MAI wants all Britons in Portugal with a new residence card by the end of the year
The Minister of Internal Administration said this Monday that he expects that about 36,000 British citizens living in Portugal will have the new residence card by the post-Brexit end of the year.
“By the end of the year, that is, until the 31st of December, we really hope to have responded to these 36 thousand British Service declared”, José Luís Carneiro during a visit to the service center for British citizens at the Lisbon Regional Directorate for the citizen of Foreigners and Borders (SEF).
With exclusive counters for two British citizens, the new Lisbon post is the fifth to open in the country for the collection of biometric data for the issuance of the new residence authority, under the agreement on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.
This phase of the process, organized in February in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira and from July onwards in the municipalities of Cascais and Loulé, is expected to open another two in October in Porto and Quarteira.
“We are fulfilling the commitments they assume, with a view to guaranteeing the rights of citizens, the British freedoms that our country of residence, investment, life claims”, said the minister in guarantees to guarantees.
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Following the United Kingdom of the European Union in Portugal, the British citizens who were already living when the transition period ended, there was no departure of 2020, the final departure of 2020, the departure of 2020, the withdrawal of the issuance of the new residence permit . Until September, there were about 36 thousand applications registered.
In the meantime, and until the issuance of the definitive card, with a reference code of an official document provided, disclosed when registering on the Brexit Portal in digital format, with a QR code that serves as a residence document.
However, according to José Luís Carneiro, this document does not guarantee the right of access to the National Health Service, the services of the Tax Authority and the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, nor the right to circulate within the Schengen Area.
“This service station responds to that need,” he added.
From the advance, the opening of 13 more service stations for British citizens next month, in conjunction with the Agency for Administrative Modernization (AMA) and the Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN)
The new stations will open in Lisbon, Faro, Marinha Grande, Pombal, Coimbra, Castelo Branco, Porto, Seixal, Santarém, Beja and Lagos.
Asked about the permanent posts, the Minister of Internal Administration began by stating that at the moment “a very specific answer” is being created.
“But this expansion of the SEF response, as well as the experience of the AMA Citizen Space, is an experience that, proving, as it is experiencing, will allow that no future is known to expand the posts to the national territory, from the municipalities , where citizens can continue to process their essential documents”, he added.
Also featured in the visit, the UK consul in Portugal, Simona Demuro, said the opening of the service post in Lisbon is a “very important” step that will allow many British citizens living in the country to obtain the new residence card.