Make a citizen card for non-citizens

A huge issue for foreigners in Portugal who are not naturalized is that so many things now work with a Cartão de Cidadão…. and we can’t have one!

I’m not sure anyone understands just how frustrating that is. I keep hearing how much ‘easier’ things now are in Portugal but time and again it’s tied to somesystem that needs Cartão de Cidadão. So it’s only easy for Portuguese. So many things, from government interactions to opening a bank account online, now depends on a Cartão de Cidadão. If you’re an international talent wanting to live here, it means everything is 5X more difficult for you.

I’m not expecting to be given citizenship (I’m an EU citizen and actually wish to keep my Dutch nationality), but it would be excellent if Portugal had a Cartão de Cidadão that works in exactly the same way, just without conferring citizenship. Just literally the same card with the same chip, only with a different database field that says ‘non citizen’. There. Done.

Portuguese nationals, like my Portuguese born daughter, get everything all at once by registering once (NIF, SNS, etc.) and have the convenience of a national card, whereas as a foreigner it has to be done in a piecemeal fashion or has to be done in-person because none of the IT systems are designed with passports or foreign IDs in mind.