Moving to Portugal with A Non-EU Family Member (e.g. Spouse or Partner)

Moving to Portugal as an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen is relatively easy. You don’t need to apply for a residency visa (e.g. the D7 or golden visa) like those from outside of the EU do: you simply need to show that you have the means to support yourself, whether that’s through a job, savings, a pension, or another form of suitable income. Once you’ve shown that, you’ll be given your CRUE (certificado de registo para Cidadão da UE/EEE/Suíça).

But what happens if you have a spouse, partner, or other family member from outside the EU?

• Certain family members of EU/EEA/Swiss citizens (such as a spouse) don’t need to go through the hassle and costs of applying for a residency visa like the D7, Digital Nomad Visa, or even D6.
• They can move to Portugal with their EU/EEA/Swiss partner.
• Once the EU/EEA/Swiss family member has registered at their nearest câmara municipal and obtained their CRUE, the non-EU/EEA/Swiss person can request an appointment with AIMA (previously known as SEF) under “Article 15.”

Due to the non-EU/EA/Swiss partner technically only having a 90/180 visa, immigration lawyer Sandra Gomes Pinto recommends trying to apply for the CRUE before the 90 day period. Some councils allow this and some don’t.

“Some city councils do allow you to register before the end of the three months. If that’s an option, this would be our first strategy: register the EU citizen early, so that we can then contact AIMA to arrange family reunification for the non-EU citizen” [source].

What happens after 90 days?

Sandra continues, “As long as you’ve started the process of family reunification, and can show you’ve been trying to contact AIMA to arrange an appointment, you would be able to defend yourself.”

Richole, a Chinese citizen who writes the travel website Mrs Life Blog, went through this process when she and her Danish husband, Martin, decided to move to Portugal. Martin had already obtained residency in Portugal and then Richole arrived on a family visa, which allowed her to stay for 90 days in a 180-day period. She was then able to request an AIMA appointment while already in Portugal.

The AIMA Appointment 

You need an appointment with AIMA, and getting one takes a lot of patience and, although some people manage to book an appointment online, and a lot of phone calls (for some this is in the hundreds).

Jonny KD, who moved to Portugal in 2021, recommends using a redial app rather than manually redialling. He also says not to use the words ‘family reunification’ when calling, otherwise it’s easy for the person on the other end of the line to assume you mean the D6 visa, which is for families where none of the members hold EU citizenship.

Ashley Long, who moved to Portugal in 2022, recommends following the AIMA Facebook groups to get notified of whenever AIMA releases a new batch of Article 15 appointments.

We got everything ready. NIF, apartment, etc. I’m an EU citizen so I got
the appointment for my residency card reserved at the local town hall
(wait list is several months long). Last but not least there was the SEF
call. A minor detail it would seem. Call them, make an appointment, show
up when the time arrives. My spouse is not an EU citizen so SEF should
take care of her.

So I call them. Nothing.
I call again, nothing, again, again, again …

It didn’t take long and I ran the phone on auto redial for days on end.
Only once I managed to talk to somebody feeling like we finally hit the
jackpot only to be sent to another queue which eventually kicked me out
again. I did this for weeks until we aborted our move to Portugal 🙁

The SEF officers in the various offices couldn’t do anything to help. I
tried several of them without any success. They tried to help but the
system seems to be completely overloaded.

If anything I’d advise any non EU citizen to get the SEF appointment
first or at least as soon as possible. Chances are high that this little
detail causes major headaches.

Roman

Once you do get through, it’s not unusual to be told that there aren’t any available appointments for Article 15 cases. It’s not unheard of to not be able to get an appointment within the 90 days, and many people end up overstaying their visas while they wait for appointment slots to open up. Some people have successfully managed to book appointments online, but phoning is still the more common way.

Richole made the mistake of turning up to AIMA without an appointment and ended up queuing for 1.5 hours only to be told that she wouldn’t be seen without one. She was told to either call AIMA or try to make an appointment through CNAI (Centro Nacional de Apoio a Integração de Migrantes). The next time she came back, she made sure she had an appointment.

Required Documents

Officially, and according to EU law [source], the following documents are required to register a non-EU family member in Portugal:

• A valid passport.
• Your registration certificate as an EU national or any other proof of your residence in the country.
• Proof of the family relationship with you (such as a marriage or birth certificate)
• For (grand)children, proof they are under 21 or dependent on you.
• For (grand)parents, proof that they are dependent on you.
• For other family members, proof that they are dependent on you or there are serious health ground requiring you to take personal care of them.
• For unmarried partners, proof of a long-term or durable relationship with you.

Obviously, it’s much easier to prove a marriage (e.g. a marriage certificate) than a long-term relationship. This is normally shown by demonstrating that you’ve lived at the same address for 3+ years (e.g. through shared bills). However, in practice it isn’t always this simple.

My partner is an EU citizen but we are not married so proof of our relationship was needed. At my appointment in Coimbra I supplied years of my bank statements and hers listing the same address. However, I was told that they were not sufficient as it was not a joint account so they did take a copy. An old rental contract (for our 1 bed flat in London) was also rejected as apparently only evidence of a property purchase would count as proof of the relationship.

