Our attorney has advised that, once we submit our Golden Visa application (including the fund investment), their firm will provide us with a document to present to Portuguese border control. According to the attorney, this document would allow us to remain in Portugal beyond the standard Schengen 90/180-day limit, provided that we both enter and exit through Portugal.
Has anyone heard of this arrangement or had any personal experience with it?
We are concerned about unintentionally overstaying, which could potentially result in fines, affect our Golden Visa application, or create other immigration issues. There also seems to be some uncertainty among the attorneys at our firm regarding the validity and practical application of this document.
Any firsthand experiences or insights would be greatly appreciated.
I am not aware that lawyers have some super-authority that automatically gives validity to their letter as an legal immigration document. I think if you change “would allow” to “may allow”, then this is probably an accurate statement.
Yes — we stayed around seven to eight months before receiving our initial permits, and we never had any issues entering or leaving Portugal. But that was six years ago, and the rules have shifted quite a bit since then. Relying on an online forum for something this sensitive is really not the safest way to get guidance.
Thank you- Not relying on forum for guidance. I was looking for people’s personal experience to see if any issue with the letter at passport control. We already vetted many lawyers before we chose this firm.
Our GV advisors/lawyers offered to produce a letter that points to some sort of Portuguese legislation which (supposedly) allows you to “overstay” in Portugal while your residency application is being decided.
We didn’t take them up on the offer, as tbh anything to do with Portuguese immigration is so random, such a letter might help at one desk but not the one next to it.
One thing I know for certain - if you overstay your 90/180, other Schengen countries beyond Portugal will not care how screwed up AIMA is. You are over your limit and you’re toast w.r.t. non-Portugal visits.
My advisors offered a similar “letter” as described above, but then went on to suggest some sort of AIMA process (with interview) to legally overstay the 90 days. They then immediately said that no such appointments are available (wow, thanks for your help). Most likely you’re just going to have to wing it, stay in Portugal the whole time or run the risk traveing outside of Portugal.
Yes, I am aware of other GV people who had this issue and did not have a problem within Portugal. You must not enter/exit the EU from anywhere but Portugal. The caveat being that the people I’m aware of who faced this issue, elected to stay in Portugal to avoid any scrutiny. What has changed however are the newer broader entry/exit systems in the EU, including Portugal. I am not sure if a re-entry into Portugal after an overstay would someone trigger some alert. This entry exit system is something entirely new
I believe in practice the issue is whether you are already registered with the EES already or not. You can check your passport number on the EU’s EES website and it will tell you how many days it thinks you have left out of your eligible 90. It does not know if you are a legal resident already or if you have an outstanding application for residency. Use Google to find this web site. It’s easy enough. We have expired PT residency cards and this EU web site reliably tells us we still have 90 days available. This is how I know that we have not been registered by the EES (the other reason of course is that we have not physically registered with these machines in either Lisbon or Madrid where we’ve exited and entered the EU a number of times since April). Madrid Immigration has been sensible in accepting that we do not need to register for EES with expired residency cards and the letter from AIMA with the QR code. In your case, without a residency card at all, then I would enter and exit only through a Portuguese port like Lisbon. I hope you have not been bullied into registering for EES as this will begin a clock ticking On the EES computer even if Portugal knows it shouldn’t be applied to you. Assuming you have not been registered on the EES already and your search on the EU web site shows you have the full 90 days available to your passport number then your worst case if you enter or leave from another country is that you create a record on the EES computer. Then you’ll have something to manage…
Of course this is all true. Your points raise two questions that we cannot answer. (1) We know the EES counter is not necessarily accurate but given that it is the only online data source available to non-Portuguese immigration officers then can it be relied upon to enter/exit Schengen if we have somehow inadvertently been registered with EES and the counter is active (and not 90) against our passport number; and (2) The only cross-border record of time spent in Schengen before 10 April is the stamps in the passport which would need manual counting if the immigration officers suspected abuse and in any case will cease to be relevant 180 days after 10 April. On this basis, I can’t see how the time spent before 10 April will be a focus of immigration officers dealing with someone claiming irregular Portuguese residency due to the basket case AIMA. But how much can rely on this assumption.
And the other point about the time spent before April 10 is that (a) some countries - apparently Germany - were not stamping the passports of residents already; (b) some countries - like our beloved Portugal - were stamping passports for residents which they’ve now stopped; (c) some countries - definitely Spain - are still stamping passports of residents after April 10. So the passport physical data is also a right old mess and unreliable.