I just contacted VFS about my Visa and found out that Portugal currently has a mandatory 14-day quarantine. This was in their official email to me, and they confirmed this in a call as well, their site however does not mention this, so it’s a bit confusing. Does anyone have more info on this?
Additionally, I’ve got a visa appointment for 4th of April, and they recommend at least 15 days for processing, which means I can’t join in the first week.
I wasn’t told about the quarantine (I contacted VFS Delhi, India) but the latest appointment I am getting is of 5th April and a 15 day processing time.
@gabriel I can see France has lifted all the restrictions, will it be possible for people to apply for a Schengen visa via France and then coming to the conference. Also, the flights to France (from India) is relatively cheaper (by 550 Eur) and people can easily travel from France to Portugal. What do you (@gabriel) and others (@farhaan, @pooja, @kaustav, @kshitij) think about this?
@kshitij (cc. @saksham @pooja @farhaan @kaustav)
I’ve discussed this with Eden at tCRIL, and checked three different sources (1, 2, 3 – you can run searches yourselves and see the results), and can pretty much confirm that travelers from India will not be subjected to quarantine upon their arrival in Portugal. It looks like Indians travelling for business (with all the necessary paperwork) will be allowed entry without a problem.
If you already have accommodation under your name and need to update a booking, please reach out to your Airbnb host. You can ping me on the accoms sheet if you need anything.
@jill my understanding is that you can travel to Portugal for business (maybe you know this already). It even looks like you don’t need a visa for it, since you’re in Australia – but I don’t know how they determine whether you’re really travelling for professional reasons (or if they even do that).
You can do this if your trip is primarily in France. i.e. if you make a 10-day trip to Europe and spend 6 days in France and 4 in Portugal, then you need to apply for a Visa via France. If they are both 5 days then wherever you’re reaching first. In this case, you’d need to have your trip be primarily in France to take that option.
In my case the earliest appointment VFS has is the 4th of April and they take 15 working days to process the applications, with no option of expediting it.
I’ve reached out to the embassy and a couple of companies that deal with visas to see if anything can be done, should have an answer for sure by tomorrow.
Well their webpage for booking appointments kept erroring out for me and today it finally worked. Except now it says the earliest appointment available is on the 13th April and same thing about taking 15 days for processing! So it looks like I won’t be able to make it 
After one and a half months, I got my EU vaccine certificate but they misspelled my name so I have to re-do the whole process. Because yes, you have to give all your details by phone (even your passport ID, safety… 
).
Embassy said made booking on the site and they’ll handle it.
My booking is for the 7th of April. Gonna be close, but might just make it.
Hope the whole process does not include taking the shots again 
Some of us will need a cover letter as part of their visa application process. I’m happy to prepare it for you! Just email me with:
… and I’ll prepare a letter for you.
That’s crazy!
Wow! I hope I can avoid that 
It seems like as a Canadian my vaccine certificate/passport won’t be recognized by Portugal so I’ll still need a PCR test within 72 hours before leaving, which is annoying. (Unless something changes in the coming weeks.) @gabriel is that right?
@braden correct, we still need to present a negative test. They also accept a negative rapid antigen test, taken at a laboratory <24h before boarding.
They also accept a negative rapid antigen test, taken at a laboratory <24h before boarding.
Ah, that sounds easier. Looks like there are a few companies that have set up right at the airport so I can just leave early for my flight and get that done. Thanks for the info.
This makes me think: @antoviaque, will OpenCraft cover the cost of mandatory covid19 testing for traveling?
