Residents can request licensing and urban permits on digital form

Despite the Townsman Office having its gates closed, due to the current pandemic, services are running all the same; as such, it is possible for residents to request an urban permit or licencing on digital form. 

The bet of the Municipality of Porto on digitalization and dematerialisation of tax acts and procedures using new information technology, ongoing for the past years, was crucial when the Emergency Dates was declared in Portugal.

This way, the Municipality of Porto was ready to, almost automatically, ensure that all the services provided by the Townsman Office in person can be rendered on digital form.

The Balcão de Atendimento Virtual, which keeps its normal working hours, from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5pm, saw an exponential growth on online citizen service, which shows both the qualification of teams in remote working and the acceptance of citizens for this type of service.

Also, this was already a standard practice within Porto City Hall in most procedures, and this was mandatory for urban procedures as well; so the extension of this online modality was only natural and it has been implemented since the first day of remote working, on 16th March.

Thus, all certificates and proof of technical housing files, or even consultation of procedures are issued digitally or carried out online, with the support of a front office technician via Microsoft Teams meeting, with the same conditions as in person services would provide, and which are now prevented by the current pandemic.

The strategic bet by the Municipality of Porto has paid off and it will continue to do so, as the Invicta continues to reinvent itself, searching new and adaptable dynamics.

We are Porto!