SIBA for foreign guests — documents, country codes and edge cases

Which document each nationality must present, how to handle EU ID cards, dual nationals, residence permits and guests whose passport data does not match the booking.

SIBA exists for one purpose: telling the Portuguese authorities which foreign nationals slept where. Almost every rejection in this area comes down to the wrong document type or the wrong country code. Here is how to get it right for each category of guest.

Who must be filed

Every foreign national staying in your AL, regardless of age, length of stay or whether they paid. That includes:

EU/EEA/Swiss citizens
Non-EU tourists
Foreign nationals resident in Portugal
Children and babies (see SIBA for children under 12)

Portuguese citizens are not filed to SIBA, but you still record them in your own AL guest register.

Which document for which guest

The single rule that prevents most rejections: file the document the guest actually travelled on and physically showed you. Do not file a passport number the guest typed from memory while their ID card sits in their pocket.

Country codes

SIBA uses ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes:

United Kingdom → GBR (not UK, not GB, not "Reino Unido")
Germany → DEU
Netherlands → NLD
United States → USA
Ireland → IRL

Two fields use country codes and they are often different: nationality and country of issue of the document. A German citizen with a passport issued by the German consulate in Brazil is still DEU for both, but a Brazilian holding an Italian passport is ITA nationality, ITA issuing country.

Names: match the document, not the booking

The booking says "Bob Smith". The passport says "ROBERT JOHN SMITH". File the passport version.

Use the full given names and surnames exactly as printed in the machine-readable zone.
Keep accents and hyphens where the document has them.
Do not reorder Asian names to Western order; copy the document.

Residence permits and long stays

A foreign national resident in Portugal is still filed. The distinction matters for tourist tax (some municipalities exempt residents) but not for SIBA. If someone claims residence to avoid being filed, file them anyway using their residence permit.

Common edge cases

Guest arrives without the booker. File the people who actually stay, not the name on the reservation.

Extra guest turns up. They must be filed within the same three working days from their arrival date, which may be later than the booking's check-in.

Guest leaves early. No action for SIBA. Adjust tourist tax and INE nights instead.

Group booking of 10. Ten records. There is no group filing.

How Chave AL handles this

The guest form asks each traveller for their own document, validates the alpha-3 country code as they type, blocks impossible document/nationality combinations, and stores the encrypted record against the booking so the filing goes out complete on the check-in date.