Living in PT but Proof of Time in Country Being Requested

Residencies & citizenships Portugal Golden Visa
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My (fourth!!) GV renewal meeting was today - I applied for citizenship 18 months ago so still needed to renew one more time while waiting. Luckily the fee was only €181, and since I was actually out of town on vacation, I was able to contract a local attorney to appear for me.

So here’s the issue. We live full time in Lisbon, and have done so for over 4 years. For some reason, this time AIMA asked me to prove my time in country - which is a bit complicated since I’m basically ALWAYS here, apart for a couple vacations. So it’s not like I can send them my boarding passes or anything!

My attorney believes that just printing out my list of expenses from my AT portal will be sufficient, which we will do and mail over to AIMA on Monday.

But I’m wondering if anyone else who is living full time in Pt has encountered this request on a renewal? What did you send?

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My husband was asked by AIMA for the same after his renewal appointment. Our lawyer followed the typical procedures and had utility bills, AT Tax Residency Certificate, Non-debt certificate, NISS and health insurance evidence to prove our living in PT full time.

The AIMA did not accept any of these things, instead asked for a Junta de Freguesia Resident Certificate. Only after he secured such a document, AIMA stopped asking for more.

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Um so is this required for people living outside PT and only visiting 7 days / year? Because most of us don’t have that.

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This is for someone lives in PT full time, instead of a FBI background check.

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That’s weird because by all accounts the Atestado de Residência isn’t being accepted for anything these days! How long ago was that?

Btw the appointment was in Santarém. Is that where your husband’s was?

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I kinda disagree here—the Atestado de Residência is totally legit and honestly a pain to get (you either need to own property or sweet-talk two neighbors into vouching that you actually live there, not just show up for mail). Pretty much every government office accepts it—Finanças, Social Security, the whole gang—so AIMA should be cool with it too, but let’s be real, sometimes AIMA officials get a bit… creative with their requests, maybe to break up the monotony of stamping papers all day? So yeah, not shocked they’re asking for more docs since they technically can, but hopefully we can navigate this little bureaucratic adventure without too much drama.

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It was March this year.

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Tommy, I agree in principle about the Atestado and we have used them in the past. However, in multiple AIMA-support Facebook groups, people are saying they are presenting them at AIMA and are being told that isn’t sufficient.

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We got our Atestados two weeks ago by showing the receipts from our monthly rental payment, as issued by our landlord. But policies at different Juntas may vary.

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