Accessing Public Services in Portugal

The Portuguese public administration provides various services to individuals, companies and other legal entities (associations, foundations, etc.) through online, in-person, telephone and video-call channels.

To facilitate interaction with the public administration, the way in which individuals and businesses can access public services in Portugal has changed to allow more and more services to be provided quickly and conveniently digitally and over the internet. Even for services that are not yet available online, the public administration endeavours to make as much information as possible available, including on the internet, about where and how these services can be used.

The gov.pt portal serves as an online hub for information, in plain language, on the thousands of services provided by public entities, such as requesting or renewing documents, requesting certificates, subsidies, licences, setting up a company, registering a patent, and many more.

This page provides information on:

Public services online
Public services in person, by telephone and by video call
Request support from the Citizen Line or the Business Contact Centre.

Note: Not all public administration services are catalogued on the gov.pt portal yet. If you cannot find the information or service you are looking for, we suggest that you search using an external search engine. We are constantly adding new information and new public services.

Public services online

The public administration provides a number of digital services that you can access from your computer, mobile phone or tablet.

This portal provides information on whether a particular service is available online, and what you will need to do.

There are services that can be accessed directly through this portal; in other cases you will be redirected to another website, platform or mobile app.

If you have any questions or want to find more information about the services, you can ask for help via the ‘Support’ button located on all pages of gov.pt. You can contact us by telephone, use the contact form or request support through a video call for some specific services.

Are you looking for any of these services?

Among the various services available online, the most popular are:

If the service you are looking for is not on this list, use the search bar at the bottom of the page to look for it.

Use the Digital Mobile Key for various online services

To use public services online, we recommend that you have a Digital Mobile Key (CMD). With the CMD, you can sign in securely to various public and private websites (banks, insurance companies, hospitals, etc.) using your mobile phone or email.

Find out how to activate the Digital Mobile Key.

Find out more about the Digital Mobile Key and other means of authentication on Autenticação.gov.

Public services in person, by telephone and by video call

If it is not possible to access the service online, you can go to a service desk or, in some cases, access the service by telephone or video call.

You do not need to make an appointment if you are going along in person. If you prefer to do so, however, you can make an appointment at some branches or for some services of various organisations.

Service desks

Most public service desks operate without appointments, including those at Citizen Shops, Citizen Spots and Business Spots.

Mobile Citizen Spots and Senior Citizen Spots operate only by appointment.

At Citizen Spots, a member of staff will carry out the service for you, explaining the process step by step if you wish. That way, if the service is available online, you will be able to do it yourself the next time you need it.

You can book an appointment via the SIGA platform or on the SigaApp (available for Android and iOS), for entities such as Social Security, the Institute of Registries and Notary (IRN) or the Working Conditions Authority (ACT).

Note: If you are entitled to priority assistance, you do not need to make an appointment.

Get a digital ticket

To be assisted without an appointment in a Citizen Shop, you can get a digital ticket before you go there. To get a digital ticket, follow the steps below.

Go to the Service Desks page.
Select your district to find the Citizen Shop closest to you.
In the results list on the right, click on the shop you want to go to.
Select the relevant desk and choose whether you want to receive the ticket by SMS or email.

You can only get a ticket on the same day, from the time when the desk opens.

You can also find information on the services available at each entity’s service desks, their opening times, address and contact details on the Service Desks page. Use the filters to search by:

text – indicate the name of the service desk or the area that you are looking for;
service desk – select the type of desk you are looking for: registry office, Citizen Space, Business Space, Citizen Shop, tax office, Institute of Employment and Professional Training (IEFP), etc.;
district – search for the location of the branch;
country – there are also Portuguese public service desks in Belgium, Brazil, France and the United Kingdom.

Service by telephone and video call

Check the relevant service page to see if the service is also available by telephone or by video call.

All the service description pages provide information on what you will need and the channels available to use the service.

For services that can be provided by telephone, the contact details and operating times of the telephone line can be found in the table of assistance channels.

Video call services and services that can be provided through video call support also have instructions on how to arrange this type of assistance.

There are some services that can be provided directly by video call. These services work like an in-person service between the operator and the caller, but without the need to go to a service desk.

If you need help using any online services available on this portal, you can request support through a video call. During the video call, an operator will take you through the whole process, answer your questions and clarify any queries while the caller uses the service.

To schedule a video call, click on the ‘Support’ button at the bottom of the screen if you are using a mobile device, or on the right of the screen if you are on a computer.

Service at the Registration, Social Security, Finance, IMT and IEFP services

For information on the types of assistance and services available with the most searched for entities, see the following pages:

Request support from the Citizen Line or the Business Contact Centre

You can clarify any queries or find out more about the services via the ‘Support’ button located on all pages of gov.pt. You can talk to us over the telephone, using a contact form or via a video call.

By telephone

Citizen Line: 210 489 010 or 300 003 990, working days from 9.00 to 18.00
Business Contact Centre: +351 300 003 980 or +351 210 489 011, working days from 9.00 to 18.00.

Using a contact form

Choose the subject on the contact page of gov.pt and follow the instructions for filling it in. If your query does not come under one of the available options, please select ‘Other’ and write the subject on which you would like some information.

By video call

You can receive support via a video call while using some of the most popular public services online. Find out how to book a call at Support by video call on gov.pt.