Clearing your belongings through customs in Portugal

I can't answer many of your questions yet as I am about to start the process myself. I do know that when you go for your visa consultation there is a certificate or form you can request at the time of your interview. This will allow you to have a one or two time shipment in the first year I believe duty-free. We will be shipping most of our belongings and some furnishings via upakweship. We are getting a container. They take care of all the fees and paperwork. We will bring a couple of large suitcases with our immediate needs on the plane with us. If you do ship be prepared for it to take two-three months or more. It is weather dependent as well as how many ports of call the container ship has to make.

I moved from Switzerland (not EU) to Portugal and I needed a certificado de bagagem from the Portuguese consulate in Switzerland. To get this certificate I needed to make an appointment at the consulate (right before my move) and bring an ID, my Swiss residence permit, a list with all items of personal belongings I wanted to import (in Portuguese) and a certificate of residence from the town I lived in.

The consulate has a website explaining exactly what can be imported as personal belongings and what not. Summarized those are household items, cars, motorbikes etc. you owned for some time, pets and saddle animals, tools and machines for personal use. I had nothing in amounts or of a value that might suggest commercial use, but if you have a wine cellar with 20 000 bottles of wine that may need some explaining.

You don't have to list every single item, ... box 23: books, box 24: clothes, box 25: office materials and cables... is enough. The boxes of course need to have the corresponding numbers.

I hired a Portuguese company with international experience for the move, they were quite a lot cheaper than a Swiss company and I could store my stuff with them (for a fee) until I could have it delivered to my place in Portugal. They handled everything at customs I just had to give them  thepapers, passport copy and Swiss residence certificate I think and most importantly the certificate from the consulate.

Thanks Monika for the details re boxes and such. We have already put together a spreadsheet in English. It is easy to add a column in Portuguese (with Google help).
Do we need a certified / professional  translation or not?

Would like to hear about REAL experience with PT customs from people already moved from US.

No certified translation is needed, I also used google translate for the words I didn't know.

I'm getting two slightly conflicting messages in regards to bringing your belongings through customs. You do have to procure the baggage certificate from the consulate. I have now learned that is issued after the visa is approved. But the question I can't get a clear answer on is whether or not you have to have had your SEF appointment first and receive your residency permit before importing into Portugal. The consulate only states the requirement for the baggage certificate but I have read elsewhere that the visa plus the residency permit are required. That doesn't make sense to me but then not everything I have found required makes sense at least not on the surface.

You may have run into the same thing that gave me problems as well, I also couldn't figure out how to prove my residency in Portugal before moving there I spent quite a lot of time including getting the help of some Portuguese friends to try to figure out how to do this.

Seems there is some information with misleading wording out there. What I needed was the residency proof of the country I was currently living in (in my case Switzerland), as proof that I didn't actually already live in Portugal and now wanted to get around customs by claiming to move there.

Strangely enough even when I called the consulate, they told me I needed the residency document and it sounded like they wanted one from Portugal. When I asked how I was supposed to get that before actually moving there they just repeated I needed the residency document. In the end I went to the consulate without it. The lady who processed my request then asked me for the residency document of my current city and fortunately I managed to provide that by making a phone call to m town hall and them faxing it to the consulate with me just promising to come by later and pay for it.

I would understand the residency document if you are living in a country other than your country of citizenship. Otherwise, you have your passport and your application for a visa to show that you are emigrating from your country of origin. Your passport should be your proof. Ahh, the machinations of the bureaucratic mind.

Gosh this is so confusing. We are coming to Portugal in June to try obtain our fiscal number and if we can open a bank account? Is there anyone that could give any tips re bank accounts if we don’t have a Portuguese address yet?
Also we are still waiting to hear from the consulate, three letters( one in both English and google translated Portuguese) and 6 weeks later and no reply from them at all.
Does anyone know whether once our property goes into storage can we still get a certificado de bagagem?

