Portugal: I Am Portuguese

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"I AM A PORTUGUESE RESIDENT, YAYYYY"

This week has been a challenging one with a number of things to sort out.

One of the things I knew would be interesting coming here is dealing with my properties in the UK. For a start there's the Hull nonsense which I left to an agent before leaving, which still continues to be a nonsense. And then one of my properties had a boiler pack in up in Newcastle where it's ridiculously cold just in time for the snow. Many phonecalls, messages, yell.com sessions later it still isn't resolved which is bad news for the tenant ... mainly because of the many rip-off tradesmen out there who charge a bomb to pop over for 5 mins and flick a switch, tell you 'we fixed it, pay us the extortionate call out fee, but the problem may return in 6 months, it's xyz at cost £400 if it happens again' and then 2 hrs later you're back to square one with it failing again, get somebody else out who tells you 'actually the problem is not xyz, its abc at £500' ... so who do I believe? In the meantime I have an ice-cold tenant to deal with.

Living in the opposite side of the country to your properties is a challenge enough, but dealing with things from another country is more so. Unless you are there, tradesmen love to rip you off stupidly. At times I'm disappointed with this world. Still, it's all a challenge and you gotta have fun with challenges.

On a brighter note, I am now a Portuguese resident ... whoop whoop. The process is for most people a long-winded one, but I managed to get through all the bureaucracy and do it in a week. Also, majority of Brits here are only given 1 yr residency even after showing translated work contracts, UK tax returns, etc ... and I've managed to get the full 5 yrs residency without requiring any evidence of work or taxes ... so far I haven't had to sign up to the Portuguese tax system and Social Security (something I'd like to avoid as long as possible as it's just daylight robbery here compared to doing things through the UK) ... next step is matriculating my car so we shall see if I can still stay out of the system for that ... gonna be a big challenge but I have the ball rolling on this one.

Right, my step by step to obtain residency involved:

1. Taking advice from various Portuguese locals to go to the 'SEF' building (deals with foreigners) ... eventually find it

2. Be told to go to 'camara' (town hall) as SEF only deal with residency extensions, not 1st time .... eventually find the camara building

3. Go to camara with all of my paperwork, and be told I need to go to 'junta da freguesia' (village hall) to get an 'atestado da residencia' which is a form that proves i live here ... eventually i find the junta after asking many locals for directions, since its actually located in a small building that takes care of electricity bills (so like a British Gas office) ... and the Junta is literally just one woman on a chair in the corner ... that's the village hall, lols. Like a muppet I wait in the wrong queue and be told when im at the front to go to the other queue in the corner, but at the time there was no queue and the womain that usually sits in the junta chair wasnt there so i was rather confused ... i just strolled around the room casually humming until i figured out where i should be (took me 5 mins of humming)

4. I get the atestado form, and am told I need 2 Portuguese voters to sign it to prove I live here

5. No probs, I get 2 peeps to sign it the next day, and take it back

6. I get my atestado da residencia (3 euros), go back to the camara building with this, passport, small photo, bank statement, tax number certificate an residency form filled out

7. Am told to come back in 8 days

8. I go back in 7 days, pay 15 euros and pickup my residency certificate ... look at the expiry date (14th Jan 2018) and think inside 'whoop whoop'

And that's that ... the reason I got residency was for importing the car as residency is a pre-requisite ... so let's see how I get on with that ... it must be done before March as my 6 months end then and that's all you have since bringing the car in the country to start importing.

More good news, my sister came to visit this week so I've had company here ... and I finally ended up using the foosball table I put together a couple of months back. Fun times. Yesterday I took her to Pego Do Inferno which is slowly starting to get life back ... hopefully the bridge will be fixed and the area will be as special as it once was.

And finally, I've been working on a website this past week to promote the apartments in the resort I live in. Tavira is an amazing place and needs to get more awareness ... so I decided to build www.ExperienceTavira.com as a side project to work with the management company here and the apartment owners back in the UK and make some cash on the side ... never know, I may end up being a tour guide smile emoticon

Until next time amigos ....

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