Consulate General Of Portugal

Not even worth a star but wont let me post without a star rating. This place is ridiculous. They are supposed to be your representative outside of your country. Can never get hold of them for assistance and advice. Between yesterday and today spent a total of 2 hours just waiting for them to answer the call - two of which it went to voicemail after 30 minutes! UNBELIEVABLY rude and obnoxious staff. My daughter-in-law is English. She called them to enquire about requirements to register marriage. They insisted in speaking to her in Portuguese when she cannot speak the languages - that tops all rudeness!

Estou desde as 8:30am a tentar ligar, sem resultado. Fui assaltado e não tenho nenhum documento e viajo para Portugal daqui a 4 semanas. Esta aqui um serviço de alta categoria! Não corrijam tais erros que não é preciso. Por mais ocupada que a linha possa estar, duvido que esteja assim tao ocupada que desde as 8:30am não haja ninguém do outro lado para atender. Para não falar que passados 30min a chamada vai a baixo

This is a very busy consulate. You will require an appointment for most things, apart from Information and collection of documents. If you intend to arrive without an appointment, I would recommend arriving early.

You can book an appointment online if you have a Portuguese identity number. Otherwise send an email - it may take them a while to reply. Patience is key.

All in all, the consulate is very well organised and the staff who assisted me at the the various departments were very helpful.

Note: they only accept cash and postal orders.

I agree with all the posts that have been submitted. In this day and age of technology advancement, it should be a simple procedure to renew your documents.

I have been trying to get in touch with the Portuguese Consulate in London since March 2017 as my passport and ID expire in November 2017. I have been holding on the phone for over 30 min each time and when you get through a voicemail says that there is no one available. If you email them the email bounces back. Booking an appointment online it says that there are no vacancies and when I finally got onto the calendar page, I got as far as December 2018 where I gave up!

It is embarrassing, appalling and extremely disappointing that there is no service at all from the Portuguese Consulate in London. What do you do then if you live in the UK and was born to Portuguese parents in another country? Can you go to Lisbon and where?

The unnecessary stress and worry caused is unacceptable and whoever is in charge of the Portuguese Consulate needs to sort these huge problems out immediately as it is beyond ridiculous!

Impossible to book an appointment online. I was so stressed that I decided to fly to Lisbon where I renewed my passport at the Passport Shop located in departures at Lisbon airport. It only took 10 minutes and I could have my passport on the same day if I wanted to. The service and staff at the Passport Shop are wonderful, I cannot praise them enough.
Although I spent money on the flight it was worth it. I could not continue to be worried and stressed by the incompetence of the Portuguese Consulate in London. Their new online system is not working and they refuse to accept it. Try to call and after 38 minutes had to give up. Wrote a letter (4 weeks ago) and I am still waiting for a reply.

Shocking service and rather embarrassing that this is meant to represent our culture... Just not okay. And now I have been trying to get hold of them via phone and email for the past 3 weeks - no replay.
Not sure if anyone can answer this for me? I will need to go back soon to collect our Citizen Cards, mine and my 3 girls 17, 15 and 14... do we all need to go, do I need to go, or is my husband able to collect?

They never have appointments for months on end, nobody picks up the phone. I have been trying to get an appointment for almost one year!! The staff is incompetent. Nobody helps with English if you can't speak Portuguese at advanced level. The worst embassy ever! An embarrassment to Portugal!!! They need to change management and all the staff need training.

Never answer the phone. I was left on hold for 37 min to finally be welcomed by a recorded voicemail saying they are busy and will call me back. Never got that call. There are main issues that are not answered on the website and that is why we need working phone lines. The embassy refused to help simply saying I need to contact the (unreachable) consulate. As soon as I find a way to answer to my problem, I will do everything I can to take further an official complain against their services. I am ashamed for this to be the way they represent portuguese people. Rude, unhelpful, careless, arrogant...

THIS IS THE WORST ESTABLISHMENT I HAVE EVER BEEN TOO!!!!! WHAT AN UTTER EMBARRASSMENT TO THE COUNTRY!!! YOU SHOULD ALL LOSE YOUR JOBS! THE ONLINE SYSTEM IS PATHETIC, TRIED TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT FOR 3 WEEKS WITH NO SUCCESS. WENT TO THE PLACE AND WAS TOLD ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT WHILE I'M THERE. I SENT A MAIL EXPLAINING MY EMERGENCY AND NO RESPONSE. I WOULD GIVE ZERO STARS BUT IT DOESN'T ALLOW ME TO

This is the worst place ever. I sent an email over 2 weeks ago to make an appointment for my daughters passport as their online services doesn't seem to work. Till today I'm still waiting on their email. This place is a disgrace. Staff members are so rude and very disrespectful people. This is disgusting how people think they can treat people this way I don't understand. Dogs treat cats a better way. Need you staff members who know the true meaning of respect. You should be ashamed to have such human beings working for you. You don't even deserve a 1 star review

I understand the reviews on this website. I really do. I understand that calling for 5 days straight and never speaking to someone is frustrating. I understand that not getting swift replies to emails is annoying. For these reasons, I gave it four stars...

However, all of my experiences, while at the consulate itself, have been good to excellent.

Yesterday I was dealt with by a very efficient and helpful woman called Sara. She spoke superb English and dealt with my slightly complicated passport issue without any fuss despite it being, truth be told, a hassle for her. In addition to doing her job superbly, she was also friendly and smiled, happy to serve me in English when really I should be attempting to speak Portuguese (my Portuguese is not very good).

Consulates are not supposed to be fun. They're often nerve-wracking experiences where you wait for ages, get passed from one person to another and get nowhere.

But this is simply bureaucracy. I've never been to a consulate of any kind, be it Canadian, Indian, Chinese or otherwise where I have left and thought, "What a fantastic experience! I can't wait to do that again!"

In sum, I believe that my experiences at the consulate have been, at the very least, pain free, which is about what to expect from modern-day bureaucracy.

After several failed attempts to book an appointment online, I decided to go directly to the consulate. The process to get in and be seen was quick, I'll give them that. However, the disrespectful and arrogant demeanour of the staff member who dealt with me was astonishing.

All his answers were "You can check that online or send us an email", If I am there and I waited to see you, why am I going to send an email?. The whole conversation was painted with a brush you off tone and basically he couldn't wait for us to lose patience and leave, so I guess he could do the same thing to another customer.

I just hope there is some sort of resolution in the matter, because it is not like the Portuguese government are proving a free service that we just have to suck into and get over it.

Can't phone them, they NEVER pick up! And if they do pick up they are so rude.

No respect for anyone, they think they run some kind of exclusive club.

I can never get any sort of constructive help, EVER.

You just have to book an appointment and hope for the best.

Such a waste of time and tax payer's money

All of my family members are trying to book an online appointment for months now. I enter and follow the relevant info of my I.D my details come up then I proceed to book to get calendar only to find out "try again later" over, over and over again. This has been happening for months. I followed the consulate appointment website: http://www.cgportugalemlondres.com/marcac cedilotildees.html and the visual manual instructions pdf: http://www.cgportugalemlondres.com/upload s/3/9/1/9/39196087/manual_dos_agendament os_(2).pdf.

Is anyone having the same problem? Is there a complaint procedure or media attention to bring this issue to the surface of light?