Lola and I had our SEF meeting in Coimbra yesterday. We have our temporary permits.
A few observations: SEF is located in a municipal building in Coimbra that houses many services. SEF is upstairs on the red level. No need to pull a ticket. If you have an appointment, they will call your name.
Be sure to sit/stand where you can clearly see the faces of the clerks in the 4 stations dedicated to SEF. It's a chaotic environment and difficult to hear them call names. We had 11:00 and 11:30 appointments. My name was called at 12:15. The clerk handled both of us at the same time. That seemed to be the norm.
Our clerk did not speak English, which I think turned out to be an advantage. They were super busy, so I don't think she was not looking for reasons to ask questions. She just got to work.
I waaaaaay over-prepared. She handed back at least 3/4 of the stuff I brought.
She was interested in these things:
Application
Passports
NIFs
3 months bank statements
Proof of private health insurance
Attestation from local gov't proving we live in Aveiro (easy to get)
The whole process took about 30 minutes because of clerk stuff like copying and such. Lots of staring intently into the computer screen, too. Photos, fingerprints, and signature taken on a machine. Hilariously, both of our fingerprints failed, but she just waved it off.
And we left with our temporary permits 🙂
