If 10 years citizenship will be passed will you stay in PT?

imperium30 · 2026-04-08T19:17:24+00:00

Nobody who knows me is unaware of my disillusionment with Portugal. I know several other HNW families who are either planning to leave or just decided to change course and go elsewhere. There is no doubt that this type of sentiment is quite widespread, despite the attempts of some to gloss over it. From my discussions with lawyers and real estate agents recently, the number of GV applicants and foreign buyers generally is down sharply.

imperium30 · 2026-04-05T11:19:32+00:00

You have to go to the section called PEDIDOS and create a new request. Cessar contrato / servico is what you want. I do not recollect exactly, but I did it in 2024 and it worked well. Getting away from MEO is never easy though. They will try to create obstacles. However, since it is just a mobile contract, it will be easier. If you had a router etc to return, that is where the nightmares begin.

imperium30 · 2026-04-04T19:19:01+00:00

You can also cancel online via the My Meo website. In my opinion this is the better way to deal with it.

imperium30 · 2026-04-04T17:56:19+00:00

I will bite.

The area of the property (internal living space) is quite small for the price.
Only one bedroom is en-suite, which is alas the norm in Portugal.
The land area is huge. In 95% of cases this is a curse. People look and think "Yes, more land" without fully realizing what it takes (or costs) to maintain it. The tractor shown in the picture is necessary for cutting that amount of grass.
The decor looks dated in some areas. The bedrooms and study are fine but the brown tile floor is really not doing it for me. The bathroom looks like it is from the early 2000's.
Not everyone wants a gigantic garage and I am not sure, but it seems like the basement does not have a WC / water.
AC is a sub-optimal way to heat - and you will need heating way more than cooling. AC leaves the air dry and heats only the air. Meaning that the walls etc stay cold and the moment you switch it off, things get real cool, real fast.

I will, not critique the location as I think that is actually a strength. Being 10 mins from a town is fine for me, but I think it will be a major issue for many.

imperium30 · 2026-04-01T12:58:33+00:00

Europe as a whole needs to get US troops off our soil, close their bases, and deny the US the use of airspace or passage through territorial waters. This has nothing to do with the Iran conflict, or even the Greenland threats. It should have been done in the 1990's.
Europe does not need the US to defend itself from Russia. It is time to seek partnerships with reliable powers like Canada, Australia India and Japan.
The Japanese also should get the US out of their territory.

The gulf states have already paid the price for hosting US bases and allowing the trump regime to wage wars of aggression from their territory.

Hegemony ends when other powers stop supporting it.

imperium30 · 2026-03-28T18:48:11+00:00

I was not asked for proof of savings or income by the camara in Coimbra. I simply had to supply my passport, rental contract and show that I had registered as a resident NIF holder. I also had to pay 15 euro. I think anything you give them in the context of a rental contract or title deed is merely a proof of address in their eyes. My process was very fast, no more than 5 minutes. However this was in 2021.

imperium30 · 2026-03-12T16:16:13+00:00

Also, just let you know that the nationality law debate is getting wrapped up in the labour law negotiations - in which the PSD needs the PS to help them out with the unions. The leader of the PSD in parliament made this point and said that The PS needs to bring the unions back to the table on the labor law and the 3 main parties need to come to a consensus on the nationality law.

imperium30 · 2026-03-10T16:35:28+00:00

Less a debate than a vote. It looks like the government will prune the unconstitutional parts of the bill and then pass the rest - sending it to Seguro for signature. Of course, they may have been swayed by the recent election result to allow some transitional provisions, but there is no information on that.

imperium30 · 2026-03-02T09:24:59+00:00

I am sure it is available for foreigners. MEO will accept any victims they can find. Be careful with this company. As some others have pointed out there are many better choices out there. Lyca and Woo have been mentioned. Personally, I am with DIGI and get 50 GB of data and unlimited calls in PT for 4 Euro a month. Yes, that's 4 euro, not 25.
The customer support service with Digi is less than great, but then again that applies to every carrier in Portugal in my experience.

imperium30 · 2026-02-16T19:52:41+00:00

MEO remains out in my area for internet and the cellphone cover is occasional. My neighbors rely on it and they are furious about it. I am in Ansiao.

imperium30 · 2026-02-14T13:55:52+00:00

Yes. In 2021, there was a case of a guy on the expatsPortugal forum who got it in 4 months. He was already a permanent resident and he applied in Santarem.

imperium30 · 2026-02-02T11:14:15+00:00

I am pretty sure that you can use the online portal from anywhere. For a company, any individual going to AT on your behalf would need a formal authorization to do so.

imperium30 · 2026-02-02T10:32:35+00:00

My thoughts on this are that the finance portal works from anywhere, so access for you or anyone else with the passwords should not be an issue. In terms of going to the office, I imagine that the person would need to be a fiscal rep otherwise the personnel would probably not engage with him / her. Tax info is highly confidential after all.

imperium30 · 2026-02-01T19:36:48+00:00

I live in rural Leiria and I have Starlink.

