How to get a driving licence for Goans in UK

For Goans having migrated to United Kingdom or any other European country,either through the Portuguese passport or otherwise, it can be quite a task to make a driving licence / license which is required to drive in UK or in rest of Europe. Besides being challenged for high level of English language which is required in the theory process in UK, the practical lessons themselves have been quite difficult for many Goans to pass through.

However a driving licence in the United kingdom is known to open doors of opportunities for anybody living there and Goans are therefore keen to have a driving licence to improve their status as well as avail of the benefits. Mere travel inside the United Kingdom is expensive and the ability to drive your own vehicle is therefore a huge advantage.

The cost of a driving licence for the United Kingdom can increase with every test failure and the cost for many Goans seeking a driving licence, has easily run into thousands of pounds without success. However more than the cost of the driving licence for UK, Goans are more troubled by the process to be followed which involves elaborate tests which often discourage candidates from applying for a driving licence.

However now there is good news for Goans who have their Indian licence in Goa, to get a driving licence for the United Kingdom. Goans can now get their driving licence in United Kingdom without the hassles of theory tests and undergoing practical licence tests.

However it is strongly recommended that even though one may acquire a driving licence by virtue of the Indian Licence, it is important that proper training for UK standards be compulsorily taken by prospective Goans who seek to have such a licence as conditions in India and UK are completely different. Also standards of safety and discipline in driving for the United Kingdom are very important to be acquired, to be conversant with prevailing UK laws. Failure to be compliant with UK standards could put the drivers as well as pedestrians to dangerous risks associated with unqualified driving.

It is therefore important to know that this help is being given under the express hope that even though knowledge of English may be poor, one has to be conversant with the UK driving licence requirements, and learn the same although the driving test may not be undertaken in UK. Learning and mastering the English language is also important for Goans if there is any genuine concern to survive in the United Kingdom.

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Is your Portuguese passport taking longer than it should have? Here’s help!

It is natural anxiety that many Goans feel for the delay in receiving their Portuguese passport. With the Consulate at Goa moving at snails pace, it appears to be a deliberate method of dragging on with a process which actually should not have taken days, or maximum a month to complete.

However we have Goans trying their luck at the Portuguese passport for years and some for even a decade without success. Some Goans  have all the necessary documents but nothing moves in any direction for them to see their European dream.

It is rightly believed that things are far different in Portugal compared to Goa. In Goa you seem to have separate rules for the speed of the process than the rules applied in Portugal. In Portugal the Assento do Nascimento which is the certificate of Birth can be obtained in 2 days . The Bilhete or the Cartao do Cidadao takes another day and the Portuguese passport would consume a fourth day to a maximum. In Goa such speed of processing at the consulate is something unheard of. So in Portugal all in all you would be able to finish your process in about 4 days from start to finish and be the jolly good Portuguese in no time.

However the consulate in Goa functions in a manner which is exactly the opposite. They probably believe that 4 days in Portugal means they have to actually make it 4 years in Goa. This is unfair and unacceptable some would scream. Problem is there is no redressal mechanism for Goans living in Goa to take Portugal or anybody to task for the delay and hence the irregularity flourishes it seems. No amount of arguments with consulate staff can help to speed up the process. It can only raise eyebrows at what they would perceive as your lack of patience. They would give you a look like as if you are asking for Indian TATKAL methods when actually you have been made to dance to their tune for many odd years.

It is also a known fact that Portugal honestly is not amused to give passports to Goans faster. That is precisely the bottomline. Surely they have their reasons with England breathing down their neck at the helpless influx of “Goan Portuguese” happily invading Britain with impunity. The Problem that Britain and some other countries have about Goans with Portuguese passport is that many of the lot are not qualified but have the right to work in that country by virtue of the Portuguese passport and the benefits accrued to the European community hence. Britain does not enjoy the extension of that kind of hospitality to people who have difficulty with English. Already, they have made visas for Indians lacking proficiency in English to be a dear affair. Naturally all the pressure on Portugal obviously motivates  it to delay the inevitable.

But  in Portugal they have little choice but to grant you the passport in a fixed time period. They cannot make you stay for days or months to give a citizenship card ( bilhete or cidadao) They owe it to you as a citizen to grant it in a reasonable period of time which is possibly a week. So common sense would tell you that you should go to Portugal after preparing your papers in Goa and apply for the Portuguese nationality directly in Portugal. The cost of travel to and fro would be around 30,000 which for many Goans would be worth the trouble. Accommodation would probably cost you less than 15,000 for 10 odd days. But all these costs are the least of your worries.

The problem is the consulate at Goa does not grant visa to Goans at the drop of a hat. If they have wind of the fact that you are visiting Portugal for the Portuguese passport the denial of the visa is almost certain.Funny one would say. But it is only if you have the cartao do cidadao or the Bilhete, the consulate grants you the visa , not otherwise. So you are back to square one.

Your only hope therefore rests with something called a schengen visa which is a visa given by a group of 15 European nations which includes Portugal. Which means that on a schengen visa one can travel to any of the 15 countries including Portugal.The purpose of the visit must be leisure, tourism, or business. The Schengen visa is governed by the Schengen rules and regulations and one needs to apply for the schengen visa from any one of the schengen nations which are as below

• Austria
• Germany
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Greece
• Iceland
• Italy
• Luxemburg
• Norway
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sweden
• The Netherlands

So if you get your schengen visa and you got your papers ready, you could soon be on the fast track to your dream  of the happy Goan with the Portuguese passport. Good Luck!

Portuguese nationality for Goans: How to apply for Goan minor children

This post essentially seeks to inform Goans on the requirements of parents whose birth is already registered in Portugal and who subsequently wish to register the birth of their minor children. The age of Minors,(for the sake of registration) is not very clear although the general feedback obtained from the consulate in Goa suggests that it is upto the age of twelve. Prior confirmation of this is advised from the Portuguese consulate in Goa.The telephone number of the Portuguese consulate in Goa is 2421525.

