The new Portuguese ambassador to Cape Verde, Paulo Lourenço, stressed on Monday that scheduling visa applications is free and warned of the “pernicious effect” of intermediaries in the process.
“The scheduling processes are done from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in relation to that, the only thing we want to tell people is that this scheduling is free. There should be no other type of involvement in this matter. or intermediation”, affirmed the ambassador.
Speaking to the press, in the city of Praia, after visiting the future facilities of the Common Visa Center (CCV) Praia, which will be open to the public at the end of this month, also in Achada de Santo António, Paulo Lourenço said that intermediation can help the person when it is difficult to make an appointment, but he warned that it has other effects.
“It has that effect, which is to create a vicious cycle that makes it difficult for individual people to get vacancies. And the more difficult it is for the individual person to obtain a vacancy, the more tendency there will be to seek intermediation. “, she maintained.
Applications for short-stay visas for Portugal and the Schengen Area are made through the Centro Comum de Visas, in Praia, managed by Portugal, but there are recurring reports that there are intermediaries proposing to schedule, in exchange for huge amounts of money, in addition to the amount to be paid later by the visa applicant.
The center, managed by Portugal, has been operating since 2010 in the Cape Verdean capital and carries out the application process for short-stay visas for the Schengen Area, in which 19 countries participate.
Referring to the fact that control of “intermediation” is beyond all responsibility, the ambassador said, however, that the consular services regret this situation, since it ends up having the “pernicious effect” of preventing an ordinary citizen from arranging that appointment with some ease.
“It is a vicious circle that we would like not to occur,” continued the diplomat, guaranteeing that the focus of the consulting section is on opening new CCV facilities, on improving service and efficiency.
“And above all, more transparency so that Cape Verdeans and Cape Verdeans looking for an appointment and seeking a Schengen visa application know what they are counting on, because that is basically the best way for us to help you,” he said. the ambassador, who on February 28 delivered the credentials to the President of the Republic of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves.
Paulo Lourenço insisted that what the consular services can do is alert people, provide information on what a normal process implies, the times they should have and the number of vacancies that open every 15 days.
“And as for the rest, hoping that people, with a little more patience, can also understand that for every brokerage they seek, they are probably creating an effect of making it difficult to make individual appointments, which should be the general rule, because it is a free service. So what is not free is the visa itself, ”he concluded.
In 2022 alone, the diploma reported that the CCV received 16,000 visa applications and granted 14,000, of which around 4,300 were through consular presences in Mindelo, São Vicente island, and on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista.
Since August 1, 2022, visa applications only for Portugal, through the Portuguese embassy in Cape Verde, are being processed by the external company VFS Global, with the aim of increasing capacity and implementing the mobility agreement for the Community of Countries of the Portuguese Language (CPLP), but the final decision on the granting of a visa corresponds to the Portuguese authorities.
The Portuguese embassy reported in February that the company will open 1,600 vacancies for appointments in March for the company and 1,200 for the CCV, in a total of 2,800 appointments for the same number of people.
The Consular Section of the Embassy of Portugal in Praia and the CCV currently make available, every 15 days, a set of vacancies for programming, through the website of the company VFS Global, for national visas, and the website E -VISA, for Schengen visas
According to data released at the beginning of February by the Portuguese Embassy, VFS Global receives more than 1,000 visa applications per month and instructed more than 7,000 processes in six months of operation.
Source: TSF
