Portuguese ambassador wants more efficiency in the face of pressure from visa applications in Cape Verde

The new Portuguese Ambassador to Cape Verde, Paulo Lourenço, acknowledged this Sunday that there is “a lot of pressure” on the number of visa applications in Praia, which has grown strongly, to make the process more efficient and transparent.

“The rise in visa requests has been very noticeable in recent months and obviously it’s a bit like changing a tire on a car while the car is moving. In other words, this increase in efficiency must also take into account the requirement for a constant increase in the number of visa applications,” the ambassador explained in an interview with Lusa.

Paulo Lourenço took over as Ambassador of Portugal to Cape Verde on February 28, after presenting his credentials to the President of the Republic, José María Neves, recognizing since then the need to improve the consular process in the archipelago at a time when the new rules of the Portuguese Community Mobility Agreement are in force. countries (CPLP), which apply only to national visas (excluding the Schengen area).

Currently, the Portuguese consular office in Praia only issues visas for Portugal – an external company has been handling the processes since August – while the Portugal-run Centro Comum de Visas (CCV) processes visas (16,000 in 2022) for the Schengen area. Zone for 19 European countries.

“It is also necessary to know that at the moment in both cases, CCV or national visas, namely work visas, the pressure is very high,” the diplomat stressed.

“Basically, we are talking about a limited circle of employees, and Portugal, at the helm of this operation, did not make a mistake and managed to do it both in Praia and on the islands, namely Mindelo, Sal and Boa Vista. , and this year also in Fogo. This is an extremely difficult operation,” he added.

The CCV, which has been managed by Portugal in Praia since 2010, will move to new premises in the coming weeks to “improve organization and efficiency” and, in the case of the consular department, to focus on “communication and outreach”. “from the population.

Paulo Lourenço stressed the CCV management’s demand for “hundreds of visas for other European Union countries” within the Schengen area, with rules to be “rigorously observed”.

According to the diplomat, “as demand pressure grows, it is also natural that this operation is imperfect and needs to be improved.”

“I understand, I understand and am well aware of the anxiety and even some frustration that I see in people who cannot make an appointment, especially in the case of CCV. This is not a matter of indifference to us, although in terms of scheduling meetings it is something that ultimately does not depend on us, because it is done from a website, which is a global website used all over the world,” he added .

“We have no illusions about the fact that there are agencies and intermediaries that have mechanisms or mechanisms to accumulate time slots for meetings (…). It’s not something we can or can control. And I know that sometimes it can seem insignificant. for those who are in a hurry to get a vacancy, which is that the more people resort to intermediaries, the more difficult it becomes for Cape Verdeans and ordinary Cape Verdeans to make an individual appointment on their own. Because it is obvious that every time an agency goes for a set of vacancies , the path is narrowing for these people,” he admitted.

However, the diplomat understands that “a certain feeling of disappointment” makes people “turn to these mechanisms for help”, which leads to the availability of vacancies: “We are checking with the central services what can be done with the system until it happens not only in Cape Verde . It’s not just happening in Cape Verde, but it’s something we pay some attention to.”

He assured that the goal is to improve the two services, but Paulo Lourenço cautions against creating “excessive expectations” given the current demand.

“Demand for services far exceeds what our resources can provide. And so, even if we could, hypothetically, mobilize more staff, we would still have a service that would always have to deal with demand in excess of broad supply. services,” he said.

Communicating more and better is the diplomat’s rate: “We started doing this every 15 days, saying how many vacancies we will have, but obviously keeping in mind the frustration and even anxiety that not getting a vacancy causes the applicant. who is sometimes even pressured by the commitments he or she has for life planning purposes, we believe that the clearer it is to him or her what he or she can expect, the better the person will know how to plan their life. This is our goal.”

Improvements he also wants to see in appointments made by an external company that handles visa application processes – more than a thousand a month – for Portugal alone.

“We work with this company in another 40 countries around the world. This is a company that started operating quite recently, as you know, only in August last year. I have no doubt that there is room for improvement,” he assured. .