Considering that minors are children below the age of twelve, (for the Portuguese authorities), the following needs to be understood while registering the birth of minors. First up, minors do not have to pay any fees for claiming their Portuguese nationality whereas everybody above twelve years and born after 19.12.1961 need to pay Rs 14,083 as nationality fees. This in itself is a saving. More the children below 12, more is the saving. So if your children are nearing the age of twelve and you are in possession of the relevant documents with an aim to register your children, then all you need to do is rush for the registration. Unless of course the Goan compulsive habit of being "succegado" allows you to be squandering some money for nothing's sake.

Another advantage of registering minor children is that you do not need their Indian passport right away. At least not untill the birth is registered. You will however need it at the time of preparing their Bilhete de Identidade. But at the time of applying for Portuguese nationality the Indian passport is not a requirement. The identity of the child is ascertained through the birth certificate which clearly mentions the names of the parents which need to conform with the details of the parents on their  "Assento de Nascimento"( birth certificate registration in Portugal) and the 'Assento de Casamento (  marriage registration done in Portugal).

The documents required to register the birth of a child in Portugal are as follows

1. Birth certificate of both parents - to be obtained from the sub-registrar in Goa
2. Birth certificate of the child - to be obtained from the sub-registrar in Goa
3. Assento de Nascimento - of the parent whose birth is registered in Portugal.
4. Assento de Casamento - of the parents marriage registered in Portugal.
5. Indian passport of both parents for Identification
6. Bilhete de Identidade of parent registered in Portugal - for identification

Please note that

A. No photographs of anyone are required at this stage.
B. Only item No 1, and 2 need to be attested with Notary, collector and Home department
C. Clear legible copies of Item No 3, and 6 are required  to be submitted without any attestations
D. Item No 5. and 6. are required in original only, to present and are verified and returned.
E. Both parents are required to be present at the time of registration of birth of the child and single parent is not acceptable (in Goa).
F. Physical presence of the child is not required.
G. No prior appointment is required to apply for a minor childs birth and one can directly go to the Portuguese's Goa consulate in the morning and stand in the queue for the token number with all the papers ready in your possession
H. There is no requirement of residence certificate, nor election card, nor ration card of anyone

Do ensure that you carry a black pen to sign the papers which are prepared by the consulate staff to process your childs nationality. Do not sign with a blue pen. Even if the staff attending to you, fails to draw your attention, please note that you should sign only in black pen . Else your application will not be processed although it may be accepted by oversight. However upon locating the flaw, you will be recalled for the ordeal all over again. If one of the parent is not available for the repeat call, your application will simply hang in balance. If the parent goes abroad during this period, the long wait will be due to a pointless blunder. So do ensure that you sign with a black pen (the form gets read by the computer and hence the requirement)

After the first visit and signing of the papers, the Portuguese consul apparently ratifies the papers before reverting them back to the consulate staff who in turn contact you over the telephone to come again and sign the papers after the consuls attestation.

Hopefully within a period of 3-4 months, your childs birth should be registered in Portugal. Good Luck!

For all posts related to obtaining the Portuguese passport for Goans, the continuous free help dossier is at this label.Click here!

May we Goans shed our tag of being the crabs we have doggedly been this far! This free help is an attempt towards the erosion of that bitter truth.

Viva Goencar!

By Goacom Blog

Portuguese passport for Goans : Your person in Portugal

The Portuguese passport process for many Goans is in a limbo due to various factors. For some, procuring their basic birth certificate is a big problem leave alone the TEOR. For others, they are blessed with a TEOR but have no original document. For some Goans, all documents and attestations a re done and everything is available at hand but they just cannot get an appointment with the Portuguese  consulate in Goa. The next available appointment is about a year away which is excruciatingly late. For another category, they have given all the documents but there is silence on the part of  the Portuguese authorities for years together. The consulate in Goa has no answers to the delay and often respond with helplessness about the cause. To their credit, honestly they may actually have no answers contrary to many disgruntled Goans who may be barking at the wrong tree.

In this post I shall make an attempt to address the third problem where the application for claiming Portuguese nationality is lying in Portugal. There is also good hope for the other two categories which I will deliberate on at a later date.

The delay caused after presenting the application with no news for years, therefore is evidently rooted in Portugal, where a plethora of applications await disposal at various stages. The Conservatoria or its various subsidiaries in Portugal are apparently overburdened and according to reliable experiences of some Goans, to an extent function just like most of our government offices in Goa with a hard-earned laid back succegado attitude.

So your much sought after application for claiming the Portuguese nationality could be lying in Portugal under heaps of other applications in files which are however traceable unlike in Goa where there seems to be no system or mere sensibility towards preservation of documents which are at the mercy of rough handling, pests and pitiable storage conditions. Of course in Goa there is no accountability for such mishaps and no one is questioned.

So how does one solve the problem of pulling out your papers from down under and bringing them to the right table to be processed faster? That too in Portugal? The answer to that it seems is to have some saviour in Portugal itself. This person should go to the Portuguese Conservatoria or its subsidiaries on your behalf and argue your case and ensure that it is processed and sent back to Goa. Such a person has to be dedicated to do your work. It is a rare species but not hard to find honestly.

Agents of the Portuguese passport in Goa are virtually useless to be approached for this work as they have thousands and thousands of cases like yours and with their one man in Portugal, sifting through the cases, your case is like a needle in a haystack. Seldom found. However our agent in Goa never fails to collect his plum sums from you for the work which he has still not done. Or may take years and years to do. Or may never even succeed doing. However his  milking of clients goes on unabated. He knows how gullible Goans are for the lure of "phoren" and are willing to gulp all his stories. And so he makes the most when the sun is shining.

So obviously you need to locate some person in Portugal yourself to do this job for you. Try with some relatives and friends in Goa who may help you with some friends in Portugal . In such cases it is surely an inconvenience for the person in Portugal and it would therefore take some effort to get such a person. So do not get disappointed and upset  if some friends/relatives decline the help. Its a genuine botheration. Another way is to research the internet and Google for such people who undertake such professional services in Portugal and approach them directly over phone or email (phoning Portugal has become dirt cheap).I have observed that there are a few of them who can be found on the internet.

