Porto, SEF, & A Tale of Two Residency Renewals. It’s a humbling experience to wait in the SEF Immigration office, in Porto, surrounded by dozens of people seeking immigration status for one reason or the other.  There are stories to be told.  Stories of personal choices, such as ours, and stories of trying to gain or maintain work or student visas, or perhaps even desperate stories of life saving pursuits of residency.  It’s humbling to have choices knowing that so many do not.

A Tale of Residency

Our story continued with our SEF appointment at which we applied to renew our temporary Portuguese residency. If approved, we would glean two more years.  Funny, we sat before the same woman who processed our application for our 1-year residency in 2017.  She, of course, sees hundreds of people each week so she didn’t remember us, but we remembered her.  A very kind and helpful woman who speaks just enough English to help us through the application process.

Hurry Up & Wait

Having gone through the process in 2017, we felt fairly certain we had all of our SEF-required documents in order, but we still had our share of jitters.  Did we have everything?   We booked an appointment online and arrived at the SEF office 30 minutes early.  Dozens of people were waiting in line; waiting for the doors to open at 8:00 a.m.  Once inside we showed our confirmation of appointment and we were given a number and told to wait.  Hurry up and wait, it’s the name of the game.

First Step

Our number was called within minutes and as we sat before the clerk, we remembered this was just the first step.  Basically, they checked our residency status and then handed us a new number so we could hurry up and wait some more.  In 2017 we had an appointment at 11:30 a.m. but it was actually 1:00 p.m. before we were called.  This year, having booked an early morning appointment definitely paid off as we were called within 15 – 20 minutes.

The Porto SEF Office

The Porto SEF office is incredibly busy.  I tried to count the number of people waiting, but it was like a game of musical chairs.  People kept moving about so it wasn’t long before I gave up counting.  I would guess though, that there were at least 80 people waiting with maybe 40+ chairs in the waiting area.  People stood leaning against the walls and/or spilled out the door where mostly smokers waited for their number to be called.

Sometimes it pays to have gray hair.  A young woman who had a chair offered it to me. I smiled and refused because I don’t think of myself as someone who is old enough to be offered a chair, but she insisted so I accepted.  Truthfully, I was happy because I figured we had a long wait in front of us, based on last year.

Application Documents

Once seated in front of our SEF agent, we began to make our way through the process.  Our application packets included:

• A completed application
• Proof of accommodation
• Proof of income in the United States
• A signed statement that we do not have a bank account in Portugal and we access our money with an American card
• US passports
• Portuguese residency cards
• 162€ each in cash
• A photo and fingerprint (taken in the office)

All in all, our appointment went very smoothly.  We actually had a couple of documents that we didn’t need.  For example, last year they wanted proof of medical insurance, but this year it was not required.  We believe it’s because once you have residency they assume you will access the public health care.

A Logistical Hiccup

What has changed is that we can no longer arrange to have someone pick up our new residency cards at the SEF Office.  It turns out that just last month SEF changed it’s process and now only mails cards to the address on the application. This presents a bit of a logistical hiccup for us because the cards won’t arrive for up to two months and we have to return to the US long before that.

So, instead of making arrangements for a friend to pick up our cards at the SEF office, like we did last year, we’ll make arrangements for a friend to pick up our mail.  That’s the game plan anyway and hopefully, the stars will align and it will all come together.

SEF & The Expat Journey

At this appointment, we gleaned enough information to understand what the process will entail should we decide to move forward in this expat journey.  We started with a 4-month visa, followed by our 1-year renewal and now we’ve completed our 2-year renewal.

In two years from now we’ll need to apply for our second 2-year renewal.  Once we reach the end of our second 2-year renewal we will have a total of 5 years of temporary residency on record.  The next step would be to apply for our 5-year permanent residency card and at that time we’d have to demonstrate basic language proficiency.

One Road at a Time

At this point, in our expat journey, we will continue to just travel One Road at a Time while we position ourselves as best we can for this chapter of life known as retirement.  Our path has changed course several times but that’s why we call it redefining retirement.  For now, we’ve established our home base in the US and we’ve gleaned two more years of temporary residency in Portugal.  We don’t know where this Portuguese road will lead us, but we’re looking forward to the journey.

To read more about our expat journey and how we gleaned our Portuguese residency:

The Expat Experiment

A Tale of Two Portuguese Residency Permits