How to get a car made legal in Portugal.The facts

Well here goes these are the facts not as i see but as i did.

The most important thing is that to get your car imported and pay no tax you must have owned the car for more than 12 months and have utility bills for 12 months. Council tax, Electric, Gas, Phone ETC. In case your bills are not complete then bank statements to back up your bills. This last part helped me as one of my bills was incomplete but the statement proved continuity of payment so my bills where accepted. 

There are a number of things to do to get your car made legal here in Portugal and this is as follows how it's done. If you have a RHD car then you will have to change the lights to the LHD type the cost for my car was 120€. I know because i have done it, no agent just me on my own.

First you need from the manufacturer of your car a Certificate of Conformity.  This you must have or forget the idea of being getting your car made legal. The cost varies from Manufacturer to Manufacturer. Vauxhall charged me £96 for my car. Other manufacturers charge whatever they like but you have to pay it. Some cars like Land Rover are not easy to get but there are companies on the Internet who can supply them at a cost. A 1972 Land Rover is about £200 for a Certificate of Conformity.

You need this to submit your car to the IMTT for a Portuguese MOT. At the test they check the car complies with the details on the Certificate of Conformity and believe me they check everything. For this there is a form that can be downloaded from the IMTT website. You need three copies and the information is all in Portuguese. You need to copy from the Certificate of Conformity onto the IMTT forms and take them with you for your test. The cost for this is 77.18€

You have to take out residency and you go to the local Camara/ Council for you still in the UK or in Portugal it's called the Camara. The charge for residency is 15€.

Now you have your residency certificate you need to go the British Consulate in Porto or Lisbon.I went to Porto to get a Statuary Declaration this is a legal form that you have to have if you want to import your car without paying import tax. Due to it being difficult to find i will provide separate information including screen shots of the maps etc. When you go to the Consulate you need and i Quote from the Consulate site "   This will be issued once you have taken a statutory declaration and on presentation of your passport, tax-payer’s ID card, your residence certificate and vehicle registration document " The fee for this bit of Paper is 157€. Ouch that's a lot.

The reason it's hard to find is on the Consulate site is a map showing the letter A in a street. The Consulate is not there but it's in walking distance. 

That's only the start but it's not as bad a task as some will have you believe it is. I know i have done it.

OK lets just recap what has been done.

Certificate of Conformity: Done
Residency: Done
Statuary Declaration: Done

Now there is a lot of Printing of forms and photo copying to be done.

I had four of each to be safe.

Passport.
Driving licence with the paper counterpart.
Residency certificate.
Fiscal/ Nif form.
Car log book all parts.

When you have the car tested and you have the Green pass certificate also you are give a Yellow form you can start the next part and that is submitting the paperwork to the Customs. At Customs you will be given three forms that need filling in and you will have to buy two more forms from the office next door. The cost for these is 1.80€ for the two. Again much of the information is taken from the Certificate of Conformity.

The lady at the Customs gave me back some forms to take to Coimbra to the IMTT office . At the IMTT office i was redirected back to the office where i had my car tested as a number was missing. When i got to the test center it was only a simple thing that had to be added and then it was back to the Customs office. I then gave the lady at Customs the forms that i had to take to the IMTT where one of them she photocopied and then filled in a form which she gave me and explained that should i be stopped by the Police i should give them the form.

The lady at Customs then said in a week i will receive a letter that will have my new car registration number on it and i would have to go back to Coimbra. I have since found out  that when i get my letter then i can go and get the plates for my car and fit them. At this point the Insurance have to be informed of the new registration number. The trip to Coimbra is the last step to take to driving legal and that is to get the new Log book so i am told.

OK Cost
Statuary Declaration.                                           157.00€
Certificate of Conformity                                    £96  for my car
Residency                                                                   15.00€
Car Test                                                                      77.18€
Customs form                                                              1.80€
Car plates                                                                   15.00€ app  
LHD headlights one pair                                     120.00€     

The cost for fuel and tolls could be quite a lot depending where in Portugal you live and what you drive.
My car  trips where to the British Consulate in Porto all from Gois
Customs in Averio
IMTT in Coimbra
IMTT in ADDRESS TO FOLLOW

All the forms that need filling in are in Portuguese but taken slowly you can do it, also use Google Translate.

The above is Fact i know because i did all the above. I do thank Barbara who did some photocopying for me as my copier is still in the UK at the moment.