Processes of Obtaining Portuguese Residence Card, PR & Passport

Flag of Portugal

SCHENGEN

Portugal is a Schengen country in Europian Union. Schengen is a union of some European countries comprising 29 countries. The currency of Schengen countries is Euro. Once you get the visa of a Schengen country, you can travel the whole Schengen area.  

PORTUGAL

Portugal is a small country in Europe. It is smaller than Nepal by area and by population. If we read the history of this country it is a very powerful country in the past. It had ruled many countries in Asia, Africa, and South America. In recent years, it has been struggling with the economic crisis. Comparing with the past, the economic status of this country has been going up but it´s not up to the level of other developed European countries. The minimum salary of this country has become €600 in 2019.

Passport of Portugal

Even if it has a less population, most of the youths go out of the country to make their livings because it has a low salary. So, the country is in a shortage of manpower. Thus, the country has been taking immigrants for a long time. If you would like to be Portuguese or to take the resident card of Portugal, you have to meet certain criteria which I am going to give you below.

CRITERIA

If you want to have the resident card of Portugal or the passport of Portugal, first of all you have to be here in Portugal. There are many ways to be here. If you get the Portuguese working visa or study visa, there is no problem to get the resident card of Portugal. But if you get the visit visa of Portugal, you don´t get the resident card easily which I will explain below.

In the same way, if you get the visa any Schengen country, you can easily come to Portugal. There is no barricade for those who get the Schengen visa to visit one country to another within Schengen area.

But some people come to Portugal without visa, in this case, the process of getting a resident card is the same but it may take for a long time to get the resident card.

PROCESSES

When you come to Portugal with the Schengen visa, firstly you have to do the leagal entry. You have to keep your air ticket and boarding passes with you safely for the legal entry. For that, you have to take the appointment from the SEF. But if you don´t have visa, you can´t do the legal entry. SEF is a department of police which makes illegal to legal. Moreover, SEF has the authority to give the resident card or passport after meeting all their criteria.

Having done the legal entry, you have to go to the finance office with your passport to get the fiscal number. That costs only €10.80. With this fiscal number, you have to pay the tax to the Portuguese government every month to get the resident card. Even if you don´t have the visa, you can make the finance with your passport.

With your fiscal number, you are eligible to work in Portugal but you have to find your work by yourself. When you get the work contract you get the social number. With this social number, you can use government facilities like hospital, education, and security.

Resident card of Portugal

When you have all these, you can do SEF entry. Now, you are legal in Portugal. In case the police of Portugal enquire about you something, they can´t do anything to you. You get the date of appointment of the resident card at your given mailing address after the completion of your SEF entry. It just takes a few months. Then you can choose your date and venue as your wish. Normally, when you pay the tax of 6 months you are eligible to have the resident card. It´s also called the finger.

In your appointment date, the SEF takes your fingerprints and your picture. For that, you have to pay €781 if your visa is not Portuguese or you have no visa. Otherwise, you have to pay €159 for the resident card. Then you have to wait for the few months to have the resident card. But if you are lucky, you can get your resident card within a month as well.

AFTER RESIDENT CARD

After your resident card, you can go to your country and come back to Portugal. But when you have the first resident card, that only lasts for 1 year. Then you have to renew it. When you renew it, it lasts for 2 years. After 2 years, you have to renew that again and that lasts for again 2 years. After the last 2 years, you are eligible to apply for the passport of Portugal or permanent resident card of Portugal. After having your resident card, you can stay in your country for 6 months each year but the rest of the year you have to keep paying the tax to the government.

RESIDENT CARD

On your appointment day (Marcoco), you have to bring all the documents. The required documents you need are your passport, finance paper, segurance of social paper, SEF entry paper, legal entry paper, your ticket and boarding passes, criminal report of Portugal, tax clearance from seguarance social office,  Junta freguesia (Address or Morada) and you have to pay the tax of 6 months by the time. If you meet all these criterias, you are eligible to have the resident card of Portugal.

EMPLOYMENTS FOR IMMIGRANTS

The immigrant people mainly prefer to work in two sectors in Portugal. They are agriculture and hotel areas even though there are other sectors as well. But the work in agriculture is seasonal whereas work in hotel area is continual. It is easy to get the job in agriculture in its season but it´s difficult to get the job in hotel areas but it´s permanent.