With its colorful buildings, trams on the streets, and beautiful landscapes along the coastline, Portugal is definitely a place a travel enthusiast can’t miss.
In the year 2016, Portugal received more than 200000 visa applications, out of which, only about 177000 were approved, making the visa rejection rate a whopping 13%.
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This is one of the highest rejection rates among all the Schengen countries in 2016.
Only a handful of these visa applications came from the Consulate General of Portugal in Boston. About 310 visa applications were sent, out of which, 294 were accepted.
You might get overwhelmed with the high rejection rate of Portugal, but you don’t need to worry about it when you know the right way to apply for your Portugal Schengen visa. This article gives you all the details that you need to know while applying for one.
Click to Book Portugal Visa Appointment for $10
What are the steps to getting a Portugal Schengen visa?
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Find out if you really need a Schengen visa to visit Portugal
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Find out where you can apply for your Portugal Schengen visa
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Make an appointment with the Consulate General of Portugal ( Get Schengen visa appointment for $ 10 )
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Prepare all the documents required to attend the interview
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Attend the interview to start the processing of your visa application
Want temporary flight, hotel or insurance for your Portugal Schengen visa appointment?
Now, let’s take a look at each of these steps in detail.
Do I really need a Schengen visa to enter Portugal?
Whether or not you really need a Portugal Schengen visa to visit the country depends entirely on your nationality. If Portugal or any other Schengen country mandates a visa to visit their country, then you will need to get one.
In case you are a US citizen, you don’t need a visa. But in case you have traveled to the US from another country and settled there, you will need to apply for a visa depending on your nationality.
List of all the countries that Portugal mandates a Schengen visa
What if I am a B1/B2 visa holder?
In this case, you will need to go back to your own country to get a Portugal Schengen visa.
Who can apply for Portugal Schengen visa at the Boston Consulate?
You will need to be a permanent resident on one of the following states to be able to head over to the Portuguese consulate in Boston for your Schengen visa application.
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Maine
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New Hampshire
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Vermont
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Massachusetts (except the areas covered by New Bedford)
Can I apply for my Schengen visa at the Portuguese consulate if I’m traveling to other Schengen countries as well?
You can only apply for your Portugal Schengen visa at the consulate in Boston if your main travel destination is Portugal, i.e. you spend most of your travel days in Portugal. But in case you are visiting any other Schengen country more, you will need to go to the Consulate General of that country.
The image below will give you a clearer picture.
How do I get an appointment with the Consulate General of Portugal in Boston?
Once you have verified that this is where you need to apply for your Schengen visa, take a look at the instructions given below.
You will first need to go to the official website of the Consulate General of Portugal.
Once you are here, move your cursor to “Consular Section” and you will get the option of “Make an Appointment“.
Once you are here, you will understand that the form available to you is only for issues that can be addressed at the Washington Consulate. To be able to get an appointment at the Consulate General of Portugal in Boston, you will need to click on the link given in the first line.
VFS Global page to book an appointment with the consulate
Scroll down on the same page to find the “Schedule appointment” option.
Click on “Click here“.
Click on “New User“.
Fill in this form, check the dialogue box on the bottom, and click on “Submit“. Follow the steps required and you will be able to book an appointment with the Portuguese Consulate in Boston.
This should complete the process of getting your appointment with the consulate. You will receive all the details of your appointment with the consulate at the end of this. After this, fill in your visa application form and take a print out of the same.
Schengen Visa application form
What should I do on the day of my interview with the Consulate?
It is mandatory that you reach the consulate on time on the day of your interview. If you get late for more than 10 minutes, your application will not be processed by the Consulate.
Hand over all the documents to the consulate, before which, ensure that all the information and the required documents are in order. You will need to make the payments required and also enter the biometrics.
Once you are done with this, you will need to wait for your visa application to be processed. This usually takes about 15 days but can extend up to 30 days in some rare cases. So, ensure that you are applying for your Portugal Schengen visa well in advance from the day of your trip.
What are the documents that I will need to submit to the consulate?
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The list of all the documents you will need to give is quite long, so ensure that you have them all arranged and in order before the day of your interview with the consulate.
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Your passport
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Recent photographs
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Filled and signed visa application form
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Your US residency permit
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Cover letter for your travel
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Flight itinerary
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Hotel reservations
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Travel health insurance
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Proof of occupation in the US
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Financial sustenance
Don’t get too overwhelmed with the list of all these documents. All of them have been explained in detail below.
