A six-month wait for a residence-time certificate, Moey’s late cards, and 40% back on tests insurance doesn’t cover
Permanent residence: a certificate of your residence time takes six months, and gaps between cards don’t count, says a chat
In a chat about life in Portugal, people tried to work out from which day the five years for permanent residence are counted. You can find out in advance how AIMA (the immigration agency) will count the period by requesting a certificate of your legal residence time (certidão de contagem de tempo). To do so, fill in the Modelo 7 form from the AIMA website and email it with a copy of your residence card to geral@aima.gov.pt with the subject line ‘PEDIDO DE CERTIDÃO DE CONTAGEM DE TEMPO - Tempo de Residencia Legal em Portugal’. AIMA then gives you an appointment, which people wait six to seven months for; the chat also advises writing to your local office. A national permanent residence permit and EU long-term resident status are separate procedures and do not depend on each other; for the latter, the chat points out, you need five tax returns.
“Attach a copy of the título de residência. After that, AIMA sets an appointment date. People wait 6-7 months”
Translated from Russianru_Portugal_pt05.11.2026
The certificate usually gives the start date of the first card and the end date of the current one. But if the second card was not issued straight after the first, the chat reckons the gap between them does not count towards the five years, even though the person was living in the country legally the whole time. Before the law was changed, the period was often counted from the start date of the national D visa or from when the documents were submitted; now it runs from the start date of the first card.
So it is risky to apply based on the date on the certificate: in the cases chat members know of, inspectors at the appointment added up the periods of the two cards, leaving out the gap, and would not accept the documents until that total had been reached.
“And in the cases I know of, the inspectors at submission always counted the combined total of the two cards and wouldn’t have accepted the application before 24.02.2028... Even with the Covid extensions.”
Translated from Russianru_Portugal_pt05.11.2026
The other question was travel. While a temporary residence permit is valid, you may not be away from Portugal for more than six months in a row or for more than eight months in total over the card’s whole validity period. You are not asked to prove this when applying for permanent residence, but the chat is sure AIMA checks it anyway: when renewing, people upload every page of their passport, and for EU long-term resident status absences are counted exactly. Since 2025, the chat says, border stamps have almost stopped being used, so some trips will be checked by stamps and others through databases.
“Right now, as I understand it, it’s a transition period: in 2024 there were still stamps, I think they stopped stamping passports from 2025, so anyone applying for permanent residence in the next 3-4 years will need to count part of the time by the stamps and part by the databases.”
Translated from Russianru_Portugal_pt05.11.2026
Segurança Social does not update your residence card by itself: the old one stays in your account until you write to them
Strictly speaking, you do not have to tell Segurança Social (social security) about a new residence card. But in a chat about life in Portugal, people said the service does not pick up the new card’s details by itself: instead, it replaces the expired card in your record with the passport of your country of origin, and after that some features of your Segurança Social Direta account stop working. One chat member checked the accounts of people whose cards had been renewed long ago, and they all still showed the old one.
“Yes — they don’t update it themselves, and they replace the expired residence card with the passport of your country of origin, which limits some of the portal’s functions”
Translated from Russianru_Portugal_pt05.11.2026
“I just went in specially to check people whose cards were changed ages ago, and it’s the ancient expired one”
Translated from Russianru_Portugal_pt05.11.2026
The only details you can change in the account yourself are your address, email and phone number. Everything else, including your residence card details, has to be changed by writing to Segurança Social and attaching the new card.
“On SS you can only change the address, email and phone number automatically; for everything else you write letters”
Translated from Russianru_Portugal_pt05.11.2026
CUF billed €249 for first-trimester tests despite insurance. A pregnancy chat advises asking for a refund
An expectant mother with Multicare insurance was billed €249 by the private hospital CUF for a first-trimester screening blood test. In a pregnancy chat, people explained where the charge might have come from and what to do about it. Their advice is to start with the clinic’s front desk and ask them to recalculate the bill under the insurance.
If it is the standard screening, the lab most likely ignored the doctor’s referral or forgot about the insurance: this happened to one chat member at CUF too, and everything was refunded later. With insurance, the PAPP-A and hCG screening tests at CUF cost €2 each, according to the mothers in the chat. The placental growth factor (PlGF) test, however, is often not covered, so you pay the full price; at Lusíadas hospital, the chat says, it cost €56.
“If it’s the standard screening, without any special tests, then they just forgot to take the doctor’s referral into account or the lab forgot about your insurance. That happened to me at CUF when I was preparing for pregnancy, and then they refunded everything.”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal05.11.2026
“But at Lusíadas it cost 56 euros (if you mean the Factor de Crescimento Placentar test)”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal05.11.2026
Anything the insurance does not cover can be claimed back: the insurer will refund about 40% of the cost, or whatever other percentage your plan sets out. This way, the chat says, people get money back even for doctors who do not work with the insurer directly.
