# British Consulate Outreach



## Maggy Crawford (Sep 18, 2010)

Yesterday I attended a very interesting presentation in Caldas da Rainha given by the British Consulate. Among the subjects covered was importation of vehicles. Suzette Martinho of the Peniche Customs Office explained in detail the requirements for importing a vehicle tax free. Providing all the conditions are met. 

They are:
1. You are over 18;
2. You have been resident in the country from which you are transferring the vehicle for a minimum of 12 months, consecutive or not;
3. You have held a valid driver's licence in that country for a minimum of 12 months;
4. You are transferring it to your normal place of residence in Portugal;
5. Your vehicle was purchased fully tax-paid in the country of your former residence;
6. You owned the vehicle in your former country of residence for at least 12 months prior to transferring your residence to Portugal from the date of issue of the vehicle registration document or from the date on which the leasing contract was signed, as appropriate.

I have copied the above verbatim from the information distributed at the meeting.

Suzette Martinho lived in South Africa for 20 years and speaks perfect English. In conversation with her afterwards she said she would deal with any problems people had with the formalities.

I hope this may be of use to people.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

Maggy

Thanks for that but unless something has changed, you also need to provide a CoC or full technical spec sheet (depending on age of vehicle) and for some inexplicable reason, a copy of the relevant workshop manual (in my case, they even asked me to show it to them). Also the original purchase receipt. 

There might be one or two other things but I'm going from memory and that's all I can think of just now.


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## Maggy Crawford (Sep 18, 2010)

I did not copy everything. Those conditions come into force when you make the application and form a whole new category of information which people need to seek out when they want to import a vehicle. I personally have no further information.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

It's typical Government in that they take an easy thing and make it difficult just because they can....... why for example do they require the importer to have a workshop manual of all things?


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

No criticism of you Maggy, but totally pointless the British Consulate including in Outreach presentation as it's something Non Residents intending relocating to Portugal need to know *not *existing Residents, apart from some glaring omissions like CoC or similar and being able to prove residence with utilties bills etc and the all important British Consulate Certificate or the necessity of Registering Residence in Portugal and the time scale in which to apply


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## Maggy Crawford (Sep 18, 2010)

Sorry, I thought I was being helpful to would be residents. We were sensible and bought a Portuguese car so none of this applied to us.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

As I said no criticism of you but why would the British Consulate think this subject would be of interest or informative to Residents now if it had been on how to make a personal import when a Resident then it would have had more validity.

Afraid I find the British Consulate since the closure of Porto next to useless unless their doing something for a fee


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## Maggy Crawford (Sep 18, 2010)

I am sorry I cannot understand your first sentence. I think they were aimed at people intending to be residents. And in the second do you mean "they are" instead of "their"?


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Maggy this information on how to import free of ISV is available for those intending to be Residents, one of remits of the British Consulate is to look after the interest of UK Citizens whether they are Non Resident or Residents

If you consider how appalling the advertising for this latest Outreach was then it's a wonder anyone attended but to include a subject that has zero relevance to Residents who the Outreach is aimed at on the off chance that a prospective Resident attends beggars belief and has been brought to their attention before not just by me

Yes they are as the only time you get a answer or reaction is when you use a paid service, email enquiries just get shunted but never answered


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## Maggy Crawford (Sep 18, 2010)

This is the first time we have had any contact with the authority and so have no previous experience of their service. Thank you for the warning.


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