VFS - starting the application
Nope, it isn’t a trick - visa applications are outsourced to VFS global. Depending on the country you are applying will dictate which VSF you visit for the appointment. Since I’m in Minnesota, this means I apply in Washington D.C. for a Portugal visa. It appears you may also have the option to apply in Miami or Houston, if your jurisdiction is D.C. … but I didn’t test this out. I did originally make an appointment at Houston because there weren’t ANY for DC, but I looked a few days later and there were a few.
The availability of appointments really does seem to be a crapshoot.
First barrier is making AND activating an account.
There was often a blue error at the top essentially asking you to clear your cache, wait a couple hours, and/or try a different browser. Now I tried all those things many, many times - essentially the waiting a couple hours was the only thing that worked for me.
This was what I thought I wanted, but there were NO appointments available - for months out. I’ve checked multiple times. So I went ahead and scheduled the Portugal visa - short stay. I know you don’t want a Schengen visa - as American citizens can just get that upon arrival. The Schengen visa allows you to stay for 90 days out of 180 period. So you can stay for any combination of 90 days in a rolling 180 period — BUT the reset of your 90 days takes a 90 day full break from the Schengen zone. So keep that in mind.
Sorry it is all grayed out - you can see I also captured the blue bar of death for the site. But you can see I applied for the Portugal Visa Application and the long stay option. My appointment is November 27 - so we will see.
When I made my original appointment in Houston VFS, the selection options were different, but ultimately sound similar to the DC one - sorry no pics, the site is down again!
Costs - flight to DC and hotel in DC - there isn’t a flight that would get me in early enough for the appointment, so am staying the night before.
