Quando o imigrante tiver a documentação, viaja.
When the immigrant has the documentation, he travels.
Breakdown of Quando o imigrante tiver a documentação, viaja.
ter
to have
quando
when
viajar
to travel
o imigrante
the immigrant
Questions & Answers about Quando o imigrante tiver a documentação, viaja.
Why is the verb form tiver used instead of the present tense tem?
In Portuguese, when you use quando (when) to talk about an event that has not happened yet, you must use the Future Subjunctive. Since the immigrant does not have the documentation yet, we use tiver (the Future Subjunctive of ter) instead of the present tense tem.
How do we get the form tiver?
For irregular verbs like ter, the Future Subjunctive is built from the third-person plural of the Preterite (simple past) tense. The past tense form meaning they had is tiveram. Drop the -am ending, and you get the stem tiver-. For the third-person singular matching o imigrante, we add no extra letters, so it stays tiver.
Why is viaja in the present tense if he is going to travel in the future?
In Portuguese, it is very common to use the present tense (viaja) to talk about a future action, especially when it is seen as a guaranteed or immediate result of the condition being met. You could also say vai viajar, but the present tense feels very natural and decisive here.
Could I say tiver os documentos instead of tiver a documentação?