Due to obvious reasons of probable issues associated with these services and since I do not have any vested interest, I will not indulge in providing names and numbers of people in Portugal undertaking such services. You will have to do some research on the internet yourself. But do ensure that whoever you narrow down to in Portugal , that there is enough of credibility in that person to undertake your case. Seek references of people he/she has successfully completed such cases and get in touch with those people over telephone or meet their relatives in Goa in person to verify.Dont send your money down the drain. Do not rely on email to get in touch with such references as the person in Portugal may be the one himself replying to your emails. Remember, its a virtual world out there.

The fees for such services depend on the tasks involved. Some people charge fees simply to present your papers in the Conservatoria in Portugal. Some others levy charges for enquiry. Still some others give you a list of fees for completing an assigned task such as registering your birth which is the 'Assento de nascimento" or facilitating your process of the Bilhete de Identidade in Portugal or presenting your papers for the marriage registration after taking the appointment and also ensuring that your marriage is registered. However all such fees are just a small fraction of the costs you would pay an useless agent in Goa who normally acts like a snob everytime you enquire about your case.

Goans therefore need to research the internet for such people to ensure that they process their cases smartly and not crouch under an agent in Goa as if they were completely illiterate. Lack of knowledge of Portuguese is a small factor in the whole process please note. Your person in Portugal should be able to follow up your case and ask questions about your case in Portugal. You need to ensure that he can do the job and not be lying down. Cases take months in Portugal to process. Not years.

Always seek a time frame from your prospective person in Portugal.Do not hesitate to ask "when" "why" and "which". Do not agree for a time frame in suspense. Keep the person on his toes. After finalising with him/her, you need to provide him with a 'power of attorney' which is known as the 'procuracao" so that he/she can take up your case on your behalf. For the format of the "power of attorney- procuracao" click here. To prepare the procuracao you need some important details of the person in Portugal. They are
1. His/Her Name
2. His/Her Address
3. His/Her Age
4. His/Her Bilhete de Identidade number
5. His/Her status - whether married or single.

You need to include these details in the procuracao as detailed. After printing the power of attorney on a 50Rs stamp paper, you should notarise it in Goa and then proceed to attest it with the various authorities such as the collector, the Home department and lastly the Consulate. Your person in Portugal needs this document to pursue your application for Portuguese nationality

Good Luck.

For more posts on the Portuguese passport for Goans, click here.

By Goacom

Portuguese passport process for Goans: Format for procuracao

The procuracao is a "power of attorney" document which is needed for your representative in Portugal who will pursue your case to process the portuguese passport on your behalf. You need the following details of the person in Portugal to be able to prepare the procuracao document.

1. His/Her Name
2. His/Her Address
3. His/Her Age (optional)
4. His/Her Bilhete de Identidade number
5. His/Her status - whether married, single or divorced.

After getting the above details, the same need to be included in the document wherever needed. For everything marked in bold, check the details enlisted below the procuracao format hereunder to get a clear understanding as to how this bold text is to be replaced. If you want the correct script of Portuguese to type with all the accents then click here. After printing the document on a Rs 50 stamp paper, get the same attested with a notary in Goa and subsequently with the Collector and the Undersecretary and attest it finally with the Portuguese consulate at Goa and then send the document to your representative in Portugal.

The following is the format of the procuracao.

===================================================

                                      P R O C U R A Ç ÃO

No dia (Date of procuracao), neste Cartorio Notarial situado em, ( address of notary) , India, compareceu perante mim (name of notary) Advogada e Notario da Comarca das (taluka of notary)de Goa, como outorgante o senhor ( Your full name ), ( (your marital status), nascido aos (your birth date)  em (place of birth) , filho de (your fathers' full name) e de ( your mothers' full name), portador de Passaporte Indiano No ( your passport number) emitido aos ( (date of issue of passport) e valido ate ( validity date of passport), residente da ( your address), cuja identidade verifiquei pela apresentacao do referido documento, constitui bastante procuradoras (1) a senhora/senhor ( name of person in Portugal), (his/her marital status), cidada portuguesa, portadora de Bilhete de Identidade No. (his/her Bilhete de identidade number) emitido aos (Bilhete issued date)e valido ate (Bilhete validity date)e residente na (his residence address in Portugal) , as quais com os de substabelecer, confere poderes forenses gerais em direito permitidos e ainda para na Conservatoria dos Registos Centrais em Lisboa ou qualquer outra Conservatoria do Registo Civil competente, tratar a) registo de nascimento e do casamento do madante mediante inscrição ou transcrição e para os efeitos, requerer, praticar, promover e assinar tudo o que necessario seja, incluindo todas e quaisquer rectificações a que haja lugar e ainda o completamento do assento; e auto de atribuição ou aquisição de nacionalidade portuguesa, e certificado de nacionalidade portuguesa e manutencão ou composição originaria do nome .

Esta Procuração foi lida em voz alta e explicado o seu conteudo e efeitos ao mandante e vai ser assinada pelo dito mandante juntamente comigo o Notario no papal selado de Rps . 50/- .

                                                          
                                                           O MANDANTE 

                                                         (your signature)       
                                             ----------------------------

     Certifico que a fotografia colado é autentica do mandante

================================================

Details
1) Date of procuracao :Here you need to type the date, the procuracao is made ready. It is to be writen in words. Eg: to get "On the 27th of the month of December in the year 2008," the translation is "No dia 27 do mes de Dezembro do ano de 2008,.,For getting any such date translated in Portuguese easily, check here

2) For address of Notary, simply type, city/area and the taluka. Eg: Panaji, Tiswadi Goa or Margao Salcete Goa.

3) Type the name of the notary as per his stamp.

4) For taluka of notary just mention the taluka. eg: tiswadi or Ilhas / Salcete, Mormugao etc.

5) For your full name, type your name as it appears on your Indian passport. Do not commit errors. If you are male type Senhor. For females it is Senhora.

6) For your marital status, type casada- for married, solteirão for bachelor, solteirona for spinster and divorciada for divorced woman, divorciado fro divorced man.

