Digital Nomad SEF Appointment in Portugal

With Portugal’s new digital nomad visa launched, the processes that you need to go through are new and not well documented. I have recently been approved for the digital nomad visa and wanted to help document the process for others. Once you are approved for the digital nomad visa in your home country, the second part is to complete your D8 SEF appointment in Portugal.

Read: How to Apply for Your Digital Nomad Visa in Portugal

When your visa gets approved in your home country, SEF will assign you the appointment date and it should be printed out on paper and delivered with your visa. If it is not, here are the steps to log in to the SEF website to confirm your appointment date and time.

How to Create An Account and Login to the SEF website

Navigate to SEF

With the information from your visa in your passport, use that as the registration number and then fill out your name and email, and password.

Once set, confirm via your email.

Login and your appointment should be attached to your account.

What to Bring to the SEF appointment

Before I left Lisbon, I printed off all documents that I previously submitted with my D8 visa application:

1. Original Application
2. Bank Statements
   1. Personal Bank Statements
   2. Company Bank Statements
   3. Portuguese Bank Screenshot
      1. This was not accepted. For your SEF appointment, make sure to include the official bank statements and not just a screenshot of the homepage of the web or phone app.
3. Insurance
   1. Safety Wing Card
   2. SafetyWing description of insurance policy pages (I printed pages 7-9 of the Read Full Policy document under Travel benefits that outlines the policy that Safety Wing provides)
4. NIF Document
5. Home Deed/ Lease
   1. Printout of my MEO bill with my name and address on it
6. Bring your passport

D8 Appointments in Coimbra

My appointment was set in Coimbra. It’s important to note that the address that they put on the Coimbra official document page isn’t the correct address.

Address on Appointment Printout: Av. Fernao de Magalhaes Lt 16-20, em Coimbra, 3000-617

Actual Address: Av. Central 16, 3000-607 Coimbra

Make sure that you go to the actual address on your D8 residency appointment day.

My Personal Experience on the Day

When you arrive at the SEF office, you should go to the 1st floor, walk around the corner and there will be 3-4 stations open on the right-hand side. The ticket machine wasn’t working for SEF so I just sat and waited. The workers either would call your name or in my case, I showed them my appointment slip and they took me.  I arrived 30 minutes early and they took me right away.

They will provide you with the application that you will fill out and complete while you are there, they will take your picture and scan your fingerprints and take your digital signature.

I paid the cost of 170.50 euros. They scanned all the documents and my passport and then provided me with a paper copy of my residency while I wait for the card to arrive in the mail.

Receiving the Residency Card for my Digital Nomad Visa

After waiting for many months to receive my SEF card, I started to get worried. I needed to renew my Canadian passport and without the residency card, I wouldn’t have a formal ID. I decided to email the coimbra SEF office for an update. I emailed gricrp.cc@sef.pt and this was the message I sent in the yellow box (feel free to copy and paste). I also attached the form I received from my appointment to the email.

I received my SEF card in the mail on July 5, 2023! I am now officially a resident and can enjoy the Portuguese life!