In Order No. 3301-C / 2020, of March 15, measures of extraordinary, temporary and transitory nature are adopted, concerning  public services for citizens and companies, including consular services, in the context of combat of the outbreak of COVID-19 virus. The purpose  of these measures are both to discourage physically going to public services, thereby avoiding unnecessary social contacts, and also to create health and safety conditions for clients and workers, mainly in services that continue to serve the public.

The approved measures are aimed at all citizens and companies that need to use public services during the period that the exceptional measures to combat the COVID-19 virus, approved by health authorities and the government, are in force. There are also some measures concerning the actions of management and those responsible of each service.

The measures are effective from March 15th and will remain until further indications, with the exception of the measure indicated in points 13 and 14, whose effects are shown below.

Not necessarily. Assistance in public health and home affairs services, or in others whose special nature requires specific measures, obey to specific rules created for each case.

Information is provided exclusively online or by telephone, in order to avoid unnecessary travel to the public services’ facilities.

Face-to-face service is provided by prior appointment, limited, as a rule, to services that cannot be provided electronically and to acts qualified as urgent.

The pre-scheduling for public services is done through the ePortugal Portal and over the Contact Lines created for Citizens and Companies. Also the services and public entities’ specific lines can be used to schedule a face-to-face service.

The services and acts that may be subject to face-to-face assistance will be identified by the Government or by each one of the respective sector areas. This information can also be consulted on the ePortugal Portal.

Two lines were created to support the use of digital public services by telephone: one for citizens and another for companies. The Citizen Contact Center can be accessed through the number 300 003 990 and the Business Contact Center can be accessed through the number 300 003 980.

Yes. The number of people who may be within the facilities of publicservices and entities must be limited to one third of their capacity. It is the responsibility of the agency or service to determine the specific number of people who may be inside the premises, in compliance with the safety distance between people, in accordance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization and the Directorate-General for Health guidelines.

Payments should preferably be made electronically (ATM, MBway or other).

Yes. The frontline of public attendance or the full shutdown of facilities and services can be suspended, both by indication of  the competent health authorities as well as by temporary unavailability of systems or by the decrease or inexistence of available human resources.
There may be an insufficiency of human resources in the services due to illness, their own or that of a dependent, prophylactic isolation or urgent assistance to a child or other dependent under 12 years of age. 

Also, in the case of urgent assistance to a child or other dependent with a disability or chronic illness, regardless of age, resulting from suspension of face-to-face teaching and non-teaching activities at a school or social establishment.

You can obtain that information on ePortugal Portal.

You can choose the online renewal option whenever possible, by consulting this information on the ePortugal Portal. However, national authorities accept documents whose validity period expired from 24 of February 2020 until the 30 of June, for all legal purposes.

Among the expired documents from 24 of February that will be accepted by the authorities until 30 of June, are, for example, the citizen's card, the driving license, the criminal record, as well as certificates, documents and visas related to the permanence in national territory. All documents that are subject to renewal and whose validity period expired from 24 of February on will not have to be renewed now and will be accepted for all legal purposes until 30 of June.

Those responsible for public bodies and services must post information, at the entrance of the facilities, about the constraints of face-to-face assistance. The information posted must contain telephone and e-mail contacts for the service, if any, as well as the numbers of the Citizen Contact Centers and Companies.

Services should also pay special attention to telephone assistance and electronic response to contacts via e-mail, in order to inform citizens and companies about the content of the measures adopted and to inform them about alternatives to face-to-face assistance.

Public services must also actively communicate with citizens and inform them about the digital services available, promoting the use of the Digital Mobile Key.

Concerning face-to-face assistance, service managers must identify the workers at risk, due to their age or special health conditions and adapt, as far as possible, the respective working conditions to the current Contingency Plan. These workers, men and women, should preferably be assigned to BackOffice functions or be placed in teleworking regime.

Yes. Services must report daily information about their opened and closed public assistance points to the Agency for Administrative Modernization (AMA), using a reporting model provided by this entity.