According to my lawyer they had to copy and certify the entire passport. I had offered to scan/photograph it myself and they wouldnât agree to that. One purpose of this exercise is that they need to ensure that you have a valid entry stamp from SEF in the passport to prove a valid stay. Maybe you just got a break from your SEF agent or your lawyer was able to certify on the spot. I believe the lawyers have certain authority like a notary public.
Are you talking about the initial online application or subsequent SEF appointment?
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I donât know. Lawyers can act as notaries based on a recent (2009?) law, yes. And I agree itâs for ensuring legal entry under Schengen terns to meet requirements of Article 90-A. But twice now I handed them uncertified copies on the spot and twice they were accepted. Did the lawyer certify them on the spot? I donât think so. The first time I didnât see her do it, she didnât even look at the copy, she just handed it to the SEF agent. The second time, I donât know but I donât think he had time to look at it. Now both times the clerk herself verified the copy against the passport itself, so maybe that was deemed sufficient.
Maybe every lawyer does it just that little bit differently and itâs all ok in its way.
If the original passport is present at the time you give them a copy, there doesnât seem much logic to having the copy notarized.
The SEF Manual dictates that all non-blank pages of the passport need to be copied with the added âquotationâ that no data was present on the blank pages.
Exactly who should do that is not stated in the manual.
So that leaves the room for the options like:
- SEF agent makes copies by themselves (unlikely)
- SEF agent takes simple copies pre-made by the applicant and verifies them (as in Jeffâs case I believe)
- SEF agent does not want to verify copies and requires the prior notarization of copies by lawyer/notary.
Thanks for the full explanation. This makes sense.
@philipg @tommigun @jb4422 I was wondering if anyone had any further clarification since the last posts regarding the health insurance requirement at the biometrics appointment? For the next year or two, we plan on only being in Portugal for the minimum GV requirement of 7 days per year (approx.) so it would be really stupid to buy actual international primary health insurance. (We have excellent insurance in the US where we will spend the bulk of our time.) I was trying to find out more about it, and I found this statement here:
Portugal Golden Visa and health insurance requirements
Applicants of the Portugal Golden Visa program who travel to Portugal prior to obtaining the Golden Visa are required to have travel insurance with recognized health cover during the entire duration of their stay in Portugal. This includes travel to Portugal for any visits or to attend the biometric appointment.
Once applicants receive their Golden Visa, they are eligible for the Portugal National Health Service (SNS). They will, however, have to register to the SNS in order to benefit from its services. In addition, recipients of the Portugal Golden Visa can also purchase private insurance, as this offers access to private practitioners and private clinics. Two of the most recognized private health insurance companies in Portugal are: Allianz and Cigna Global.
This makes sense to me. The way I am reading this is that we could buy Safety Wing global travel insurance for Nomads (recommended by NomadGate) for ONLY the periods of time that we plan on being in Portugal. Our lawyer does not seem to know a lot about this. He said to get health insurance through our Portuguese banker which seems super weird (maybe that is what people with D7 and actual residence in Portugal need to do???). If anyone has any updated insight on this topic, it would be much appreciated. I want everything to go perfectly at our biometrics appointments in early Sep! Thanks.
Heather, I am probably not the best person to ask as I am planning to use the UK GHIC cards as evidence of cover.
But hereâs my guess for a more general scenario of a non-UK applicant:
- You need to obtain a private health insurance until you are able to register with SNS. You would show the evidence of this to SEF at your appointment.
- Once you are registered with SNS, you just show the evidence of that to SEF at your subsequent appointments.
Heather - I plan to check with my insurance carrier here in the US (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) to ensure that there is health coverage in the event I had a health event while in Portugal. In a previous job with coverage through United Healthcare, the answer was âyes, but youâre out of network so youâll be paying the out-of-network costsâ. That came in handy when I needed x-rays and a splint in Amsterdam. And FWIW, the x-rays and splint total charge was about 20% of what a similar charge would have been here in the land of âthe best health care system in the worldâ (except for pretty much everywhere else in the world, IMHO).
Thanks for your reply! What youâve guessed is what I am thinking as well. 
Thank you for responding! Good point⊠but I think US coverage is for âemergencyâ care only. Whereas I believe Portugal wants us to have more robust coverage while we are there. But it is quite unclear. ??? In theory, this coverage âshouldâ be fine for those of us GV people who are not planning to immediately live in Portugal⊠.but since our lawyer is not very aggressive nor a very strong advocate for us, I think I am going to be extra cautious and purchase extra coverage for the dates we will be in Portugal. I will update this thread if I find out anything useful.
You need ârealâ health insurance if you are going to actually be boots on ground. If you are just there for 7 days then as long as you have health insurance valid to meet the requirements of your schengen visa then that is all that is needed. (it is a technicality. at the time of the appointment, you need to be standing there legally, on a schengen visa. part of the terms of that visa is that you have valid travel insurance that meets schengen requirements. if you are a US citizen visiting under waiver no one checks it, but it is actually a requirement. for sake of argument get a cheap schengen travel policy. my lawyer actually just wrote a small note attesting that I did not need it and I didnât buy anything at all - which I dont do because my employerâs insurance covers it. but. )
Thanks Jeff. I actually didnât know about the Schengen visa health insurance requirement! I would guess that 99% of Americans donât know about it! That is helpful. I will definitely purchase the travel policy!
Blue cross blue shield has an app, global core, that shows medical facilities around the world that are considered in-network. We checked the app first before heading to a hospital in Paris for what turned out to be a gall bladder that needed to be removed. Total cost of the hospital stay and removal was $45,000 usd, all of which was covered by insurance (we had met our deductible earlier in the year)
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