This past December we made the big decision to buy a car. It’s not that we were suffering without one, but after 3 years we felt it was time. And in a way it was a celebration of finally getting my Canadian driver’s license exchanged for a Portuguese one. In theory that was supposed to be a simple process, but was of course, another example of expectations derailed by Portuguese bureaucracy. Here’s my story.
We believed we arrived in Portugal prepared. Our driving records from Ontario were documented, and certified at the Portuguese consulate in Toronto. When in Portugal we had those documents translated. Check one.
You can fill out the driver exchange application online, but that is easier said than done. That was in my “google translate” phase, before I discovered the far superior DeepL. So to say it was a slow and laborious process is a bit of an understatement. I thought I did a pretty successful job getting my application submitted, but then received an email notifying me that I forgot one document (a photo of the back of my residence card). No problem. But then! Unfortunately I made a typing error when I resubmitted, then tried a few more times, then got locked out of the site. Locked out forever, was my understanding.
Enter panic mode. I’ve lost track of the timeline (another mental survival technique) but I reckon it was about 1 year in. Then somehow (probably facebook) I discovered that I could hire someone to interface my situation with the IMT (Portuguese driver’s department) – which I had heard was the second worst institution in the country. Check two.
Enter Anna, a British speaking wiz who certainly knew her way around cars and who seemed to know about the inner workings of the IMT. I think she had a contact there. I gave her what I think now was an exorbitant amount of money to facilitate the process (for both Billy and me). I was desperate, and we know what happens when you make decisions from a less than powerful place. However, I was in good shape to hand over all the homework/documents I had, so that went well. Check three.
But it was not without some screw ups. It’s actually all a blur now (“let it go” for sake of your sanity). Somehow my application was not connected to Faro (the closest office) but in Santeram, north of Lisbon. I had several visits to the Faro office, bla bla bla, and finally after about 2 years my temporary license was issued – my ‘real’ hard card came in the mail several weeks later (and praise the Lord, I was there to receive it). Check and check!
Now for the car. Anna, as mentioned, is a car aficionado and somehow works in the car world (I never asked or got the full story). I asked her if I could pay her to find us a used car we had our eye on – a Fiat Panda. Now I know that’s not too ambitious for some of you car folk, but for whatever reasons, Billy and I have always admired Fiat Panda’s. Within days our fixer Anna found a perfect car for us, with low mileage, but then that deal fell through a few weeks later. (It was north of Porto and then the owner’s son was in hospital and then….and then….and then nothing.)
No problem! On to Plan B. Anna was right back on it and found a well cared for Panda in Lisbon. Painted a colour called Champagne. How perfect was that? Anna delivered it to Tavira, coordinated the insurance and a bunch of other paperwork concerning inspections and the IMT, and here we are. Proud owners of the “Bollymobile”. End of a 2 and half year story. Onward ho!
