I'm from US, my husband has UK passport. Do I need a sponsor for NIF?

Hello,
You can find the telephone number for the SEF and ask them:
http://www.sef.pt/portal/v10/PT/aspx/page.aspx
I think ur allowed to stay for 90 days, but still u need to call to confirm

Thank you Ahmed!

Hi! My wife and I have this same situation, so I was wondering if you managed to find a simple solution to this?

If you need to open bank account everything here you need to open a nif in finaças, it is very easy only need to provide your passport and address.

Thank you! Glad to hear it's easy.

Hi everyone, I thought I'd share my experience of this in case it's of use to anyone reading this thread in future.

I'm from the UK, so I had no trouble getting my NIF. Like catherineju said, I only needed to show my passport and proof of address (at the time, I didn't have an address in Portugal so I gave them my UK one). After waiting for around an hour at the Finanças office, the whole process took maybe 5-10 minutes. Easy!

For my wife, who's a US citizen, the situation was more complex. We had to have a Portuguese resident come with us to apply for the number on her behalf. The person doesn't have to be Portuguese - just resident / registered here as a taxpayer. Just to be sure, we tried 2 different Finanças offices, and were told the same thing.

So, according to our experience, US citizens will need:

- Their passport
- Proof of address in their home country (bank statement or utility bill)
- Friend who is a Portuguese resident to apply on their behalf (that person will need to show their residency card as proof)

Hope this info is of use!