I strongly suggest getting in touch with a good expeditor to help with that. If you're interested I can PM you a contact for the one we used and loved. Millennium and Activo Banks both will open an account for your with a US address and a Portuguese NIF. The certificado de bagagem you procure from the consulate after your Visa is approved. Having your stuff in storage shouldn't be an issue.

Thank you so much. Yes please I’d be interested in an expediaters details. I am grateful for your reply. 

I PM'd you.

RE opening a bank account:
you need to find a sort of central branch of a big bank (like Millennium or Novo) b/c in many small local offices they wouldn't know what to do with you. The best thing to come with a recommendation or with an official person - we went to see a property with a real estate agent and asked her about a lawyer , so she drove us to her dedicated law office and after a free first consultation they send us to the bank across the street (and called their ahead). Turned out the bank manager was able to get one of us a temporary (she said) tax number in order to open a new account for us and deposit our money.
Don't forget to bring a slip from your home bank where you withdraw your cash in crispy new banknotes - they need a proof of money origin. Every banknote is examined very thoroughly (no marks, no bends, 50s and 100s only). Currency conversion is not going to be in your favor, plus fees for this and that..
You will get a debit card - a temporary one immediately, and a permanent plastic (Visa or MC) in a week or so.

Another real estate agent took us to her fav bank where we could open another account, but we were not interested in opening the second account at that moment, may be next time...All of them work with an int'l home address, and we are getting snail mail from time to time along with email correspondence.
Always ask about bank fees and ways to avoid them (like opening both checking and saving acc-s and keeping some balance on them). It's don't ask - don't tell game and you will be hit by fees never seen in US banks.

Thank you for your advice re bank accounts. So if I were to take a Euro cheque in to deposit would they accept that do you know? Does it have to be (clean and crisp) bank notes ? I have a Euro acct, with a debit visa but not from Portugal, would that work there fine.?

I can't answer the part about a euro check. We had to have 250 E to open an Activo account. We handed them cash. It's not like Asia. You don't need clean crisp bills. I also used Transferwise to transfer money from my States account to my Portuguese account. It is the most popular way to move money inexpensively.

So I have been able to clarify what we need to ship. The residency document the consulate is refering to is either your lease in Portugal or purchase agreement. They also need proof of residency for one year in the country you are leaving from, in our case the US. They want to see one year of utility bills, a letter from one's employer (I'm was self employed and am retired), a rental or lease/purchase agreement from the US showing a minimum of 12 months residency here in the States.

Hi Monica,
I hope you are checking messages on this forum and will be able to help us with the Certificate de Baggagem issue.

San Francisco PT consulate stopped answering their phones, emails, etc. and the third agency they hired for documents processing is as helpful as a telegraph pole.

We already packed and ordered a container.
We almost rented an apartment in Sintra (flying there to sign the rental contract this week).
But we cant get the certificate for our container.
What to do in this situation?
We will appreciate your help.
Nina

I don't know if this is any help but we had our original Certificado rejected because of a typo.(Yeah, I know.) We went through SF. Our container was due to arrive in a couple of weeks. I regathered all the documentation and sent it to the consulate. I then wrote them an urgent, polite, desparate email throwing myself on their mercy, acknowledging that they are very busy, and asking them if there was any chance they could expedite the new Certificado. They did not reply but they did expedite it. It arrived in 10 days at the shipping agents office as requested.

I know it has been awhile since you wrote that message but do you still have the contract from the expeditor in Portugal?
We live in the UK and want to move but there is so little help on what papers we need for our move.
We have a German passport so visa wise it shouldn’t be a problem but since Brexit moving with our few belongings from the Uk to Portugal is somewhat difficult. We just need help with the paperwork for the customs so we can drive our van with our stuff to Portugal.
Any help at all would be much appreciated.
Thx,
Oliver and Natali

Well, do you have Facebook? If yes, there is this group of experts where you should try and post expat cascais then expat lisbon

I will check it out. Thank you