7) For your birth date has to be typed in words here. Not numbers. eg: if you are " born on december 10 1970" the translation to be inserted here is " nascido aos 10 de Dezembro de 1970". For specific birthdates, type "born on -------" and translate using google language tools. For details Click here.

8) Your place of birth is to be typed as place and taluka. Eg: Margao, Salcete Goa.

9) Type your fathers and mothers full name exactly as it appears on your passport No errors. If you are a male son, it is filho. For daughters it is filha. Make the change accordingly.

10) Just type only your passport number here. Nothing more. Dont type the word "passport number" again. Just the number itself .
Eg  : E 3456789

11) Date of issue of passport to be typed in numbers. Eg : 21/12/2005. Same way is date of validity.

12) Type your address without any errors.

13) Name of person in Portugal is to be typed correctly and should match with his/her name on the Bilhete. If it is a male it is Senhor. For females it is Senhora.

14) His/her bilhete number and its date of issue should be typed correctly along with validity date and his residence address

15) For marital status, type as per details at No (6)

16) Do not forget to remove all the bold markings and delete all the brackets after you fill in the details.

Good Luck. For all other posts on the Portuguese passport click here

Portuguese passport procedure - format of divergence certificate

In continuance of my previous post regarding the Portuguese passport process and the divergence certificate, it is prudent to know that while the talathi's offices in Goa issue the divergence certificate in English, which needs to be translated to Portuguese, the Panchayats in Goa may be willing to issue the certificate directly in Portuguese which saves a lot of time and money besides being a more credible document having been directly attested by the authority issuing it.

However the Sarpanch of the panchayat needs to be convinced about the contents of the divergence certificate and since most of the Sarpanchas in Goa may not be able to read or understand Portuguese, such requests of seeking the divergence certificate directly in English may be declined. However some panchayats and Sarpanchas in Goa are quite accomodating and may be willing to co-operate with the applicant to help Goans to get the document directly in Portuguese.

Often the panchayats provide the letterhead to the applicant to type and get the divergence certificate directly in Portuguese on their letterhead. Once this is done, the panchayat confirms the contents of the certificate with their own reliable and confidential sources who know the Portuguese language and subsequently the Sarpanch certifies on the divergence certificate and after paying the requisite fees of Rs 100/- the certificate is issued. This is a great help if relented by the concerned panchayat from your village.

For those who can get the  letterhead and are able to type it, the format of the divergence certificate in Portuguese is given as under. Do enter the necessary names, taluka, fathers name etc and the certificate may be given to the panchayats for their certification and attestation. Do take the reference number and the date from the panchayat office to enter into the certificate as shown as under.

Ref No: VP/   /   /   /                              Date :_____________

Copy the following format and print on the said letter head

=================================================

                      Divergência Certificado

Eu (name of Sarpanch), Presidente da Junta Aldeana de (name of the village) Concelho de (name of taluka), Goa, Índia, certifico que (your first name) também conhecido como (your second name), ambos os nomes são da mesma e única pessoa, filho de (your fathers name) e de (your mothers name) residente em (your address)

Passei este a pedido do interessa do dito (your first name) para os efeitos de transcrição do seu nascimento na Conservatória dos Registos Centrais Lisboa.

                                                 O Presidente
                           

              (Sarpanch's name here)                    

================================================

Wherever it is bracketed in English, insert in the relevant name of the person, or village or taluka.

The above should help  all the Goan aspirants who have been seeking this format to prepare the divergence certificate in pursuit of the Portuguese passport.

For the previous post on the application to obtain the divergence certificate click here. For all posts on the Portuguese passport click here.

Goans pursuing Portuguese passport : How to do marriage registration in the Portuguese consulate

For the Goans pursing their Portuguese passport in a bid to enter Europe, and the world of opportunity that Europe offers, the Portuguese passport has been a godsend. For the newer generation born after 1961, however the procedure is a little arduous with the requirement of registering their parents first and then being eligible to apply.

The procedure therefore involves registering the birth of one parent in the Conservatoria in Portugal and then registering the marriage of the parents, thereby obtaining the 'Assento de nascimento" ( registration of birth) and the "Assento de Casamento" (registration of marriage) which subsequently enables those born after 1961 to be eligible to apply.

Untill a few years ago, the registration of birth was naturally followed by the registration of marriage at the Portuguese consulate in Goa. However a few years back, there has been a new requirement squeezed in,  which was not prevalent earlier. The Portuguese authorities have made it mandatory that the "Bilhete de Identidade" be made, in order to be eligible to apply for the registration of marriage. It may be noted that this is not the procedure followed in Portugal, where there is no need for the Bilhete to be made in order to apply for registration of marriage. Therefore for those directly applying through their representative or their attorneys in Portugal, there is indeed a saving of time which is lost in Goa.

After obtaining the Bilhete, one has to apply for an appointment with the Portuguese consulate in Goa. The email address  to apply for the marriage registration is app.marriage@goa.dgaccp.pt. In this email you need to mention your name, address, telephone number or mobile and most importantly scan your Bilhete copy and attach it to your email and send it to the email address.

The Goa consulate which receives the email will then send you a reply with the date of appointment which may be anywhere in between 2 months to six months from the date of your email depending upon their appointment schedule.

You need to therefore prepare the requisite appointments just a month or 3 weeks before the appointed date provided there are no correction related problems with your papers which would take more time. The documents prepared carry a validity which is best used if the documents are prepared closer to the appointment date. So a period of three weeks before appointment date is comfortably ideal.

The following documents are required by the Portuguese consulate in Goa to apply for the marriage registration.

1) Bilhete de Identidade - Original copy only - Not to be attested
2) Assento de Nascimento ( the one who is registered in Portugal)
3) Civil marriage Teor
4) Church Marriage teor
5) Original Indian Passport of the spouse
6) Birth Certificate (Teor) of the spouse

Only Item No 3,4 and 6 need to be attested with the Notary, collector and the Home department. If any of these three documents are in English, they need to be translated in Portuguese and those translations also need to be attested by all the above.

