Hi, so here’s the situation : I need to access government services in a different country to the one I live in permanently, and therefore I need a number in said country with the ability to receive SMS for login and payment confirmations. How should I go about it ?
I guess the easiest thing to do would be to wait for the next time I go there and buy a cheap SIM card there. But the problem is I’m only going to that country in a year from now, so I’d like to speed up things.
I thought about getting an e-SIM with the lowest amount possible of data, but it still comes out pretty expensive for just receiving confirmation messages.
Anyone have a better idea on how to do this ? How do double citizens go about this usually ?
Edit : didn’t think it would matter much, but the country I need a verification number in are Brazil and Colombia, while I am in the EU
Since this would be the phone number that you’d rely upon to have continued access to those government services, I wouldn’t skimp on the expense: consider the monthly charge for a domestic phone plan as a cost of citizenship or residency.
Supposing you find and set up an eSIM with a domestic carrier in that country, then one which supports WiFi calling would allow you to receive SMS/MMS from anywhere, provided that your phone also supports WiFi connectivity.
As an aside, WiFi connectivity was greatly useful when I was traveling in Japan, since I’d be back at the hotel with WiFi in the evening, which conveniently overlapped with USA West Coast time, so calls were perfectly natural.
You’re right, a stable number is pretty important, and since said country allows me to buy some things for a cheaper price (namely online services), I agree it’s only fair to pay for a reliable eSIM. I just didn’t know if there was a more obvious way, but reading the coments, this seems like the go-to !
Thanks for the advice.