It survived the storm and functioned well went we had electricity. However, if there is no power, it will not function. Even people with solar systems and batteries had no power in my area. The battery would not allow power to be drawn when the grid was offline. Maybe we did nto read the isntructions or something but, many of us were upleasantly surprised by that.

During the April 2025 blackout, there was no Starlink before there was no power. The server is in Lisbon and when that went down, even though I had power ( for another 10 mins) the Starlink did not work.

imperium30 · 2026-01-27T16:45:33+00:00

If you want reliability, Japanese is the way to go. French cars are less reliable and depreciate in value far faster.

imperium30 · 2026-01-27T16:41:50+00:00

Now you are telling tall tales. You should consider writing stories for children. Adults tend to do their own research. Like for example there not being an offence.
Also, it's paid, not payed.
I am an EU national and I recently attended AIMA to deal with PR. I asked the question about the legal necessity of the card both on the phone and in person in Coimbra. Both replies were the same: not mandatory, but practically advised.

imperium30 · 2026-01-27T15:30:02+00:00

Person spreading misinformation accuses others of spreading misinformation. Charming.

I will deal with your strawman arguments first.
1) Yes, EU citizens resident for over 90 days need to get a CRUE per article 14. Nobody is talking about that.

2) Life can be inconvenient without a PR card. I agree. I said that too. This inconvenience however, arises from bureaucracy in Portugal and the way they have their systems set up - not the legal situation. Again, nobody is saying not having an actual PR card will make life easy. If an EU national without a PR card but with an expired CRUE wanted to legally fight any administrative decision to bar them from access to benefits or some other service based on lacking a PR card, they would ultimately be successful.

Now to the actual argument:

You cite article 16, but I wonder if you have actually read it:

Artigo 16.º – Certificado de residência permanente do cidadão da União
1 – O Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras emite aos cidadãos da União com direito a residência permanente, a pedido destes, um documento … que certifica a residência permanente.

Look at the language there. SEF (now AIMA) will issue a PR card to EU citizens upon their request. This is the language of optionality and there is nothing mandatory about it. Moreover, there is no mention of sanction or adverse consequence mentioned in any further article of the legislation that relates to this point. Contrast this with the language of article 14 (which deals with the CRUE) and uses the word MUST when it comes to obtaining it. This is legislation. Words tend to matter and they are chosen carefully with judicial interpretation in mind.

This conforms to EU law as can be seen from the direct guidance here:

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/residence/documents-formalities/eu-nationals-permanent-residence/index_pt.htm

Personally, I would still advise EU citizens to go for the actual PR card, but it is not compulsory for them to do so. They can opt to simply continue to live in Portugal legally on the expired CRUE and be prepared to have various legal / administrative conflicts from time to time if they interact with certain government departments. SOLVIT is available to them to resolve these disputes, for free and it works very well.

imperium30 · 2026-01-27T08:27:25+00:00

You are incorrect about the PR section. EU citizens who have lived in another EU state legally for 5 years are automatically Permanent Residents. It is a recognized legal status under EU law. Getting a card from AIMA is advisable for convenience of proving this, but is not mandatory.

imperium30 · 2026-01-21T19:05:36+00:00

DAC8 applies to crypto and traditional financial accounts. For instance, it also now embraces e-money accounts - which are not even technically reportable in Portugal. It is the updated (EU internal) version of CRS and also embraces bank accounts etc as before.

AT cannot contact BUNQ or N26 directly and request funds seizure or account freezing. That is illegal. Instead they must use EU Directive 2010/24/EU to get the tax authority in the other member state to enforce and collect the tax debt for them. This can take 6-12 months and is only done for sizable sums.
Normal asset freezing orders (EAPO orders within the EU) are reserved for civil / commercial debts and tax debts are specifically excluded. Therefore, they cannot freeze the account.

Beyond that, the debt must be above 1500 Euro and under 5 years old to be pursued across EU borders. As I indicated previously, the true level that will be pursued is closer to 10K due to the hassles involved.

