Vocal Voices

Posted: **16 Oct 2022, 21:24**

I'm going to be legal :Hi:

Our residençia ran out a year ago - May 2021 - and we've been waiting for an appointment to get the new biometric cards. Normal bureaucracy in Portugal :roll:

I'm sorted :Hi:

Grumpy has fallen through the net, somehow, so I've spent the last hour trying to get it sorted. He'll just have to come up with me and we'll try and get done together.

Apparently, the payment system has also crashed :shock:

So people are having to wait a few weeks before they can pay on-line. Why we can't pay there and then is beyond me

Posted: **16 Oct 2022, 21:58**

Congratulations :Hi:

Posted: **17 Oct 2022, 07:01**

We've had the biometric cards for years but didn't have to pay.

What is it you are paying for Jan?

Posted: **17 Oct 2022, 07:11**

As residents, we have separate residençia, nif and utente (nhs) card. They want to make it more uniform.

Portuguese citizens have a card that incorporates all the above, plus fingerprint and photo, so that's what they're giving us.

Our old residençia card already has a fingerprint and photo, but just after we had ours, the system changed and people were only given a piece of paper with just a few details on it.

So the system changed again, due to brexit, but only for us English. All other nationalities already have their biometric cards.

We paid 2 euros for the first card, then I think it went up to 7.50 for our last 10 year card and no idea how much this one is.

Although we were told that the interviews etc would be held locally, we're having to go to Beja.

Posted: **17 Oct 2022, 07:38**

Ah right, thanks Jan.

Bit similar here.

We got our residencia cards within weeks of moving here. Little plastic card with our photo, fingerprint and address on it. Exactly the same as a Spanish one but in the corner it said Extranjeros (foreign).

After Brexit non Spanish residents were given a piece of paper which could be shrunk and laminated but as we had our Spanish citizenship by then we didn't need to.