“But anything that isn’t covered by your insurance by default you can claim back, and they’ll refund 40% of the cost (or another percentage depending on your insurance; it’s all set out in the plan)”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal05.11.2026
Moey takes weeks to send new cards to replace expired ones. On Reddit, people suggest moving to ActivoBank or Revolut
A customer of the digital bank Moey ordered a new debit card in early September, as the old one was expiring at the end of October. Seven weeks later the card had still not arrived, and support kept saying everything was fine. Only when the customer threatened to switch banks did Moey admit it had made a mistake with the reissue and say the new card had been issued on 21 October. Another user of r/literaciafinanceira, a personal finance forum on Reddit, has been waiting more than two months for a card, and their old one has already expired too.
“I’ve got exactly the same problem with Moey right now: I’ve been waiting more than two months for a new card, and my current one has also already expired.”
Translated from Portugueser/literaciafinanceira04.11.2026
ActivoBank is the most frequent recommendation: the account is free, and you can pay in cash at Millennium cash machines and branches, though some find the app mediocre. Revolut is praised for its app, but you cannot pay cash into it and its support is described as weak. Wise is also suggested, provided it works with MB Way, the Portuguese system for transfers by phone number. Some users, though, have had Moey as their main bank for years without any problems.
“ActivoBank, no doubt about it. And it has a big advantage over Moey: if you want to pay money in, you can do it at cash machines or at Millennium branches.”
Translated from Portugueser/literaciafinanceira05.11.2026
“The ActivoBank app is so-so; Revolut has a good app, but you can’t pay money into it, and the support, in my view, is weak.”
Translated from Portugueser/literaciafinanceira03.11.2026
Those staying with Moey are reminded that fraudsters have already spoofed the bank’s support number, 210 521 500, and called customers from it.
A transfer from Russia via OTP eats up about 10%, while going through Kazakhstan’s BCC works out cheaper, says a banking chat
In a chat about Portuguese banks, someone asked how people have been sending money from Russia to Portugal in recent months. A SWIFT transfer from OTP Bank was called the worst option: about 10% is lost on the euro exchange rate and fees. OTP’s own fee, the chat says, is capped at €2,500, but if the bank still has its unofficial 100,000 limit on transfers, in practice the cost comes to 2.5% plus roughly another 2% on the rate.
“OTP really is the worst option: you lose about 10% on all the conversions and fees”
Translated from Russianbanksdeportugal05.11.2026
“Well, if they haven’t removed the unofficial 100k transfer limit, then in practice the fee isn’t 2,500 but 2.5% plus another 2% or so on the rate”
Translated from Russianbanksdeportugal05.11.2026
In chat members’ experience, it is cheaper to go through Kazakhstan: open an account at BCC (Bank CenterCredit), transfer roubles there from Credit Europe Bank with no fee, exchange them for euros or dollars at close to the market rate, and send a SWIFT transfer to Portugal from there. Euro transfers are sometimes held up by intermediary banks, but for many people they go through. People also suggest brokers and banks in other neighbouring countries, such as Kyrgyzstan; it is all done online, with no need to travel anywhere.
“It’s all done online, no need to go anywhere”
Translated from Russianbanksdeportugal05.11.2026
Our guide How to transfer money from Russia to Portugal covers the options and what a Portuguese bank asks when the money arrives.
You live in Portugal and run a French company: where do you pay contributions? An accountant and Segurança Social disagree
On r/literaciafinanceira on Reddit, a user described their situation: they are a tax resident of Portugal, live and work here, and are also managing director of a French company. The company has a Portuguese company number (NIPC) and social security number (NISS), but no office or branch in Portugal. They are paid through France but want to pay contributions in Portugal: the French system, they say, no longer applies to them, and the A1 form, a certificate showing which EU country a person is insured in, is only for posted workers.
The replies differed. An accountant wrote that their firm had had cases where the post of directeur général was recognised as a member of the company’s governing body under articles 61 and 62 of the Contributory Schemes Code (Código dos Regimes Contributivos); in that case you can register even without a salary, on the minimum base set by the IAS, the social support index. The accountant also cited EU Regulation 987/2009, under which a company from another EU country pays contributions as if it were registered in Portugal. Another user, the director of a Danish company, rang Segurança Social and was told the opposite: contributions are paid where the company is registered, and in Portugal you can only make voluntary contributions, under the voluntary social insurance scheme (seguro social voluntário).
“At our accounting firm we’ve had cases where the post of directeur général was recognised as a member of a statutory body under articles 61 and 62 of the Código dos Regimes Contributivos. Then you can register without a salary, on the minimum IAS base, under article 66.”
Translated from Portugueser/literaciafinanceira04.11.2026
“I rang Segurança Social and was told in no uncertain terms: if the company’s head office is in Denmark, the company pays social security contributions in Denmark.”
Translated from Portugueser/literaciafinanceira04.11.2026
The thread summed up the general rule as follows: if you work in Portugal, you pay contributions in Portugal, but there are many exceptions. So the advice is to ask not Reddit but one or two accountants (contabilistas) who have handled such cases before.
“The general rule is that if you work in Portugal, you pay contributions in Portugal, but there are lots of details that turn out to be exceptions in practice.”
Translated from Portugueser/literaciafinanceira04.11.2026
