Drive 1.5 hour to middle of nowhere to extend CRUE residence certificate

Europeans who arrive in Portugal have to register to get a Certificiate of Residency in EU (CRUE). You need that document for many things like opening a bank account or getting a driver license.

You get it by going to the local municipality and registering there. I did it with a lawyer. It’s actually complicated because you need a local in the neighborhood you live to vouch for you.

Anyway it’s valid for 5 years then you need to renew it. Or you can’t do anything in Portugal anymore. Because you can’t get an ID card eiher, the wait list for that is many years.

So to extend your CRUE you have to wait many years in Lisbon, so lawyers instead send you to villages in the middle of nowhere, like Santarem where I had to drive today

3 hours drive to and back to extend a piece of paper. All of this could have just been an online site or app. But instead they made it an ordeal.