The attestation fees currently levied by the Portuguese consulate per document is Rs 719 while certifying originals is Rs 163. The cost of the marriage registration process is approximately Rs 6,600. Depending on your number of documents ( if there are translations ) , it is safe to carry an amount of Rs 13,000 (marginally on the higher side) to the consulate to take care of all the other fees of certifying other copies of Bilhete and Indian passport etc.

The marriage registration process has unfortunately not been specified any time period and may take anywhere between 4 months to six months after applying. Follow up is therefore the key.

Wishing Goans the very best in their quest for claiming the Portuguese nationality. For a complete list of posts on the help offered on this blog for the Portuguese passport process, CLICK HERE.

For any enquiries, kindly leave comments below.

Goa University to team up with Instituto camoes

Goa university's Portuguese department and Instituto Camoes are together slated to organise  a series of activities to commemorate the 35th anniversary of April 25th 1974's Carnation Revolution also known in Portuguese as the"Revolucao dos Cravos".

It may be recalled that the military coup of that date which had its leanings towards the Left, began on April 25, 1974 in Lisbon, Portugal and heralded the change of regime in Portugal from a dictatorship to a democracy after a two year transitional period.

As a part of the activities, on April 24th, a talk will be held on the topic " Portugal throbbing with a new heart' by a former senior lecturer of St Xavier's college and author of many books, Mr Vasco Pinho.

Silvia Braganca, a Goan born artist and teacher at the ENAV( Escola Nacional das Ates Visuais) maputo Mocambique and researcher of Art education, will speak on " 25th of April 1974- Portugal and the overseas people's freedom". There will also be a documentary ' As Duas Faces da Guerra ( the two faces of the war) a film on colonial war in Africa produced by Diana Andringa and Flora Gomes which will be screened at 7 in the evening.

On the 25th of April a talk will be held on ' I missed the revolution of Cravos of April 25 1974 by a whisker... But I can depose on its trial and repercussions' by a well known lawyer Mr Fernando colaco, who will speak about his experiences before the outbreak of happenings in Lisbon.

This is expected to be followed by the "Carnation revolution in Goa and East Timor" by department of Sociology, professor at the Goa University Dr Alito Sequeira who will speak on social changes which took place after the revolution.

A documentary ' Nos e os Outros- uma Sociedade Plural' ( We and the Others- a Pluralistic society) will be screened at 7 pm and on April 26 some films produced in Portugal in the last 30 years will be screened.

Os Lisboetas 9 20040 by Sergio Trefaut , a documentary about the emigration wave which changed Portugal in the last years will also be screened at 11 am. "Portugal SA" ( 20040 by Ruy Guerra,  a political thriller exposing the dark side of the politicians and their ties with the corporate world will be screened at 3 pm

A Sombra dos Abutres ( 1998), the maiden venture of Leonel Vieira has a plot set in Tras-os-montes, the North eastern region of Portugal, in 1961, when Portugal was under a dictatorship and was controlled by PIDE ( a police force serving the regime and which oppressed all those who were against it) will be screened at 5 pm. "O cinema Portugues  depois do 25 de Abril de 1974" by Serge Abramovic will also be screened.

Goa's Churchill Bros set to create history in I-league

Goa's football crazy public is awaiting with bated breath, to see the final outcome of a long battle for the title of the ONGC I-league -India's premier football tournament, with the winner taking home a   purse of Rs 50 lakh in prize money.

Going into the final round of matches, Churchill Brothers and Mohun Bagan are tied on 43 points each. However Churchill enjoys a superior goal average which means that the Goan club needs a simple win against lowly placed Mohammedan sporting in their final match today at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda Goa to clinch the title.

The hosts are hot favourites to win the title with punters stacking the odds favourably on them. Besides Churchill brothers have an impeccable home record with the Nigerian Odafe Okolie who is in their ranks in sparkling from throughout the league.

Churchill Brothers have one of the most enviable home record in the I-league as they have not lost to an outstation team since 2002 and punters therefore believe that the Goan side is simply unstoppable at the moment.

Churchill Brothers' coach Zoran Djordjevic is brimming with confidence to put it across Mohammedan Sporting today . While Churchill needs a simple victory against Mohammedan sporting today, Mohun bagan who play Mahindra United have three of their key players unavailable and need to win by a margin of 16 goals to wrest the title from Churchills grasp.

For over 13 years since the start of the National football league in 1996, the Varca based Churchill brothers has been one of the better sides and entertainers to the core besides being consistent.However the league title has somehow eluded them.

Churchill have faltered in the final round on three occasions. In the year 1996-97 Churchill came precariously close but lost to Indian bank in the final hurdle while in 2000 Churchill made a promising start but were outpaced by East Bengal in an extremely tight match while in 2002 controversies haunted the finish.

However this time around the fans of the club will hope that with this final outing today, the club will put to rest all doubts about their ability to clinch the title and lay its claim on it at last.

 

Portuguese passport help for Goans: Translation blues

For every document arriving from Portugal, with reference to the Portuguese passport process, most Goans find themselves in no man's land as far as understanding the matter stated in the document is concerned.

So the lack of knowledge of the Portuguese language has therefore been a big impediment to the speed of the process besides the unnecessary inconveniences caused. Goans who do not understand Portuguese therefore have to scout for the services of someone who can. For the Goans who are stubbornly wedded to their empirical agent of the Portuguese passport, they travel all the way from home to flash that document to him and get an understanding of where their process currently stands or whether they have received a call from the Portuguese consulate in Goa or whether they need to furnish something new.

All these mundane letters which come from Portugal are therefore consuming a lot of time only to be deciphered for meaning. If there was some knowledge of the Portuguese language, such problems would not have been encountered.

However the modern times of the present world help us to solve such small displeasures. In the world where technology is advancing at a fast pace, such irritants of translations of routine documents is possible without the intervention of humans. Goans should therefore use technology to ease themselves out of these small problems which makes them lose their valuable time travelling distances to meet their agents or translators and awaiting his Lordships' audience outside his office doors for hours only to be informed of something having a miniscule importance in the letter.

