Getting a resident’s card
All D7 visa holders have to attend an interview with the Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF) within 4 months of being granted the visa. The date, time and place of the appointment are printed on the visa.
Mine was in Odivelas, which turned out to be a suburb of Lisbon. I could have changed the appointment, but that involves cancelling the original date and requesting a new slot – so I decided not to risk it. It would be fun to go to Lisbon anyway.
Trip to Lisbon
I travelled by train on the Algarve line from Tavira to Faro and then got an express train to Lisbon. Total cost: 3.25 for the first train and 23 eur for the second, purchased via the CP app for Portuguese trains.
The express train from Faro to Lisbon takes about 3.5 hours. I discovered that Faro bus station is only about 3 minutes’ walk from the train station and I could easily have caught a Flixbus (or any other bus) to Lisbon for as little as 6.99 eur with the same journey time.
Faro stopover
I had a couple of hours to kill in Faro, so wandered to the waterfront and had a delicious seafood lunch.
Navigating Lisbon
When I got to Lisbon Sete Rios station, I switched to the metro, bought a Via Viagem ticket from the vending machine for 0.50 eur and loaded it with a one-trip ticket for 1.65 eur. The following morning, I added a 6.50 eur 24-hour go-anywhere ticket that lasted me to the end of my stay. My apartment was near Alameda metro. I’d stayed there before and knew it was handy for everything I needed.
Travelling to the appointment
After an early night, I allowed myself two hours to get to my appointment. The Lisbon metro system is really efficient (apart from a few perennially faulty escalators) and some of its stations are truly awe-inspiring.
I was musing on its wonders while speeding without a care to Odivelas, when my luck changed and we were abruptly asked to leave the train at Cidade Universitária. This was due to works that would be affecting the line until June.
There was a confusing announcement about replacement buses, but I had no time to risk it. I emerged on a gridlocked road near the university, hailed an Uber and prayed. Luckily Denise driving a Citroen came to my rescue within 6 minutes and got me to my destination with an hour to spare.
SEF interview
The SEF office in Odivelas is on the top floor of a big shopping mall and housed in a Loja de Cidadão (citizens’ advice bureau). Even though I was an hour early, I decided to go in and that proved a good decision.
I queued for 5 minutes at the window to confirm my appointment. When it was my turn, the clerk jotted down a few details from my passport, gave me a form to fill in and showed me to a seat. I’d already completed the form, downloaded from the SEF website, but this still prompted a panicked scrabble for a pen in case I needed it later. Thank goodness I had one in my bag.
I had a one and a half hour wait before my name was called, but I was finally seen only 30 minutes after my actual appointment time. It had been a good move to check in straight away because we were seen in order of arrival and not scheduled appointment time.
The clerk who saw me was patient and spoke good English. I had my papers in a concertina folder with dividers so they could easily be pulled out and handed over.
The one big lesson I took from my experience is to follow the instructions on the SEF website and beware of putting your complete trust in other people’s blogs and Facebook posts. For example, the SEF site tells you to bring photos but most Facebook posts say this isn’t necessary as the SEF offices have their own camera equipment. I can now say categorically that my photos were required at the Odivelas office.
Health insurance is another grey area. My NHS número de utente was all the clerk wanted. He wasn’t interested in my private insurance at all. This is definitely not what I had heard from other people, mainly immigrants from the US. Neither did he want to see my lease. I’m sure others have had entirely the opposite experience at different SEF offices and I felt happy to have erred on the side of caution.
After a lot of flustered fumbling for the right bits of paper and a bit of polite exasperation from the clerk because I’d got too many unnecessary documents, he finally proclaimed in a tone of mild surprise that everything was in order.
Then he shuffled everything into a pack, entered my details on the computer, took my fingerprints and charged me 171 eur. He also issued me with a receipt and provisional residence card details. The actual card should arrive within 10-12 working days.
Job done. I wandered out in an bit of a daze two hours after first entering the office. After a celebratory breakfast, I made my way back to the apartment and relaxed for a while.
In the evening, I met a translator friend Vanessa for dinner at a lovely restaurant serving small plates near Alameda. Lisbon was much chillier than Tavira, which was 30 degrees when I left. As a result, I felt like an underdressed beach bum compared to all the warmly wrapped diners.
Back to Tavira
This morning I dragged myself out of bed early to catch the fastest possible train back to Faro. The Alfa Pendular covers the distance in exactly 3 hours, travelling at speeds up to 145 km/h. I caught the train from Oriente station, taking in more Lisbon underground wonders on the way.
Confusingly, there was no sign of the Oriente railway station when I got off the metro. It turned out to be four levels directly above.
