Portuguese Schengen Visa - please help!!?

Question

Hi - I am a 24 year-old SA woman. I have been in the UK for 1 year and 1 year left on my UK visa.

I am going to Portugal for 1 week (06/10/07 - 13/10/07) and then Germany for 4 days (23/10/07 - 26/10/07). I will need to get a Schengen visa from Portugal.

The soonest appointment I can get is Monday 01/10/07 - will this be enough time? Do they issue Schengen visas immediately or do they take a few days?

(I got a previous Schengen Visa from the French Embassy, which was issued on teh day). If it isn't enough time I may need to go through an agency now, but that is expensive so I first want to see if doing it myself will be ok.

Also, what are the documents I am required to provide with my application? The website does not say, and the visa telephone service doesn't either.

Your help is much appreciated!

Answer 1

This is the info I've been able to find over the Net :

Portuguese Contacts in the UK

Portuguese Embassy

11 Belgrave Square

London SW1X 8PP

Tel [phone], Fax [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Portuguese Consulate General - London

3 Portland Place

London W1B 1HR

Tel [phone], Fax [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Visa Section: 10.00am to 1.00pm

Visa Info Tel: [phone]

Visa by Appointment only Tel: [phone]

For Consular matters such as Visas, Portuguese Nationality queries, Formal document witnessing and stamping.

Opening hours: 9.00am to 1:30pm

Portuguese Consulate - Manchester

2nd Floor, 1 Portland Street

Manchester M1 3BE

Fax: [phone]

email: [e-mail]

www.secomunidades.pt/manchester/

Opening hours Mon-Fri 9.00-12.30

By previous appointment only by fax or email

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If you've tried all the numbers above and still get no answer, I suggest you take along all the possible documents they might require AND bring photocopies of all of them when you go for your appointment at the Portuguese embassy on Monday. My husband applied for a Schengen visa in May this year at the Italian embassy and they required so many documents before they were happy to process the application - I believe they were a bit more "strict" than the French embassy.

Things they can ask for are :

Your tour itinerary - especially important are the return air/train/ferry reservations printout;  

Last 3 months of bank statements or work payslips;

Your current passport with your visa to stay in UK inside it - must be valid for at least 3 months beyond validity of the schengen visa you're applying for ;

Proof of medical, accident and repatriation insurance (you will also need to complete the E111 form from the Post Office but even that form wasn't enough for the Italian embassy so we had to buy comprehensive travel insurance from the airline we were flying with);

2 colour passport-size photos of yourself;

Evidence of accomodation for your trip - printouts of confirmed hotel reservations, for example. If you're staying with friends/family, you'll need to bring along a "letter of invitation" written by your hosts and duly signed at the bottom by them, with a photocopy of the passport or identity card of your host (if the host is a foreigner in the country you're going to, take along a photocopy of their residence permit as well)

Proof of your current occupation in England - a recent, original letter from your current employer or University

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Its possible that when you arrive at the Portuguese consulate, they won't require all of the above documents (I know the Italian consulate did!) because every country's consulate has different requirements.

As for the time needed to process and issue your Schengen visa - it really really depends on which country's consulate you apply to. Obviously French consulate is one of the quickest ones - issuing visas the day you apply - but for Italian consulate it took about 1 - 2 weeks... and for Polish consulate it takes 2 weeks, etc... so you cannot tell how long they'll take unless you ask someone from the consulate about this.

Perhaps a visa agency staff will be able to tell you how long. If you're really in a hurry and cannot afford to risk something not going to plan when you apply to the Portuguese consulate yourself, it might be a safer idea for you to apply straight to a visa agency?? (though personally I've not known anyone using such agencies myself, and am not aware that such agencies can "fast-track" visa applications for applicants)

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

http://travelguides.lastminute.com/sisp/...  have  look on last minute.com it is full off information about visas,as far as i can tell the waiting time starts at 6 days,and you can apply to the portuguese embassy, and they do schengan visas that willcover a few countries at once. Good luck.