In theory the penalty for overstaying the 90-day allowance in Portugal is deportation, but Pedro Gil Mineiro, an immigration lawyer based in Lisbon, says he doesn’t know a single case of anyone running into trouble on an overstayed visa. He attributes the leniency in Portugal to the merger of two government immigration departments at the end of October.
The Servico de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras, which was responsible for the border, has been merged with the agency for integration, migration, and asylum. Mineiro says that even for normal visa applications the process has ground to a halt. “It was already difficult to process applications. Now it’s even worse,” he says. “There is a situation where there is this complete absence of authorities to deal with. You try to phone and they just don’t pick up.”
Mineiro says that this year, one of his clients, a British man, was caught by the police for overstaying his tourist visa when he was arrested for committing a crime. Instead of deporting him, Mineiro says, “they gave him time to legalise his situation”.
The 90-day visa rebels breaking the rules for their Euro dream