SEF documentation for residency extensions counting towards 5-year citizenship timeline

As has been stated, congratulations on making it to this point!

Unfortunately I canā€™t provide any guidance, but please post details of your progress. It will be of great interest to many of us.

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Great to have that info. Husband lived in Italy for 13 years so will need to figure out how to get a verification of lack of criminal record from Italy.

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The freguesia issues these for non EU citizens as well - this also the quickest way to get a bank account btw - your purchase contract should work for this otherwise get two neighbours who live in the same freguesia to sign a form given by the freguesia and copies of their ID cards and it takes 2 days max.

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I believe you are referring to Atestado de Residencia which is indeed issued by freguesia, but I am afraid itā€™d be no good for the topic of this thread. I got my Atestado even without having my first GV card.

Thank you everyone for your replies. We managed to get the document just a few days before our documents expired. FYI this document takes around 1-1.5 months to be issued, so I would advise to issue your required documents a little later. Our lawyers have applied end of November and have mentioned that they would receive and send us a link to track our progress, but weā€™re still waiting for it.

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Hi @2bcb21c800144f23f132. Thanks for the update. Could you specify what document you got for this purpose? Is it the one from the freguesia or is it something from SEF? For those who have Golden Visa, they may not be living in Portugal thus wonā€™t have something from the freguesia.

According to the emails from my lawyers, it is called ā€˜ contagem do tempoā€™ and it is from SEF. And as previous replies in the thread have mentioned, it is important in order to cover the periods where your card was invalid.

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Was your card invalid for periods due to delays in renewals? I am beginning the GV process with my family through Mercan and IAS, and we wonā€™t be living continuously in PT. We wouldnā€™t be able to provide evidence of ongoing residency if our renewals are delayed beyond the expiration date of the cards, and it seems this could nullify our entire process.

Dear all;

Iā€™ve spoken to my lawyers and they told me that they believe the residency extensions (granted for existing residency cards) will count towards the 5 year timeline that is needed to apply for citizenship.

Has anyone talked to their lawyers about this? If the renewal appointments are just keep getting postponed in exchange of extensions, for those waiting for the last residency cards, the extensions on the 2nd card can become a mean to fulfill the 5 year period especially for the ones whose cards have expired in 2020 or early 2021.

I always recall the phrase ā€œthe clock starts ticking when the residency is card is issuedā€

It would be good to hear if there are actual cases in which the extensions are used to fulfil the 5 year residency requirement.

All the Best

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Is there any official news about this?

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The law regarding residence towards citizenship is at: https://dre.pt/dre/detalhe/lei-organica/2-2020-148086464 and this thread is relevant: Switching from a Golden Visa to a D7
There is a great deal on this site that is worth reading before posting, despite the clutter.

There have been several posts on this topic all with conflicting options. If you look at the problem rationally you see the dilemma . Letā€™s say you get your first card but due to SEF delays you canā€™t renew for 2 years. FinLly you get a renewal card. After the end of your second card you would have 6 years residence on 2 cards.

I think you could make the case that you were resident legally for this entire 6 period and it should count but if SEF is expecting 3 renewals what would they do? I donā€™t think I have seen any definite answer.

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The definitive answer comes from posts from those who applied for citizenship AND were subject to similar SEF delays and posted on the resolution. A couple of months before you apply for citizenship, you need to ask SEF for a Contagem do tempo: SEF documentation for residency extensions counting towards 5-year citizenship timeline - #10 by 2bcb21c800144f23f132. which covers the gaps ie the periods where your card was invalid.

See SEF documentation for residency extensions counting towards 5-year citizenship timeline - #8 by 2bcb21c800144f23f132
AND: SEF documentation for residency extensions counting towards 5-year citizenship timeline.

@tkrunning - could these two threads be joined?

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Those assurances you cite seem a bit vague. For sure what they are saying is that if you had a gap in your residence permit where it became expired, then SEF will issue a certificate stating that you had X years of residence. But to my point, I have not heard anyone who said they were able to apply for PR after having only 1 renewal in total. I suspect your explanation is correct, but its a lot to take on a leap of faith.

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My lawyers also provided me a list of necessary documents when applying for citizenship.
Proof of legal residency of Portugal is one of them and theyā€™ve told me they would ask for this document on my behalf.

Normally validity of the residency cards equaling 5 years would be used to demonstrate the 5 year validity period. Because of the delays in renewals during and after Covid extensions provided for cards can also be used to demonstrate the 5 year residency period. There is one technical watch-out; the final card has to be issued and youā€™ll have to spend the consequent two weeks for that cards before you can actually apply.

The extensions help to fill in the what would normally appear as gaps between the residency cards and you will not have to wait for the end date of your last card to apply for citizenship.

However in order to make residency extensions count for the 5 year citizenship, you would need the CertidĆ£o de Contagem do Tempo. My lawyers stated that

  • it takes two-four weeks to get the document
  • they advise to apply for the document after 5 years; 5 years after the initial issue date of the first card.

Hope it helpsā€¦

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Hi @Mr.E , would you mind sharing the list of documents needed for citizenship?

Sure, here is the list I was provided;

ā€¢ A valid Portugal residency title;
ā€¢ A birth certificate (full transcript) issued no longer than 6 months before being submitted, duly legalized;
ā€¢ Proof of having a basic knowledge of the Portuguese language (CEFR A2 level);
ā€¢ Criminal record certificates issued by the countries of birth, nationality and residence of all the countries the applicant has lived in since turning 16 years old, duly legalized;
ā€¢ Proof of legal residency of Portugal (Official Declaration that we will be requested on my behalf);
ā€¢ A valid passport;
ā€¢ Power of attorney.

I was also told that having

  • NIF
  • NĆŗmero de Utente
  • Bank Account

was sufficient to prove the connection to the Portuguese community and though I own a property and have rented it I was told that for citizenship through naturalization it is not required to prove connections to the community.

Hope this helps.
Regards

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Is proof of legal residency the same as CertidĆ£o de Contagem do Tempo?

What does this mean? I thought your residency permit would be enough?

Proof of residency through the residency permit would be enough if the ARI residency card were for 5 continuous years.
ARI cards are renewed at 2 year intervals, and until this year when an automated system was permitted there were very long delays in obtaining SEF appointments at each renewal stage. Thus ARI residency cards (often) underestimate residency because they do not count the time waiting for renewals (ie for a new card).
Hence, before the application for citizenship, the applicant usually asks SEF to supply a certificate, called a Contagem de Tempo, which delcares the total period of residency. Such SEF certification is required by the IRN (which reviews citizenship applications).

A search for ā€œcontagem de tempoā€ on this site will give you more information.

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