Here is some advice to get your documents translated free. This method is not foolproof and is to be used best for understanding the letters coming to you from Portugal. This may not be a good idea for documents to be translated for presenting to the Portuguese consulate. For that purpose, human translation services are the best. However for routine documents, the following is quite reliable.

All that I am speaking about here is the "Google translator".For this you need to go to an internet cafe or any internet enabled computer at home or outside. Take your letter from Portugal or any Portuguese document which needs to be translated for your understanding.

Go to MS word or notepad and type the letter .Don't worry about the Portuguese accent of the script while typing. However if you want to be perfect and type exactly as per the Portuguese script with the accents, then click here to understand how to do that.

After typing, click  on the web browser icon, such as internet explorer or mozilla firefox, and a browser window will open. In the web address area, type  google.com and it will take you to the Google homepage as below. Next to the search box on the right you will see 'language tools'. Click on that

You will be taken to a page which will have a window to translate text. Now paste all your Portuguese text which you typed earlier, in this box. Next select language translation from Portuguese to English, which is below the box and click the button "TRANSLATE"

You will see your translated text into English on the right hand side of the text box. It will give you a clear understanding of what the letter from Portugal contains. A sample letter content in translated form is shown in the screen shot below

The Google translator may not be 100% accurate but it can be very very useful to translate from one language to another. As mentioned above, human translation is necessary for important documents because of the context of the text of each document and the Google translator is only to be used for routine translation so that the inconvenience of hunting for a Portuguese translator to translate postal correspondence or any such document is solved.

Hope most of the translation blues of Goans are a thing of the past with this smart lil thing.

For all the posts on this blog relating to the Portuguese passport, CLICK HERE

Portuguese passport procedure for Goans : Help to type Portuguese on your computer.

It is often required to translate English documents into Portuguese for the Portuguese passport process since the Portuguese authorities accept documents only in the Portuguese language and not otherwise.

In Goa, during the years from 1968-69 the authorities discontinued the books in Portuguese and switched to English. So documents such as the Teor of birth or marriage etc are needed to be translated into Portuguese for the passport process. Also documents such as the residence certificate, the employers certificate etc  issued in English also needs to be translated in Portuguese.

While a translator may translate the documents in Portuguese, I have observed that while typing the document in MS word on the computer, we are not able to get the effect of the accent on the Portuguese words as desired. So in effect we are actually typing a Portuguese translation in the English script. Portuguese is a very beautiful language and it is very detailed and meticulous in its expression. So writing the language in English script essentially makes it lose its meaning.

In my school days there were many around me who used to pronounce Portuguese names quite hilariously simply out of ignorance. For example the name "Conceicao" was pronounced as 'Conseekao' when the actual pronunciation is to sound like 'Concessanv' . This error is due to the fact that Portuguese words can be correctly used only in the Portuguese script. So unless the letters are accompanied with the "til" or the "cedilla" and the like, the sound and often the meaning of the words is bound to be different.

In order to help my Goan readers type their Portuguese documents in the right script here is some help. To get the desired letter with the right accent in Windows platform follow this. You have to use only the number keypad please note.

There are no immediately available shortcuts. There are separate codes for each combination of vowel, case and accent, so there are more codes to type and memorise.

The following codes should give a detailed help in this understanding .(press the Alt Key at the same as the codes below on the number keypad only):

To get    á    type    0225 + ALT key pressed

To get    Á    type    0193 + ALT key pressed

To get    à    type    0224 + ALT key pressed

To get    À    type    0192 + ALT key pressed

To get    â    type    0226 + ALT key pressed

To get        type    0194 + ALT key pressed

To get    ã    type    0227 + ALT key pressed

To get    à   type    0195 + ALT key pressed

To get    é    type    0233 + ALT key pressed

To get    É    type    0201 + ALT key pressed

To get    ê    type    0234 + ALT key pressed

To get    Ê    type    0202 + ALT key pressed

To get    í     type    0237 + ALT key pressed

To get    Í     type    0205 + ALT key pressed

To get    ó    type    0243 + ALT key pressed

To get    Ó    type   0211 + ALT key pressed

To get    õ    type   0245 +  ALT key pressed

To get    Õ    type   0213 +  ALT key pressed

To get    ô    type   0244 + ALT key pressed

To get    Ô   type   0212 + ALT key pressed

To get    ú    type   0250 + ALT key pressed

To get    Ú    type   0218 + ALT key pressed

To get    ç    type   0231 + ALT key pressed

To get    Ç    type   0199 + ALT key pressed

pe this would help many in Goa to type their translations to get the desired effects.

For a complete list of posts on the Portuguese passport process for Goans "click here'.

Good Friday observed today in Goa

Its a day of fast and abstinence for lakhs of catholics in Goa and the rest of the country today as the world observes Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross and his death at Calvary.

While Good Friday marks the death of Christ, it is not a day for mourning as many may be believed to think. On the contrary it is a day of triumph in tragedy. It is a day to be born again by letting our old selves die and begin a new birth. It is a rising in dying to ourselves and our bad behaviors.

The period of Lent which began on ash Wednesday lasting for 40 days of penance and abstinence ends with the day of Easter when Jesus Christ rises again on the third day. Good Friday is therefore basically a reflection on the sufferings and death  of Jesus Christ.

On the occasion of Good Friday, the prayer service is held only in the parish churches and begins late in the afternoon and is constituted of three parts. Namely the Liturgy of the word _ where the word of God is spoken. The Veneration of the cross and The Holy communion.

In the first part, there are the two readings from the Old testament followed by the Gospel reading of St John often sung in the churches with different priests or lay people singing out the different narrations of the Bible reading. In the second part of the service, the crucifix which is kept covered with a blue cloth is unveiled in parts with intermittent prayers after each unveiling part of the crucifix. Finally in the last part of the service is the Holy communion which is distributed among the faithful.

