Spent 3 hours hunting a SIM card in Lisbon for my new job

Landed in Lisbon on Monday for a 6 month remote stint and figured grabbing a local SIM would take 20 minutes. Three hours later I was still bouncing between three different stores because the first two wanted a tax ID number I didn't have. The third place finally sorted it, but only after I pulled up my Airbnb lease on my phone to show proof of address. Has anyone else run into this passport plus residency paperwork mess in Portugal, or did I just pick the wrong shops?

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jessica92119d agoMost Upvoted

Went through the same nonsense in Porto last year. Ended up at a little shop near the metro where the guy just asked for my passport and sold me a prepaid card, no tax ID, no address, nothing. Walked out in five minutes. The big chain stores are useless for this, they follow the rules too strict. Found out later that if you hit up the smaller kiosks or even some corner tobacco shops, they'll bypass half the paperwork. My friend got one in Faro just by showing his hotel booking, so it's a total lottery depending on who's behind the counter.