# When Can I Leave My Passport at Home when Driving in PT



## CLportugal (Aug 24, 2020)

Hello. I have a question regarding how long I need to always carry my passport with me while driving in Portugal. My wife and I arrived in Portugal in early February of this year (2021), on a D7 Residency Visa for retirement purposes and recently received our residency cards (Titulo De Residencia) from SEF. Up until now I have always carried my passport with me when away from our apartment. Now that I have the residency card do I still need to carry my passport everywhere I go? My concern is that I may be asked by GNR for my passport at a routine stop, or at CTT when I pick up a package, or for many other reasons. If I still need to carry my passport everywhere, at what point will I no longer need to do this?


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## MikeItMo (Mar 3, 2018)

Are you using your UK or non-PT driving licence ? I imagine you haven't exchanged it yet. (I believe you need to exchange within 60 days of becoming resident). If you've applied for PT licence and have been issued with a temporary bridging licence (in PDF format) you should be OK.
If your new residency card has your photo on it, I'd guess this would be satisfactory. You could also carry in your wallet a colour photo copy of your passport page and your health service certificate as extra identity support. This is what I do currently.


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## CLportugal (Aug 24, 2020)

MikeItMo said:


> Are you using your UK or non-PT driving licence ? I imagine you haven't exchanged it yet. (I believe you need to exchange within 60 days of becoming resident). If you've applied for PT licence and have been issued with a temporary bridging licence (in PDF format) you should be OK.
> If your new residency card has your photo on it, I'd guess this would be satisfactory. You could also carry in your wallet a colour photo copy of your passport page and your health service certificate as extra identity support. This is what I do currently.


I'm still using my non-PT license, but will be applying for a PT license very soon. My new residency card does have my photo on it, so I plan to do like you and leave my passport at home and carry a photocopy of it in my wallet. Thank you for the suggestion.


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