O Meu Diário de Coimbra

What asses

First, a little bureaucracy.

Nobody can explain — not my immigration attorney, not any Portuguese official, not even Lucifer, who we know knows all — why, even though I’m a resident of the Third Portuguese Republic, I can’t get a Servico Nacional de Saúde (SNS), a health identification number, from the country. Various government websites direct me to apply in person at Centro de Saúde, my local health center, while the representative at my local health center directed me to apply online. That rep was nice enough to call this week to check on me and my status, which I found touching; when I asked if I should come in to see her agin, she excitedly said “No, no, no. No need,” which I found hilarious. When I said I still didn’t have the number, she told me to go to the Freguesia Cidade De Coimbra, the city parish, for something called an Atestado de Residência, which, she said, would prove I live in the country and would help the SNS process.

“Doesn’t my signed lease and other documents I filed, along with my residency card, already prove that?” I asked

“Yes, it does,” she said, “but this is how Portugal works.”