is quite clearly stated here: http://www.imtonline.pt/index.php/tr...t-situation-24

Rambling archer

So having waited a while I got the notice to pay the 30 euros - duly done at the nearby ATM Multibank machine - and now have to send in the original driving licence by post (presumably by Registered post? though it doesn't advise this) ... can one drive in the meantime with no licence??!! If GNR stop me for some reason, do I just show the emails and various IMT docs about the process? A bit nervous being without the licence and not knowing how long it will be before IMT come up with an appointment date for the biometrics!

campos

When you send in your uk licence, the IMT sends you a temporary Portugal licence, in PDF. This can only be used kn Portugal, i understand

Alan PT

Yes, I sent it via registered post. Sent on the Saturday, received via email on the Monday a document to print out which acts as a substitute license (within Portugal).

I got a biometrics appointment very quickly after this (within days) but it varies a bit according to where you are. Anyway, the document is perfectly legal for driving in PT (just a bit of a problem if you want to go elsewhere)