I press the button on the landline so hard that I risk it snapping shut and getting stuck. “Opção 1, d**n it!”
This is the umpteenth attempt to get in touch with someone from the IMT
The site is full of text and answers to questions, but a normal question like: “How can you make an appointment with the IMT in Coimbra?” is nowhere to be found. I’ve had just about every question by now, but there isn’t an answer among them.
I really have to hurry to renew my driver’s license now, because it is barely two months until it expires. And my experiences with the IMT aren’t all that great . They advise starting six (6!!) months in advance – apparently they have realized that their efficiency leaves something to be desired; instead of trying to improve that, you, as a “customer,” just have to make sure you start this process on time. Grumbling behind the computer, ranting on the phone. Sound familiar, dear reader? Or are you a bit more even-tempered?
What madness. How difficult can it be? You already have everyone in your file, it’s just a matter of changing a date, taking a photo and making a card, and you’re done. Come on. If this were a commercial company, it would have been a trick long ago that would have been very efficiently adopted by a system. With an error rate of 0.001%.
But then again, we are dealing with civil servants here. And also: traditionally, the Portuguese really love to say everything you can say in three words, in three hundred. No exaggeration. The IMT site is actually a marvel of clarity. It is just a real shame that I, one of the hundreds of thousands of resident foreigners in this country, cannot find out what *I* need to do. You see, I am not allowed to renew online. I do not have a “cartão de cidadão”(1).
I fill out a contact form
Little hope for a quick reply. Then I suddenly find a number. A landline number in Lisbon. Alright, let’s just give that a try (see above). I already went to the doctor yesterday for the mandatory eye test, and they send everything straight through to the IMT in Coimbra. I am afraid that if I wait too long now, it will get lost, I will have to start all over again, and end up with an invalid, expired driver’s license.
The mistakes being made, or the long waiting times, are not the fault of the IMT. That is your own stupid fault, because you should have started on time. You should have noticed half a year ago that your driver’s license is only valid until such-and-such a date. And if you can’t find the answer on their site, among all those letters, then that is also your fault.
In my first driver’s license, two spelling mistakes were made in my name, and the E for BE was taken away. Only when I asked for the Complaints Book did action follow, because the argument that I really do know how to spell my own name was not weighty enough; still my fault, not theirs. I should have realized that immediately and come to set it right.
This in my defense, as if I really am not paranoid, or some annoying complaining foreigner …
The next day, I am confronted with my doubts and fears, which by now appear to be unfounded. An answer to my question in the contact form. You can make an appointment with all government services via a special scheduling site. It is even possible tomorrow morning at a quarter to ten. Great! I will go very early, because then I hopefully have a parking spot nearby, and Mira won’t have to wait in a boring parking garage.
So! No sooner said than done, and after a delay of only forty-five minutes, I was sitting in front of a friendly, smiling civil servant who showed me on a remote screen what data he had stored and whether anything had changed. For this, he only needed my tax number. Just to be safe, I had brought along all the numbers I have (resident registration everywhere, social security, health insurance, my shoe size—everything), but fortunately, it was all for nothing.
I left with a form featuring a photo of a smiling me, 30 euros less in my pocket, and the promise that my new driver’s license would be here in about three or four weeks. I was even allowed to take my old one with me. See, that is what real technological progress is.
And that is how my trauma has healed quite a bit.
(1) cartão de cidadão: a card for portuguese, with everything: ID, tax number, social security, health services number, elections. You have to have it 20 days after you are born.
.
(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings. #drivers license #IMT #Portugal )
We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa.You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere. Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.