Passport: Your passport needs to be valid, original, and should have a validity of at least 3 months from the date of expiry of your visa.
Residence permit: This is to prove that you are residing in the US legally. The validity of this document is similar to that of your passport.
Photographs: You will need to give passport sized photographs of yourself which aren’t more than 6 months old. Make sure that they follow all the guidelines for photographs.
Cover letter: This needs to state your reasons to travel to Portugal, your flight itinerary, and also your hotel accommodations. You can also mention the list of all the documents you are giving to the consulate.
Flight and hotel bookings: You will need to provide proof of your travel and hotel bookings to the consulate as well.
Of course, in fact all the embassies mention the same. We have added links to the official visa pages which you can verify.
France Consulate
Your travel itinerary : you MUST BOOK your airline ticket but do not purchase until the visa has been approved.
We recommend that you do not purchase travel tickets until your visa has been approved. On the other hand, you may provide us with a reservation, a planned itinerary or an online printout of a roundtrip ticket.
Travel reservation to and from schengen area, not a ticket. Note: Make travel reservation which you can cancel
Flight (roundtrip)/travel reservations and full itinerary (if several Schengen States will be visited or if the trip covers several Schengen States and non-Schengen countries) with the name of passenger and one copy
Round trip ticket/reservation, originating in this jurisdiction to Europe (and ultimately to Italy) and back, including internal entry and exit points of travel i.e. EURORAIL tickets, car rental, internal flights. The names on reservations have to reflect the names on passports.
We can provide you with flight itineraries which is accepted by not only for Schengen visa but for all visas. We have customers using the same flight itinerary for Malaysia visa, Singapore visa, India visa, UK visa etc.
In fact the European union visa requirements for visa states the same.
As per the official document,
Round trip reservation or itinerary with dates and flight numbers specifying entry and exit from Schengen state.Schengen authorities accept the itinerary when applying for the visa but request the original air ticket when visa is collected.
That is why we have 100% visa acceptance rate although some of our customer have been requested to provide “additional documents”,none of their visa has been rejected for providing fake documents.
With 80% of our customers being return customers or companies which process visas for their employees/clients, our approach is the best approach if you want to ensure the safety of your visa.
This is our orders screen for this month. Most of the orders have been placed by repeat customers.
The best part about our service is along with getting a flight reservation without payment, you can also get confirmed hotel bookings, personal cover letter, leave/no objection letter for your visa consulates.
Travel insurance: You will need to be able to take care of yourself in case you face a medical emergency while you are traveling. For this, you will need to show proof of your travel insurance which has to be equivalent to at least 30000 Euros and valid in all the Schengen countries and not just in Portugal.
Proof of occupation: You will need to give your employment details or other required details in case you are a student or retired.
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Employed: Employment letter, IT return documents.
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Self-employed: Business registration certificate, company bank statements, IT return documents.
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Student: A letter from the university.
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Retired: Pension statements from the previous months.
Proof of sustenance: Your bank and credit card statements and travel cards should suffice for this.
Do I really have to make flight and hotel bookings before my travel to get my Portugal Schengen visa approved?
It is necessary that you provide proof of your travel and accommodation to the consulate for your visa application to be approved, but there is no hard and fast rule that they need to be permanent. You can get temporary flight and hotel bookings from Travel Visa Bookings.
Travel Visa Bookings has processed more than 100000 orders in the past 5 years, and pioneers in writing a personalized cover letter for your travel as well. Not only are the prices for temporary bookings extremely affordable, but you also have the option of making them your permanent bookings once your visa is approved.
What is the cost of getting a Portugal Schengen visa?
The image above shows you the prices for all the different types of visa. But since you are only traveling to Portugal for tourism, you will need a short stay visa valid for 90 days.
In case you want to make temporary bookings and get a personalized cover letter written as well, the image below should give you all the details of the payments.
What is the validity of my Portugal Schengen visa?
Your Portugal Schengen visa is only valid for the number of days mentioned in your travel itinerary. So, ensure that you have at least 5-10 additional days in your itinerary so that you aren’t in a rush to leave the country without being able to visit all the places you planned.
Consulate General of Portugal in Boston
Address:
Chancery: 31 St. James Ave.,
3rd Floor – Suite 350 Boston
Massachusetts 02116
Phone:
+ 1 617 536 8740
Email:
boston@mne.pt
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