In the amendment of 2018,  a huge change to SEF´s law had the following purposes:    to simplify the procedure in order to reduce bureaucracy and to decrease actual visits to SEF´s offices.   This was done by digitalizing the application process through SEF´s Portal on which appointments could be made, and also important, was the fact that different SEF offices throughout the Portuguese territory could be used instead of the one of the place of residence.