What to do when a government portal will not work?

Take the last question first: no. An application for a government service happens only on the government portal. Many private sites use similar names or addresses and collect details under the guise of helping you fill a form. Giving them your national ID number or date of birth is dangerous.

1. Try at a different time — early morning or late at night, since many portals slow under load.
2. Use a desktop or laptop; some government forms behave better on a large screen than on a phone.
3. Switch browser and clear the cache — a half-loaded page is often fixed by that alone.
4. Before a long form, note your details separately so a dropped session does not mean retyping everything.

If the problem persists, the relevant office’s helpline can help. Many portals have scheduled maintenance windows during which the site is deliberately down — that is not your phone or your connection at fault.

The most effective precaution is not leaving a deadline to the last day. That is exactly when the most people log in at once, when the site is slowest, and when there is no time left to sort out a problem.