Surely if you drive a rental car with your foreign licence (and assuming you rented on that licence) then there’s literally nothing to worry about?
If you somehow managed to buy a local car, and then you drive that one on your foreign licence, then you may raise some eyebrows when you are stopped, but then again, why would anyone stop you for any questioning?
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Actually, I have seen random stops in Lisbon city centre (Rua da Escola Politécnica and Praça Duque de Saldanha) by police to check car registration documents, insurance, technical inspection status, and driving license. They are very infrequent, but they do occur.
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+1 @PCERoman
I’ve been stopped once while driving a rental car and they checked all my documents. I want to abide by the law and show an eligible drivers license when driving in Portugal during my GV stays.
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I purchased a house in November 2021 and applied for the so-called “Golden Visa” the same month. In May 2025 I finally received my card. However I chose to become a tax resident of Portugal in December 2024 in order to get NHR status before it went away. My lawyers were able to get financas to change my NIF address from my US address to my Portuguese address in early December 2024 and to issue me two documents: one certifying that my Portuguese address was my financial domicile and another one certifying that I was in the NHR tax regime. I sold my house in the US and arranged shipment of household goods to Portugal the same month. My next step was to pursue exchange of my US drivers license for a Portuguese one. Thousands of Americans have already done this, most of them here on D7 temporary residence permits. After months of rejections requesting various additional documents IMT has now issued me a notice of intent to deny my application for a Portuguese drivers license! The reason: my residency permit is an ARI permit and ARI holders only have to spend 2 weeks per year in Portugal. Never mind the certificates just mentioned, never mind that I filed a Portuguese tax return for 2024 which was accepted. Apparently the fact that I could choose to not be a full time resident if I wanted to is grounds for denying me a Portuguese driver’s license. I have retained an attorney to challenge this. Portugal is unbelievable.
And you wanted to exchange your US licence to a Portuguese one because of what? Your age?
It’s the law. You can only use your foreign license for a limited time once you become a resident
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Meanwhile you can reapply in a different IMT. Avoid Lisbon Porto. Maybe different IMTs yield different results. Taking issue to the court is only to benefit the lawyers. Court does not protect us. Even when court’s verdict lies on our side, there is almost zero law enforcement. It already happened with Aima. Now Aima just ignores court’s order and the cycle continues.
I think that was changed a few years ago, for OECD country like US you can use a US license in Portugal for a long time if you’re under 60: https://www2.gov.pt/en-GB/noticias/cartas-de-conducao-de-paises-da-ocde-e-cplp-validas-em-portugal
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Hi - this topic was already covered in:
I’m not under 60 sadly
I tried the IMT office in Faro. They sent me away. You can no longer apply in person you have to use the website and wait for approval. Only then do you go to an office with your original documents
That’s what I meant. You have option to choose 3 IMTs. You can choose somewhere like Aveiro Viseu Guimarãe….
The rule change doesn’t benefit anyone over 60. In any case the purpose of my post was to make people aware that IMT seems inclined to discriminate against ARI residents
The process has changed. You can no longer initiate drivers license exchange via an in-person visit, you must instead apply online, upload supporting documents, and wait for an email invitation to visit sn IMT office
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Alright, understood. In that case I suggest you hire a local lawyer/agent under PoA to deal with IMT. I had a similar experience with AT which was resolved via lawyer. Or if you have a friend who in turn has a friend at IMT that’s even better. I had a similar experience with DSVTT when importing a car which was resolved that way.
I have retained an attorney
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It was exactly what I did in 2022. I am not sure what has changed since then. But in 2022, I did exactly what you described (initiated online, then brought all docs to IMT). I could also select 3 IMTs and one of them was assigned to me. Then I had to bring all original documents to the assigned IMT. I selected 3 IMTs very very far away from Lisbon because I did some research and realised that Lisbon and Porto IMT were just like AIMA/IRN i.e. bureaucracy is crazy. A little IMT in a small town did yield a portuguese driving license after waiting some months. The key here is when initiating online, you must select IMT far away from big cities.
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I am in the same boat, receiving identical “denial” letter. What I did was to send them a copy of my PT tax declaration that I filed in 2025, certifying that we are now tax residents of PT. In my e-mail to them that accompanied it, I also wrote that it made no logical sense for me to change my Arizona license that is good till 2029 unless I resided full time in PT. So far they “shut up” and changed my status back to “em analise”.
Another thing you could do (which would have been my next move) is to obtain Atestado de Residência from your local Junta de Freguesia (costs about 7.35 €). This would certify that you actually domicile at your address in PT. That should help, I suppose, but I didn’t need it so far.
Good luck!
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Thanks. Good to know. I already uploaded my Atestado so they have that. I hired a lawyer to contest this. I’ll let her explain the law to them
We have some pre-Brexit British friends here who went thru the process of changing their UK licence to a PT licence. It took them 4 years to receive their licences. This was before the government changed the rule allowing UK drivers to keep their licences for driving in PT in perpetuity.
4 years. 