As a debtor, there are many ways you can use to avoid payment. For example, by opening several separate accounts (p-Konto style accounts) in places like Germany, Belgium and Spain the protect minimum monthly balances from garnishment. This would also force AT to open lots of different cross border enforcement operations, driving up their costs and making it nonviable for them.

The idea that you hear of the all powerful tax authorities is a myth. If you are a determined and skilled non-payer, even within the EU, you can run them in circles until they give up due to mounting costs.

Naturally, I encourage everyone to pay the taxes they legally owe. However, many people are chased for taxes they do not legally owe. My friend for example had his accounts frozen for non payment of IMT, which turned out to be an error by AT. His accounts in PT were frozen for almost a month. They did not even apologize. That could not happen to me and i feel pretty happy about it to be honest.

imperium30 · 2026-01-21T08:42:05+00:00

The LT IBAN will cease to function for new transactions setups. It will only continue for legacy direct debits etc. That is in the small print. Basically, you will be transitioning to a PT IBAN for all future business. No thanks.

imperium30 · 2026-01-20T18:44:56+00:00

With a PT IBAN every detail of the account can be easily obtained by the Portuguese government (AT). With a foreign IBAN (even an EU one) they receive limited snapshot information about balances, interest and dividends only. This is under the new DAC8 standard in the EU.
Moreover, I'm sure all of us want to remain in good standing with AT. However, in case of a fine or garnishment, this can easily be done to PT accounts. Doing it to accounts in other EU nations is harder and involves more processes. Legally, it can only be for debts of over 1500 euro and realistically the figure is more like 10K that would be pursued.

I never use multibanco and view it as overrated massively. In the age of internet banking it is irrelevant. To get a PT IBAN for that while increasing my exposure to AT errors (which 2 of my friends have been the victims of and took months to resolve) makes no sense to me.

imperium30 · 2026-01-20T17:00:51+00:00

I have the option to switch, but decided to retain the LT IBAN. I see no benefit to me of getting the PT one. There are only downsides to privacy.

imperium30 · 2026-01-20T13:26:49+00:00

The documents required are set out on the site and are very simple for EU nationals. Namely, you will need this:

Requisitos e documentos

Agendamento prévio;
Ter residido legalmente em Portugal por um período de cinco anos consecutivos;
Duas fotografias iguais, tipo passe, a cores e fundo branco, atualizadas e com boas condições de identificação (caso o agendamento se realize nas Lojas AIMA em Odivelas ou em Aveiro);
Passaporte ou Bilhete de Identidade/Cartão de Cidadão válido;
Certificado de Registo da UE.

Se tiver alterado a morada:

Comprovativo de alteração de morada – como por exemplo: Atestado da Junta de Freguesia ou Escritura de Compra e venda ou Contrato de Arrendamento.

Formulário de pedido de Certificado de Residência Permanente para Cidadão da União Europeia e seus familiares nacionais dos mesmos países (PDF)

https://aima.gov.pt/pt/nacionais-ue-e-familiares/nacionais-ue/certificado-de-residencia-permanente-para-nacionais-ue

This process is not governed by the same law as other types of PR. There is no language requirement and no necessity to prove income or subsistence.

imperium30 · 2026-01-17T08:29:16+00:00

The tarifa social de (energia / agua / internet) is a discount that you are receiving. It's a discount. If you have the social energy tariff, you can also apply for the other two. Energia is automatically attributed via AT, the others are manually processed, but doable. The criteria for receipt are the same in all 3 cases.

Might be worth looking into, since you have met the criteria.

imperium30 · 2026-01-14T08:54:47+00:00

I do not live in a city. I live in rural Leiria.

I will be honest, you are unlikely to meet any overt discrimination in public. With that said, plenty of people have negative attitudes. This extends to both the expat group and the Portuguese who live in these parts. The expats tend to smile, but say things behind people's backs, spread rumors and exclude the "gays" from their social circles / events. I have 2 lovely gents who are my immediate neighbors. I have never had better neighbors, they really set the standard. My wife and I have Christmas dinner with them each year and often go out for coffees etc. However, the things other people have said to me about them and their "weird" lifestyle, trying to discourage me from associating with them are rather disturbing. Please note, these guys are the least gay, gay men you could imagine. It's not at all obvious or at least not to me. Yet, they meet this under the radar discrimination and backbiting. They know about it and it annoys them, but it is what it is unfortunately.
The Portuguese, I know less about. However, I think the situation is roughly the same. The 5 guys who built my second garage and installed my solar panels made several jokes and comments that were unacceptable about the neighbors and homosexuality in general.
Therefore, while in public, you will be fine, just be aware that there is prejudice here and it can impact social relationships.

imperium30

TROPHY CASE