Voyage Toujours

As I write this I found out that there will be a delay in receiving my Portuguese residence visa. It’s only been since October that the Portuguese consulate in San Francisco, the nearest consulate for where I live, California, has been starting to process long stay visas for those wishing to enter Portugal. Although I applied in October, it’s not until December 14th that I will have my in person interview and drop off my documents paper copies to the embassy. I had the impression previously, that when you applied online that they reviewed your documents and then you appeared and your visa would be imminently approved, not withstanding any problems with you not meeting requirements. Turns out, once you are able to appear (you need to make an appointment online) then there is about another 4 weeks before your application approval, if there are no other problems. I will be driving up to SFO on the 13th of December to do this task and we’ll see how long it takes to get the approval for the visa. Luckily, if this goes as prescribed, I will only be postponing my departure by about a month. Let’s hope I’m off and running by my birthday, in February. Wish me luck!