Travelling to the Schengen Zone/Portugal without a Schengen visa is impossible (unless youâre an Annex II national). Youâd be stopped at the check-in counter and be prevented from obtaining your boarding pass. Even if someone managed to fool the airline and actually arrive at the Portuguese external border, it would be highly unlikely that person would be admitted by presenting a SEF appointment. Advice such as this is just extraordinary.
My lawyers told me it is not possible.
Another question: I submitted my biometrics today. Do I still need a Schengen visa to re-enter (before I get my residency card) or can I show my SEF confirmation printout (of biometrics submission) to enter?
Hi Vivek,
your question implies you were able to visit portugal for biometrics. I assume then the portuguese consulate is issuing schengen visas now ?
thanks
JP
Hi JP,
I had to apply via the London consulate, the Indian one is still not giving out Schengen visas. But I got the appoinment just for myself, now need to keep trying for the rest of the family members.
Vivek
SEFâs Facebook page shows they will make openings available as of 4 to 6 hours ago. However, the comments are mostly people who canât get through.
Unfortunately for most of the people on this string, those are not ARI appointments.
My bad, I saw âresidence permitâ and hoped for the best.
silly you. we shall soon succeed in educating you out of such hopes.
Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles: Last Friday I received an e-mail from my lawyer, informing me that my wife and I had biometrics appointmentsâŠin Faro on Tuesday and in Porto on Wednesday. Can we make it?
I immediately went into overdrive arranging our trip from Hong Kong to Portugal, not an easy feat. And then we almost didnât make it. Our connecting flight from Helsinki to Lisbon was cancelled. They put us on a flight to Prague with a connection to Lisbon. But the Prague flight was delayed, so we missed the connecting flight. Sat in an airport hotel, then the next day we were sent to Brussels and, third time being the charm, we made it onto a Lisbon flight, a full day late.
An hour after landing we were on a train to Faro. My appointment there was right on time, took 20 minutes, after which we rushed to catch the train to Porto. My wifeâs appointment also started exactly on time and took just 10 minutes. Weâre in Lisbon now, toasting the end of six months of stress waiting for this to happen.
I donât remember feeling so exhausted in years. All this effort, expense, and stress, just to take fingerprints and a photo for ten seconds. But it was worth doing for the peace of mind. These were cancellations that came up, and I guess our names had finally risen to the top of the priority list at our law firm.
7 Likes
You are a model to us all. What a journey! We just need to be patient and it will come. Well done.
Congrats - Lourenco!
Congrats Laurenco. Do you mind sharing if your biometrics appointment or your wife have any problem with expiring apostilled documents? Like police report, birth and marriage certificate? As we all have been waiting for so long, most of the documents has passed the 6 months or 12 months validity date since apostilled.
It does seem so silly doesnât it? And yet.
Congratulations. I and others have shared that panic, as well as that relief to be beyond the hurdle; even if you know there are still months of waiting ahead of you, they donât involve fretting and panic and last-minute dashes.
@anon96873084 Portuguese and Italian embassies had the worst reputation for applying for Schengen visas in India even in the pre-covid era. Iâve done this twice and wonât do it a third time.
If travelling from India, itâs always a better idea to apply for Schengen with Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, spend a few days there and then go to Portugal for biometrics or whatever.
I wouldnât trust any piece of paper which is not a visa to get me past airlines and immigration, even if it is a SEF paper. AFAIK there are no direct flights to Portugal from India, so you have to transit immigration at Amsterdam or Paris or wherever. (I realise this doesnât apply to you as you have a UK residency, but leaving it here for any other Indian residents)
On the other hand, the SEF paper lets you stay legally within Portugal (please confirm with your lawyer). Itâs the transition in and out which is the trouble.
1 Like
Another data point. I got 10 days single entry VISA, for telling the Portuguese Consulate in Washington DC, that I have an pending ARI application.
I will shell out another $300 for the procedure, once I get ARI approved plus manage to secure an biometrics appt.
1 Like
We have discussed this in this thread before that you do need up-to-date documents with apostilles. You will need to redo your background checks, request your marriage certificate again and redo apostilles for these documents.
While the apostille doesnât expire, the requesting governing body may want documents created within the last x number of months.
https://www.gdglobalmobility.com/blog/posts/when-does-hague-apostille-expire
https://www.internationalapostille.com/2018/07/25/does-an-apostille-expire/
Regarding apostilled documents and the criminal conviction record, I have never bothered with them until I know I have an appointment. In my case, I was married in Hawaii, where the bureaucracy is on a par with Portugal for maddening rules and slowness. In fact, the worst part of every SEF appointment is the marriage certificate procedure, so I only do it when there is no more avoiding it.
As for the criminal conviction certificate, I am prevented from applying in advance of the appointment. In Hong Kong, they require an original letter from the government authority requesting it, and will only send it direct to SEF, they will not give it to the applicant or the applicantâs lawyer. This letter (actually an acknowledgement of application with the missing documents listed) is handed to me at the end of the biometrics appointment.
In my initial application and my first renewal for the GV, SEF had no issue with receiving the documents later; all it meant was they put my application on hold until they received them, which usually was about six weeks later. So thatâs what Iâm doing again this time.
Moral of the story: donât sweat about such documents. I honestly think itâs a waste of offert, and adds unnecessary extra stress, to continually apply for them just so you can bring them to the appointment. You can always apply for them as soon as you know your appointment date or after the appointment and send them later.
4 Likes
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you wkb for the pointer. Sorry for the clutter. I guess I am interested on the logic that Lourenco should not have enough time to get those ready for the sudden appointment, and since he mentioned in his post that the interview went smoothly. So I am looking into if those (expiring apostille documents) ever an issue during his interview.