In Goa the service finally ends with the purple curtain which covers the view behind the altar being drawn apart to enable a full view of a life-size statue of Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. Some parishioners dressed in traditional Jewish costumes climb the ladders to the top of the cross and lower the statue of Christ after unfastening it and then place it in a casket . This is a Portuguese custom followed in Goa. The congregation then moves in an orderly procession with the members of the confraternity taking up the casket on their shoulders.

In the Se Cathedral at Old Goa there is the traditional 'xempddeanchem pursanv" today, which is a unique ceremony , a procession of tails called as 'capas magnas" in Portuguese. This practice  is believed to have started after the cathedral chapter was established on February 4 1557. for the occasion, there is a solemnity maintained and instead of cheerful bells the procession starts to the rattling of wooden clappers which were used in ancient times.

The Portuguese passport process - Goan agonies

After submitting the passport application with the necessary documentation, notarised and attested complete, to the Portuguese consulate in Goa, a period of "no movement whatsoever" steps in. This is the most excruciating waiting period for Goans which never seems to end.

Added to that is the bewilderment of witnessing candidates who applied much after you, flashing the victory sign with their "Assento de Nascimento" already in hand and you are left twiddling your  thumbs in absolute angst at being left out for no reason whatsoever. And there seems to be no answers given for somebody who applied much after you to be suddenly overtaking you.

The above will strike a common chord among many Goans who have been patiently waiting to see the Portuguese authorities break ice over their process but to no avail. However fearing the imaginary ire of the Portuguese authorities, no one is willing to ask them about the means adopted to dispose off the applications. All that you have is a CRC process number and every time you gleefully punch it in the "application status" link on the Portuguese consulate website in Goa, you will see a non updated blank. No answers either. No timeframe to follow up. Just nothing to look forward to.

However in Portugal, the case is starkly different. After submitting the process application the process is given due credence and a date is fixed for you to collect your birth registration. So you go to the conservatoria in Portugal or its subsidiaries on the appointed date and collect your birth registration certificate ( Assento de nascimento). There is no waiting in the air. In the meanwhile, in Goa the suspense exists without explanation.

The reason for the disparity in the approach seems to be due to the fact that in Portugal, you can take recourse to legal action in case your process is being unduly held up and as such all applicants in Portugal get their process executed as per normal time taken. However in Goa where will you run to seek legal action ? For such recourse, you need to be in Portugal.

The answer to that it seems is to find a suitable person in Portugal to follow up your case with the Portuguese authorities with a power of attorney in his/her hand to argue your case. This is exactly what the agents in Goa promise to do. But with hundreds and thousands of applications at their disposal, their representatives in Portugal are pursuing your case like a needle in a haystack. Will they find it? And if they find it do they have the meticulous desire to diligently pursue your case with thousands of cases on their shoulder?

Practically, the answer is No. If not, the thousands of Goans whose processes are being held up by these agents for years would have not been still pulling their hair in despair. Most of the agents of Portuguese passports in Goa are like the barbers in Tirupati who shave half the head of their clients and keep them waiting aside for the next client to sit in. So every half shaved client is waiting to be shaved fully from the same barber only. In the bargain the barber ensures that he gets maximum clients and keeps them at his mercy because he charges the fee upfront. I know of many Goans who are half shaved with no sign of the final shave because the barber(agent) is busy with new clients. And these Goans have already spent to much to look out for another barber(agent). What a recipe for gullible Goans!

The only effective way is therefore to source a person yourself in Portugal who is going to give you undivided attention to pursue your case fast to claim your Portuguese nationality. While there are many genuine people in Portugal who pursue individual cases, they seem to have upped their fees recently and quote anywhere between 800 Euros to 1400 Euros to register your birth and marriage ( Assento de nascimento and Assento de casamento). As per today's currency exchange that's a loss of Rs 53,000 to Rs 92,000 for a process that should have taken its due course. In short a waste of money which could have fetched you and your spouse a return ticket holiday to Australia or the United states with bountiful shopping included.

The question therefore is whether Goans are willing to spend so much money on silly touts all over the place who are out to milk Goans just because the Portuguese authorities are crawling on our process. For those Goans who feel that the money is a small pittance compared to the promise of the Portuguese passport, I guess it is investment worth the while if the agent processes the application within a year with the Assento , the Bilhete de Identidade(BI) and the Portuguese passport, all ready. Else, it is money down the drain for the wrong reason.

However for Goans who feel they should have a better way out of this.. the answer is there is a way. In my future posts on this subject I shall detail out a strategy to adopt, which hopefully should assist Goans to process their applications faster.

In the meanwhile to read  all the posts on the Portuguese passport process made on this blog, CLICK HERE

The need for Goans to learn Portuguese

Of late there has been some interest shown amongst Goans to learn the Portuguese language. This is indeed welcome news given the fact that some years back since the time of liberation, any issue related to Portugal or the Portuguese language was viewed with utter disdain and repugnance.

There is a select group of miscreants inside Goa who don the mantle of self-appointed nationalists whose version of nationalism is itself warped and garbled in religion based fundamentalist ideologies and who in the name of culture and religion, language or heritage have sought to maim and disfigure many engravings and marble slates or written historical data in the Portuguese language.

It is essentially due to this notion of hatred spread by certain elements that the spread of the Portuguese language was declining in Goa. Some of the schools and colleges had also abandoned the idea of having classes for Portuguese studies as the second or the third optional languages.

Under the circumstances prevailing , even the elite classes among the hindus and even catholics and the well spoken Portuguese Goans reluctantly switched to English in their respective homes. It is therefore important that the Portuguese language be revived vigorously for a variety of reasons. In fact it should be ensured that the new generation of Goans should have atleast a working knowledge of the Portuguese language so that they can use it in many areas where it is still applicable.

Firstly, knowledge of a foreign language and proficiency in it can be a valuable asset and can help you manage yourself in a foreign country like it is at home. Also, in Goa, we have old documents either of property or legal documents or historical records, in the Portuguese language dating back to atleast five centuries. Presently most Goans who do not know to read Portuguese have to seek the help of a translator thereby causing themselves an inconvenience. If they knew the language themselves it would be an invaluable asset.

