A Very Good Day!
With nothing to do for the first time in a LONG time...
This is a sort of an update to my last update about the bureaucracy.
In the last 4 days, we got past some huge hurdles and today, for the first time in months, we feel like we can breathe.
Hurdle #1: CIPLE
People who wish to apply for permanent residency or, eventually, Portuguese citizenship, have to pass a test1 to prove proficiency at the A2 language level. This is a pretty basic level, but, because this language is so difficult (especially to hear it spoken), it took us a very long time to feel confident to take the test - not that we ever did feel truly confident.
Also, last year, when we tried to sign up, it was too late in the year and all of the slots in Portugal had been taken. It didn’t occur to us to go to Italy or somewhere else to take the test - we didn’t even know it was an option until later when a friend flew to Florence in November.
When we first arrived, we enrolled at the Academia de Linguas da Madeira. It was in Funchal Centro - downtown - and an easy walk from our home. Our first class was an intensive 4 week A1 course with a professor who was 80 years old - and fantastic. We learned more in those 4 weeks than we did in the whole rest of the year with a younger instructor, who seemed to just be dialing it in. We had requested an intensive course for A2, but they cancelled that and made us go into a looooooooong 2-semester course that was so boring and tedious, I’m surprised we learned anything at all.
We did, however, meet some wonderful fellow students, mostly a lot younger, and from all over the world: Korea, Romania, Malaysia, Russia and Ukraine, Kazakstan, France, Switzerland, etc.
At the end of that course, only one of our classmates took the CIPLE exam, but she took another several months of private lessons before she even attempted it.
Because Funchal, the big city on the island, is really just a small town, we ran into our original instructor and asked if he provided private instruction. We started online classes with him in Fall 2024.
We have been studying at the B1-B2 level for most of the year with the professor, but, when the new year rolled around and we were able to register for the March 14th exam, I had to really push to return to A2 level basics.
The professor, who is one of the exam proctors at the academy, came to our house once or twice a week, in addition to our twice weekly online classes. He brought practice exams and drilled us until we were exhausted. Last week, we had 7 classes! By Friday, we were dazed - and really nervous.
Saturday, exam day. We had to arrive at the academy by 9am. They had us all sitting around a tiny, dingy reception area with ancient and uncomfortable chairs - maybe 4 chairs for 40+ people. Everyone was nervous and anxious and the staff seemed disorganized and kind of impatient - maybe for having to work on a Saturday morning? Brady thought maybe hung over? I’m trying hard not to say “bitchy,” but that they were!!! They didn’t tell us where to be or anything so, eventually, we all filed into an even dingier hallway among classrooms filled with too small desks that had ink-carved drawings and profanities from decades ago.
Eventually, they called us individually out of a VERY crowded hallway into one of two classrooms. We were assigned desks with our names and registration numbers on them. We had one sheet of scratch paper and two answer sheets, one with those round bubbles that had to be filled in a specific way (a little PTSD from taking SATs and GREs in the US). The other was a sheet with lines for short essays to be written.
This is where it gets sticky for me. I made a potentially fatal error and won’t find out until May 7th if I completely failed the test by following instructions written on the white board, less than 3 meters from my face with letters bigger than my head that said On parts 1 and 2 of the test, USA LAPIS! “Use a PENCIL!” It seemed odd to me that the written part would be in pencil and not in pen. But I went to Catholic school as a kid, where written instructions were sacrosanct!
Verbally, on the far side of a room full of nervous people and papers shuffling around as they gave out the test, they did say that part 2 should be in pen, but I did not hear their mumbled Portuguese very clearly and all I could see were huge, clear instructions in front of me.
Part 1, reading comprehension, went fine - I was surprised. Part 2, the essays, I felt like I had done really well. But, then it was the break and they collected our papers. Someone in the room was kind of scolded for doing part 2 in pencil and she pointed out the written instructions on the board. The officious (bitchy) proctor walked over and erased it quickly. During the break, I asked her about it and she shrugged and told me she had erased the board and I should have done it correctly. I said “Depois!” (After). It’s too bad because my essays, even in pencil, were pretty good!
So, I may fail and have to do the test over again. Part 3 was listening and if I answered even one of those correctly, I would be surprised. On the final conversational interview, our professor was there and sent us a thumbs up as we were leaving.
The thing about the CIPLE, besides being archaic and arcane, is that you only have to get 55% correct to pass! But, if they negate my essays because I followed instructions, I might not make it. At first, I was furious. But, today, I’m just relieved that it’s over. And the professor thinks that, because it is scanned and sent to Lisbon for grading, if the pencil text scans, I should be ok.
Hurdle #2: The continuing saga of AIMA…
When we last saw our heroes, they had been waiting almost 5 hours to be told that they would have to wait until Lisbon scheduled an appointment - that was weeks ago! Finally, last week, in the middle of our test prep, Brady received email telling him that his appointment was for March 16th. I didn’t receive anything.
So, while chewing nails over the test, we also had to worry if I’d be seen at his appointment. Fortunately, we waltzed in and were seen immediately (even though we were early). They took our biometrics - fingerprints, signatures, photos - and we were good to go.
Until…. the young man told us that AIMA in Lisbon had told them to expect disappointment because it would a minimum of one to two months before we would receive our new cards in the mail. This leaves us in a bit of bind because our residence cards expired in early August 2025 and, at the same time, the US state department informed us that we had to renew our passports, which required us to mail our existing passports to the embassy in Lisbon.
So, basically, we don’t exist for a while. This morning, as we await the arrival of yet ANOTHER tropical depression (rain just started as I write this) it feels ok to not exist for a while.
There is a small NoKings celebration on the island on March 28th. No marching or signs or anything that we know of. There’s a huge protest planned in Lisbon, but, without ID, we can’t travel anyway. Here it will just be some friends - Americans and others - getting together to celebrate that we’re here and not there. The government here is far from perfect, but does not seem as hateful.
Sorry that there haven’t been photos in a while - we really haven’t done anything except get over those 2 hurdles. But now it’s done! And, hopefully, our turbulent weather will return to Madeira’s eternal Primavera.
Thanks to all of you who’ve stuck with us and to those who’ve joined us recently!
Até à próxima.
Or, you can take a course that is certified by the government to prove proficiency at the A2 level without the test. Sadly, we didn’t know that the Academia at which we had enrolled for classes was NOT certified (and probably didn’t want to be since they were making money administering the required test). And there is no good way to find out where these courses are. Some are free, some cost thousands of euros, but they all avoid the CIPLE experience. We later found that there is a school right up the road from us that offers the classes for very low cost. Too late. But, if you’re moving to Portugal, it’s worth finding the certified courses! We don’t recommend taking the CIPLE, at least not in Madeira.