US Vax Card to PT Digital Cert
2 years ago
Sharing the story from Scott Swope:
As many of us received our vaccinations in the U. S. I know the question about how to get
registered for the EU certificate has been going around.
I was able to successfully register this morning for the EU QR passport. I want to share what
worked for me (operative words there).
Please note, this seemed to be a very new process for my USF office. They were clearly working
to figure out how to do it as we went along. My lack of Portuguese and their lack of English did
not help (my problem, not theirs).
That's a long way to say, "your results may vary."
1. I BELIEVE YOU CAN SKIP THIS STEP but here's the first thing I did: Two days ago I
emailed the same email address that helped me awhile ago in securing my No. de utente.
1. For my parish in Porto I emailed the USF Anibal Cunha, but you should use the
email for your parish
2. If it is helpful for anyone, that address for me is
[email protected]
2. They replied later that day:
1. "Se reside na área de influência da USF Aníbal Cunha (freguesia de Cedofeita,
Massarelos Miragaia e Vitória) deve dirigir à USF com documentação
necessária."
2. (If you live in the area of influence of the USF Aníbal Cunha (Cedofeita,
Massarelos Miragaia and Vitória parishes) must go to the USF with the necessary
documentation.)
3. I replied and asking what documentation was required but never received a reply
1. To be safe I gathered up:
1. My U.S. proof of vaccine card that I received
1. (important note, it had my vaccine lot numbers on it. More on this
later)
2. My residency card
3. My documento de identificacao do utente - you may be able to just use
your number, but I took the whole document just in case.
4. My passport (was not needed)
5. I also had at-the-ready emails in my inbox from my original vaccination
confirmations and was prepared to show those (also not needed)
6. A good sense of humor
7. Plenty of humility
4. This morning I went to my USF and accomplished everything. Here's how that went:
1. I arrived shortly after 8am when they opened
2. The security guard at the door spoke no English. At first he tried to deny me,
pointing to a sign that said I had to come back after 10 a.m. I recognized enough
on the sign to read "numero de utente."
1. I used my handy google translate app to read the full sign and learned that
they do not process No. de utente requests until after 10am.
2. I took a breath and said, "nao, um momento..." and pointed to my phone.
I opened the email I had sent to the USF (which I had translated to
Portuguese already) and showed him what I was there to do - and I
showed him their reply. This did the trick. He nodded and took me back
to the office where I was first in line.
3. The person here also did not speak English, but thankfully the guard explained
things to her. I did my best to listen, and laid out the 4 items I had brought with
me. She took all but my passport and worked on a computer for a few minutes.
4. She handed my ID back and told me to have a seat in the waiting area (this was a
funny experience all on its own).
5. After a bit she brought the rest of my items to me and told me to continue to wait.
6. Eventually I heard my name called over the PA speakers. After some confusion on
what to do, I was led to an elevator and proceeded upstairs. Here I found several
empty medical rooms before I found one with a human at a desk. She looked up
and asked, "Scott?" Good - I was in the right place.
7. She spoke enough English for us to get by. She took my No. de utente doc and my
vaccine doc from the US and got to work on her computer.
1. She ran into some difficulties and asked me twice where I had gotten my
vaccine done. Both times I stated in the US and in MIchigan to be precise.
2. Eventually she explained that her system was not recognizing the Pfizer
“Lot Number" on my card. After at least 3 tries, she managed to force (her
word) it through. I do not know what she did, but it worked.
8. She printed a document for me to take titled "Ficha Vacinal" and explained I
could use this to request the "Certifcado Digital COVID DA UE"
9. I asked her to explain how I do this last part and she informed me to visit the SNS
website to request it. She wrote down the web address, and highlighted that I
would need two things at the top of the Ficha Vacinal document - my birth date
and numero de utente.
1. She stated that the information SHOULD be available now, but it might
take 24-48 hours for me to successfully request it. She stated that I
should try when I get home, but not to worry if it doesn't happen right
away.
2. **important note** be sure to verify that your mobile phone number is
accurate with your numero do utente in their system. You will receive a
code later via SMS that you will need.
10. From this point on I believe the steps are the same for everyone, whether they
received their vaccine in PT or elsewhere, but I'll include them:
1. https://www.sns24.gov.pt/servico/obter-certificado-digital-covid-da-ue/
1. if you would like to review the very long list of FAQs you can see
those here: go to
https://www.sns24.gov.pt/guia/certificado-digital-covid-da-ue/
2. Click the OBTAIN COVID DIGITAL CERTIFICATE button (I have google
auto-translating my web pages, I'm not sure what the original text says)
3. You'll see 3 boxes to choose from at the top. The left-most option,
Vaccine Certificate, is what you want
4. Enter your birthdate
5. Enter your numero do utente
6. Select "Yes"
7. Check the box re: your personal data being used
8. Click "Submit"
11. My first effort was at around 9:30 am and I received an error that mine was
unavailable and to try again later.
1. I left everything on that page as-is.
2. About 2 hours later I hit submit again and was successful.
12. I was asked to enter the security code that I would be receiving in a moment,
which came through seconds later to my mobile phone
13. I entered the code and was directed to the next page that read "Your certificate
was successfully generated. Please download here: (green button)"
14. That was it! I have since printed a copy, saved a copy to my mobile, emailed a
copy to myself and uploaded a copy to my cloud drive. I should be able to access
it anywhere now, haha.
I hope this is helpful. I know it's a lot of info for a fairly brief adventure, but wanted to include the
speedbumps and how I got around them in case it is helpful.
Again, this was nearly as new for the USF office as it was for me, so I suspect things will evolve
as more of us drop in for help. I understand some have had luck emailing them a scanned copy
of their vax card. That is certainly the easier way to go if you can manage it, but my USF did not
offer me that option and I didn't ask.
Good luck, Friends
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