In this regard there is the example of a hindu family in Goa, the Keni family from Taleigao who are credited to being one of the few Hindu families in Goa who converse at home in the Portuguese language very fluently, with Mrs Keni having studied  till 'quinto ano'( class V) and her husband having studied in Portuguese till 'setimo ano' ( Class VII).

Goans need to be clever and rise above petty politics of disgruntled elements who only have divisive and foolish policies.We need to ensure that Goans rise in all fields of education thereby excelling in our academic careers without being misled by select groups.

Portuguese passport for Goans : the "original document" hunt

The most agonising question plaguing Goans who are pursuing the Portuguese passport since the last few years has been the frustration of producing an old document of the Portuguese era to satisfy the authorities at the consulate in Goa as a part of the statutory requirements

Many Goans are feeling dismayed at such an unfair requirement imposed on Goans who seek to secure a Portuguese nationality. The requirement was introduced somewhere in 2004- 2005 which suddenly retarded many Goan passport processes leaving many Goans in disbelief and shock at the apparent high-handedness of the Portuguese authorities to coerce them into a requirement which for many Goans is impossible.

Goans aver that due to the lapse of time, it is difficult to source such a document. There may have been a lot of Goans who might have had such documents which have either been destroyed due to the ravages of time or have been disposed off as unnecessary papers clogging the overflowing desks in modern Goa. Besides there are those who were overwhelmed with the spirit of liberation and in their pursuit of senseless joy, had even burned such documents immediately after liberation of Goa in 1961.

However for those who were meticulous enough to preserve such documents, it is a reward for having the thumb for posterity. So documents such as birth certificates issued during the Portuguese regime ( Certidao Narrativa) or travel documents in that era with name and birth details and photograph if possible including the "cedula pessoal" ( personal record book) the "documento de viagem"( document of voyage) or the "passaporte portugues"( portuguese passport), or the old Bilhete de Identidade ( Portuguese  Identity card) issued during the Portuguese regime or any document during one's employment in Goa which had peculiar details of self such as name and birth etc are all considered valid for the purpose of old document and are precious gems in the hands of the beholders. For the exact type of document required by the consulate, click here.

For those Goans without the possession of such a document , it has therefore become some sort of a treasure hunt and even as I write this, Goans are trying hard in various places such as Schools, churches, old employers files, sports bodies, municipal records, societies, property records etc to locate such documents. While many have succeeded, there is still a large number who have have had no such luck.

Goans should however note that tearing out pages from olden government record books and school registers is of no use to the consulate as such documents are not acceptable to the Portuguese authorities who have strongly advised not to indulge in such unlawful means to secure the document.

Some Goans who had been former government employees of the Portuguese era have also tried to reason with the Portuguese consulate with the copies of the "boletim official" ( the official gazette) which clearly mentions about their employment records in the Portuguese era, thus proving their genuineness. However the document reportedly does not fulfill all the requirements of an "original document" and is therefore declined.

However given the importance and the value of the Portuguese passport as an avenue to enter Europe in search of a better living, Goans are trying their level best to procure the elusive document. In the whole process of documentation of the portuguese passport, the original document requirement is still posing a major hurdle and willcontinue to be unless the requirement is reviewed with a more lenient and practical view by the Portuguese authorities

Portuguese Nationality for Goans

As explained before, Goans are fooled by agents of all types within Goa who claim to have complete know-how of claiming the Portuguese nationality for Goans which is the much sought after desire of Goans in recent times.

This post is an attempt to guide Goans on the simple procedure to follow while aspiring to claim Portuguese nationality.

Firstly please note that you are merely not in pursuit of the Portuguese passport. You need to claim the Portuguese nationality which has already been granted to all Goans. All that you are doing now is presenting papers and documents of the Portuguese era to claim for that nationality since Portugal asserts that it is not in possession of olden records which can prove that you are a Portuguese national by birth. We are not acquiring fresh citizenship of Portugal.

For all those born before 1961, are simply registering themselves in Portugal which is the official declaration that they wish to remain Portuguese citizens, a facility which came our way due to the alteration made in the Portuguese nationality law in 1975, wherein people from Goa were assumed to be Portuguese citizens.

The first thing to do is apply for the appointment to present your papers in the consulate in Goa. the address of the Portuguese consulate is:
Parwati House No 38/39, Fr Agnelo Road, Altinho, Goa - 403001

The telephone numbers of the Portuguese Consulate in Goa are

0832 - 2421524, 2421525, 2224004, 2229266.

( Please do not call in the mornings since the staff is naturally busy with consulate work attending to the public. Better time to call is in the evenings between 4 pm to 4.45 pm. However if you get a negative reply or even an irritated reply, be patient and call the next day. Remember the staff of the consulate is as human as you and me and can get exhausted with a hard days monotonous work . So be patient and learn to pursue your query patiently)

However, currently the Portuguese consulate in Goa does not accept physical applications for appointment directly. Instead you need to apply for it through their website. Also, earlier one could easily book appointments on their website directly, take a printout of it and then go to the consulate on the appointed date. In recent months the procedure has been modified, which means that now you need to send them an email with the details of your name, address, telephone number, Indian passport number and the date of birth. After receiving your email, the office of the consulate will send you a reply with the appointment date.

Applications for appointment for nationality have to be made at the following email address : app.nationality@goa.dgaccp.pt. The official website of the Portuguese consulate in Goa is www(dot)consuladoportugalgoa(dot)com. You need to click on English version to get the website in English. If you click on "Appointments" you will get the page which has the above email address.

After you get your appointment, you need to prepare your documentation. However do not prepare your documents months in advance as the documents have a validity ( as per the consulate regulations) after being attested by various authorities. This validity varies from 6 months to one year for different documents.

So the best thing would be to start preparing the documents around a month in advance of the appointment date. The documentation required for Goans born before 1961 is explained here. Also the documentation required for Goans born after 1961 is enlisted here.

You also need to have an original document of the Portuguese era. The type of original document you need to have is explained here.

In my next post on the Portuguese passport, I will explain the procedure for preparing the documentation.