Since several of our investors got a problem of too short term visas while deciding to travel to Portugal we took the decision to post the current solution for their problem.

When you feel frustrated by seeing that embassy where you applied your visa only gave you a 7 days schengen visa or if your visa is expiring and you will not be able to travel since they will not give you a new schengen visa before the expiration of the old one, please find bellow the procedures and considerations which you have to make before do your trip.

1) Schengen Touristic / Business Visa are pretty easy to extend so the key point is to book an appointment for your Visa extension to be able to stay longer than you have permission

2) When coming to Portugal is important that you fly out of Lisbon/Faro/Oporto directly from out of Schengen space. You will not be able to make the following procedures if your flight has a stopover in Germany, or France or any other Schengen country.

To be able to extend your visa you need to state the following things:

a) Hotel Booked and ideally paid till the end of your planned stay

b) Flight ticket with the date of departure over the Schengen Visa expiring date

c) Means of Subsistence something like a Visa credit card or a bank statement will work or cash over 1000 Euro will work.

d) 2 Passport Pictures

Those are the required documents to be able to extend once you arrive for the extension meeting at Immigration Office. Please be aware that Immigration Office only allows you to book the appointment for one day before your expiration visa date, in that way leaves you only one day to react in case you need to leave Schengen space the next day.

How does it normally happen the procedure? The answer is simple, usually Immigration Office is so crowded with work that if you try to apply for this appointment they will give you a meeting much over the date of your visa expiration. If this happens than you are one of the lucky one which can overstay till the date of the meeting and just need to present the paper with appointment booked at immigration office. No fines or other issues will be raised, but please be aware that you can only do this if you leave schengen space from Portugal directly to outside. Usually delay is about 3 weeks from booking time which will provide you plenty of time to enjoy the best of Portugal. In the meanwhile you should not leave the country to other Schengen country since this document will not be valid outside of the country and you might get into troubles with authority.

For any other details we recommend you keep updated with Immigration Office (SEF) before making a trip where you plan to overstay. For Investors is very important that comply with regulations to avoid having problems issuing the Investor / Golden Visa.

Schengen Visa Example