Hello,
I am currently in the process of my Portuguese residency application; I am American and not an EU citizen, but my husband and children are (easy for them, not for me!). I've had one appointment with the SEF office already and the only issue that arose was that they would not accept my marriage certificate! They advised me to contact the US Embassy to 'validate' my license - which I went there and was told they do not provide this service! They even drafted an official notice for me to take to my appointment about this issue for them to stop the practice; it's the Setubal office that I'm clsoe to. (For anyone else in this predicament, you need to contact the Secretary of State where the marriage took place and apply for an Apostille. Mine was in Las Vegas and they have this option available on their website, cost me $115.00 - just Google the Secretary of State for your state). The Apostille is now en-route to me in Portugal (another crazy process) and my next appointment is on March 19th. The US Embassy cautioned me that I need to order 2 Apostilles and make sure I send one to the Portuguese Embassy to be translated. HOW DO I DO THIS...? And can it be done in time for my March 19th appointment. By the way, this application process started for me in early Nov. 2011 and is still going on.
As always, this site as a wealth of knowledge so, I'm hoping someone can help guide me!
I am currently in the process of my Portuguese residency application; I am American and not an EU citizen, but my husband and children are (easy for them, not for me!). I've had one appointment with the SEF office already and the only issue that arose was that they would not accept my marriage certificate! They advised me to contact the US Embassy to 'validate' my license - which I went there and was told they do not provide this service! They even drafted an official notice for me to take to my appointment about this issue for them to stop the practice; it's the Setubal office that I'm clsoe to. (For anyone else in this predicament, you need to contact the Secretary of State where the marriage took place and apply for an Apostille. Mine was in Las Vegas and they have this option available on their website, cost me $115.00 - just Google the Secretary of State for your state). The Apostille is now en-route to me in Portugal (another crazy process) and my next appointment is on March 19th. The US Embassy cautioned me that I need to order 2 Apostilles and make sure I send one to the Portuguese Embassy to be translated. HOW DO I DO THIS...? And can it be done in time for my March 19th appointment. By the way, this application process started for me in early Nov. 2011 and is still going on.
As always, this site as a wealth of knowledge so, I'm hoping someone can help guide me!