After the meeting we obtained a certificate for our união de facto from the local Junta de Freguesia. I would advise any unmarried couples to do this before their appointment. I sent it to AIMA with the bank statements that had been rejected previously, along with a cover letter asking if they would be sufficient proof of our relationship if considered together. I never received a response but apparently it worked because I have just received my residence card seven months after the appointment.

George

While the website states that “no other documents may be requested,” in practice it’s not unusual for people to get asked for other documents from time to time. Jonny says he kept a copy of this list just in case he was asked for other documents and he wanted to challenge it.

(An official list of required documents can also be found on SEF.pt [in English] and on Dre.pt [in Portuguese]).

For Ashley Long, who had her appointment in early 2023, the following documents were needed:

• Application form (you can get this there or bring it in already completed)
• A valid passport (not photocopies)
• Marriage certificate, with translation that was less than 6 months old*
• Bank statements and current account printout**
• NIF statement**
• Proof of address (she used a water bill and had brought the deeds to her property just in case, but the water bill was used instead)***

* Ashley’s marriage certificate is from France, which meant that it needed to be translated but not apostilled. Jonny registered his marriage via the Finish consulate in the US rather than have to get their marriage certificate apostilled.

**Non-EU residents typically need to use a lawyer or fiscal representative, such as Bordr or other services, to obtain a NIF and, although the same requirements don’t apply for bank accounts, sometimes require assistance in opening them. Ashley obtained her NIF through her attorney who also gave her a contact at the bank who opened an account before she moved from France.

*** Rather than bring a bill, Jonny used an Atestado De Residência. While this often seen as a “more official” document, it can take sometimes take some work to obtain.

As well as Ashley’s documents, her French husband, who had already obtained residency as an EU citizen, needed to bring the following documents:

• Valid passport
• French residence card
• Certificado do Registo de Cidadão da União Europeia (CRUE) or residency certificate

Ashley had to pay a fee of €21, which she was able to pay with a credit card, and her photos and fingerprints were taken there. Once the interview was complete, she was given a printout that acts as her temporary residence permit until her real residence permit arrives. This is expected to take around 2-4 weeks on average, but the actual time can vary.

After 5 years of living in Portugal, non-EU family members can apply for permanent residency and Portuguese citizenship.

CLAIM Office

According to one Portugalist reader, Chris, it is a “waste of time” to go directly to the AIMA office. He writes:

Go immediately to a CLAIM office, with the following documents and nothing else.

 –  copy of every page of your US passport

 –  your telephone and email contacts

 – copy of your wife’s passport

 – copy of your wife’s Certificado de Registo de Cidadãos da União Europeia (which confirms your address)

You should be received cordially and told to be patient because the next step, a return visit to CLAIM or an email from them, could be a long time in coming.  When it does, it presumably will confirm a date for a meeting with AIMA, and the documentary requirements associated with it.

My wife and I went directly to the CLAIM office in Portimao (5 Rua Do Pé Da Cruz, 8500-141, Portimao, tel: 282 470 830).  That was on 10 July and no phone call or email from them yet.  We were told it could take a while.

No previous appointment.  However, we lived temporarily in Aveiro before moving to Portimao.  So my initial meeting with CLAIM was in Aveiro (Praceta Dr. Alberto Souto, 14, 3800-147, Aveiro; Catarina Rainho was very helpful tel. 934 000 175).  When in Aveiro with Catarina, I signed a “Declaration of Consent for Data Subjects“, whereby I declared “giving my consent ……regarding the authorization to process my personal data” with AIMA for purposes of securing an appointment with that agency.

Obviously, it was helpful to have kept a copy of the above document when we presented ourselves to CLAIM in Portimao, as our names were on record in the CLAIM system.

Amongst the documents and information I mentioned (my email forwarded below) having been handed over to CLAIM in Portimao, I neglected to mention the ubiquitous NIF reference.

I had originally offered to hand over to CLAIM in Portimao the key document required by AIMA for non-EU nationals seeking residence in Portugal.

That document is the “Termo da Responsabilidade” filled out by my wife as an EU national whereby she offers me custody for purposes of residency. (the form includes a small section at the end to be filled out by me; the form is available on google).  However, the CLAIM office in Portimao informed me that the document in question would be submitted in due course to AIMA directly by myself when my appointment was secured.

One last point and you’ll  have the full inside scoop on the CLAIM residence application procedure in lieu of  the dreaded AIMA:  I needed an original or certified copy of our marriage contract “duly signed and stamped valid …with an Apostille in accordance with the Hague Convention ov 5 October 1961″.  However, the Apostille center in Paris to which we applied informed us in writing that our marriage contract was exempted from the estampille by virtue of Article 4 of EU Regulation 2016/1191 of the European Parlement and Council of 6 July 2016 relative to public documents. 

I hope the estampille exemption will be confirmed when I secure my appointment with AIMA.