Campaigning for our readers

Are you struggling with new rules brought in that affect your life or visit to Portugal? No matter what country you are from, or the problem you are facing, we are here to help.

By TPN, in News · 18 Jun 2021, 00:00 · 3 Comments

The Portugal News is proud to represent our readers and to campaign for changes to make the lives of all residents and visitors better in Portugal.

Whether you have been affected by changes to Golden Visa rules, Non habitual residency (NHR) regulations between your country and Portugal, travel restrictions stemming from Covid-19, problems relating to Brexit or any other issue that will affect you and many others in a similar situation then we want to hear from you.

Raising the profile of important issues and putting pressure on the relevant authorities is important to The Portugal News, so if you have an issue that you would like to discuss further that you think we could help with, then please email info@theportugalnews.com

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Comments

Thank you for your interesting and hopeful article ’Campaigning for our readers’
By TPN, In News · 18 Jun 2021, 01:00 ·

My husband and I are 67 and 65 years old respectively. We retired to Portugal on a D7 visa (non EU citizens) and arrived here (Nazaré) on the 14 March 2021; with our SEF appointment scheduled for the 5 April 2021 in Lisbon.

Due to Covid-19, our SEF appointments were rescheduled to 21 July 2021 in Braga; after our current temporary visas expire- we assume that we will still be considered to be legally in the country.

For public health preventative and legal compliance reasons, we are desperately seeking clarity on the process to get vaccinated.

It seems that without an SNS number; which apparently can happen only after our SEF appointment; this is not possible.

We are on a private medical medical insurance and even offered to personally pay; without success.

To defeat COVID-19, we will need to work together; we just don’t know how.

Please assist.

Ps. Thank to Portugal for having us; and the Portuguese community who has made our stay such a pleasure.

By Beulah Misrole from Other on 18 Jun 2021, 16:03

I appreciate this desire to champion the outrages of your readers.
My husband and I arrived in January as EU citizens and were able to get our NIF, NISS and Certificates of Residency rapidly and efficiently. However like the writer before, our número de utente, needed to access public healthcare, is lost in endless, black box bureaucracy. Since Health Centres have stopped taking F2F meetings, we have had to apply through a generic email address and the ultimate entity processing our documentation simply responds with “we are very busy”. Even the SNS24 hotline acknowledges the impossibility of getting this number!
It has been close to 6 months and of course we have no access to the vaccine as a result because, despite what the government says, “immigrants” without are a número de utente are not being processed with any sense of urgency. As evidence, we are significantly above the age of the Portuguese population currently being vaccinated.
We have expressed our frustration in email, on the phone and through social media, all without meaningful response.

By Carol B from Lisbon on 18 Jun 2021, 17:41

When I booked my vaccination appointment, there was an option for people who were not registered with the SNS, but still resident in Portugal. You needed to have checked that, and I think it takes you to another page where you fill in your details and get a suggested appointment sent to your phone by SMS, just like everyone who is registered with the SNS. So, no, you are not excluded from the Covid19 vaccination because you're not yet SNS registered. Have another look at the website.

By Billy Bissett from Porto on 19 Jun 2021, 17:24