I have been told by my PT lawyer who is helping me with the GV, that one of the first things I need to provide for the SEF is proof of a tax identification number of the country of tax residence, which in my case would be the USA. I have not read anywhere that this is necessary and I don’t know how I can provide proof of a tax id number (I assume that would be my Social Security number). Has anyone else been asked to provide this?
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I haven’t heard of this requirement but also haven’t quite gotten that far in the process with my attorney. As for proof, I would thinking your social security card or IRS tax transcript would do the trick.
Yes, it is one of the documents required to submit to SEF for GV. (Proof of SSN is also required by the bank before they will open an account for you) I provided my tax return as proof of SSN. (I just gave my attorney a PDF copy of my last year’s return) Some people were asked to use their social security card. Here is a list of require documents for each GV category:
https://imigrante.sef.pt/en/solicitar/residir/art90-a/
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This document indicates that proof of health insurance is required. There are conflicting reports whether the health insurance proof is needed for the application. I have heard that some lawyers request it and some do not.
My understanding is that some of the requirements eg. proof of health insurance and proof of valid entry into Portugal are required only at the biometrics appointment. I think the idea is that you entered into the country legally and with health insurance coverage.
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Thanks, that’s really helpful.
Hi late to this community and this thread – I am getting the same request – my lawyer also asked me to apostille whatever doc I end up using to provide my tax ID / SS (sad that in US we have one sensitive number for everything…).
For those of you who have submitted successfully, did you also:
- Apostille the doc?
- What type of doc did you use? (I read “tax return” above – personally I would rather not…)
Thanks!
I have not gone any further with my application, but I have obtained a new social security card as I lost mine. I’m hoping that this will be sufficient for my tax id.
If you use the card, do you / your lawyer think you can use a copy of it for apostille? I guess you don’t want to use the original (new) card you just got for apostille (as you won’t get it back).
If you don’t want to use your tax return, maybe use your W2 or a 1099, notarized that and request the apostille through your state.
(Most countries have one tax ID (like SSN) assigned to a person and that tax ID is used in all things financial and beyond, too. It’s not just in the US)
Thanks @wkb for the tips. State sounds smart given that would be “same day service” hopefully. Will try something like this!
I have always done notary when I needed to sign something. Haven’t done notary to verify validity of documents so learning something new : >
Just to report I got a notary to validate my 1099 and also one IRS letter w/ my TIN/SS on it. And got the state to apostille successfully as @wkb suggested (thanks!).
So far, my soc number has simply been taken on faith by both Bison and the lawyer other than a desire for a wet signature on the W-9. And Bison opened the account. So YMMV, clearly.
Much of Europe uses one number for everything as well. They just make much less of a deal about it because data privacy seems to work better and getting someone’s number avails very little.
In Germany, professionals would simply print their bank account information on their letterhead to save the bother of having to provide it all the time. No one cared because everyone had faith that it was only useful for sending money to that account. Unlike ABA numbers here.
Like much else, It’s Just Different There.
Could you elaborate on specially which IRS letter with your TIN/SS you had notarized ? Thanks !
Matt,
I just send a photo copy of my SSN card via WhatsApp to my lawyer, and she translated whatever was written on the back of it to Portuguese and presented it as a package. SEF in Lisbon accepted it with no issues.
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@PCERoman Hi Roman, thanks for sharing your experience here. If you feel comfortable with that, could you please share what law firm you are using for the GV purposes?
It was some random IRS letter / notice to me personally that happened to have my SS# on it – we decided to use it instead of the actual SS card (which seems fine based on everyone’s comments here) because it looked “official…”