The Portuguese Consulate in Luanda announced on Wednesday that Schengen visa applicants who surrendered their passports at the beginning of 2020, prior to the declaration of a state of emergency due to COVID-19, can now collect their documents.
In a statement made through its website, the Portuguese consulate said that visa applications were divided into “granted” and “cancelled”, without saying how many visa applications were in this situation and how many were allowed.
Among the reasons for canceling orders are expired passports and incomplete processes or with outdated information.
Between March 18, 2020 and March 22, 2022, travel restrictions imposed due to the pandemic resulted in the suspension of Schengen visas, allowing only travel deemed “essential”, the requirements of which have been expanded.
There are two types of visa to Portugal: Schengen, short-term, and “national”, long-term, which can be for residence or temporary stay and requests for students, workers, education, treatment for a period of more than 90 days. , investors, digital nomads.
The Consulate advises that passports are available for collection at the VFS Portugal Visa Application Center and the status of visa applications can be found on the website https://visa.vfsglobal.com/ago/pt/prt/track-application or by using the QR code , entering the link “POLA” and the date of birth of the applicant.
The consulate has also published a series of tips for Angolans who intend to apply for a visa to Portugal. BAteis – for applying for a visa.
Portuguese Ambassador to Angola Francisco Alegre Duarte said in October that Portugal’s consulate-general in Luanda was breaking monthly records for visa requests from Angolans wishing to travel to Portugal and was working to catch up on the backlog since the pandemic.
The Consulate General in Luanda is the largest visa issuing center in the entire diplomatic network of Portugal.
According to the consulate, 73,607 visas were issued in 2019, about 278 visas per day (on average based on 22 business days per month), and this number has dropped below ten thousand during the pandemic years (9,651 visas issued in 2020 and 9,860 visas issued in 2020). in 2021).
This year, up to December 6, 34,570 visas were issued, an average of about 141 per day.
A third (11,842) were issued between September and November, bringing the average daily number of visas to 174.