# Married Couple (EU citizen married to USA citizen) moving to Lisbon-who needs a visa?



## cleokep (Apr 29, 2020)

Hi! 
I am an EU citizen (Finland) and will be attending NOVA IMS University starting in September. My wife is an American citizen who will be moving with me. I don't know if it's due to the pandemic, but I'm getting conflicting information from the Portuguese consulates here in the US about what my wife needs to do before we can move. One consulate told me that I (EU citizen) need to get a visa for Portugal - but the other consulate told me we don't need to get anything done before moving, that we can do the residency permit once we arrive. 
There must be other people with similar citizenships in their marriage, can you tell me your experience? Does my American wife need to get a visa before we can legally enter Portugal? 
Obrigado!


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## MFM001 (May 14, 2020)

*I'd be interested in this too*

Similar situation, different nationalities. 

I am Canadian, spouse is Dutch. We are planning to move from Canada to Portugal in the fall (COvID-willing). I can go to Holland with no paperwork, but I am not sure what happens if we skip Holland and go directly to Portugal. Can I stay as her spouse? I've been looking into a "D" class visa. Unfortunately the PT gov't web site does not address this and the Embassy here is closed.


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## cleokep (Apr 29, 2020)

I finally confirmed with the San Francisco consulate that my American spouse won't need a visa. We will make a visit to the CNAI office once we land and are gathering the documents to get her a residence permit, the sef website has a list if you google "residence card for a Third-country national who is a family member of EU citizen".
But I wonder if there's more that we need to do.


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## MFM001 (May 14, 2020)

Thanks for the update. The google result was perfect.
Cheers and good luck on your move.


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## chancard (May 16, 2020)

We are in exactly the same boat, i am a eu citizen (also us citizen now) and my wife is American. We are looking at moving to Portugal either through a job transfer (not concerned about paperwork here) or without a job on the not visa (wife has us pension). 

Thanks for the input, we will probably still call or stop by the sfo office to double confirm but more so to have something on paper.


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## hktoportugal (Feb 25, 2019)

cleokep said:


> I finally confirmed with the San Francisco consulate that my American spouse won't need a visa. We will make a visit to the CNAI office once we land and are gathering the documents to get her a residence permit, the sef website has a list if you google "residence card for a Third-country national who is a family member of EU citizen".
> But I wonder if there's more that we need to do.


We moved to Portugal last year (I am EU citizen, my wife is from Hong Kong). You don't need to get a visa for your spouse as she can stay in Portugal for 3 months visa free after arrival, same as my wife. This is what we had to do (and I may have forgotten something)
1. Within the three months after arrival you need to go to a town hall (Câmara Municipal) and apply for a Certificate For a European Citizen. It should take no more than one hour and €15.00 to complete the whole procedure and to have the document issued. It will be valid for 5 years. In order to get that certificate you need to have a Portuguese Fiscal number, proof of income and address proof (in my case a notary deed of our house in Portugal)
2. Also within the first three months you need to make an appointment by phone with SEF for your spouse. I tried to go to the office to make an appointment but didn't work, they referred me back to make an appointment by phone. This can only be made while you are in Portugal and it may take some time to get through and make the actual appointment. When you finally get through the actual appointment can be much later (in our case it was 4 months after we called). They confirm the appointment by email and that allows your spouse to remain in Portugal even after the three months visa free period is expired
3. When you get to the SEF you will need to show the certificate you obtained in step 1, your income proof once again, your marriage certificate (in our case, as it was issued outside of the EU, we had to get an apostile from the Hong Kong High Court to validate the marriage certificate for EU use before we moved to Portugal). After the appointment your spouse will get the residence card within a few weeks (you can choose to pick it up or have it mailed to you).


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## chancard (May 16, 2020)

Awesome, thanks. I'm assuming that card is then also valid for 5 years? Our proof of income will be the non-eu citizen's pension. What sort of proof are they looking for? Does it need to be translated? Will a rental agreement suffice for proof of residency?


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## cleokep (Apr 29, 2020)

hktoportugal - Thank you for your reply, it was very helpful!


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