VFS Consulate Interview

The Process Up to This Point

I said that I would post my experiences and information collected from this experience. I will do it, but will add it all in another post. For the sake of this post.. just make sure you have it with you!

Here is the checklist of items to bring with you for your D7 Passive Income Visa visit at VFS Global: what to bring for VFS consulate visit - D7 Passive Income

What to Bring

What Not to Bring

Even if their web pages are not current or inaccurate, they do not want you to bring electronics into their offices. It is okay to bring your cellphone, actually you will need it during the encounter. Keep it with you but keep it silent.

Do not bring your laptop. A woman sitting near me had one and was told that she needed go to “Bosco One” on the 2nd floor, which I believe is a facility where you are able to check your devices. But, do not trust me on this one.
I did not bring a laptop and did not have to worry about this. Still, the woman was scolded and told she must go back downstairs and not come back up with a laptop.

Getting to VFS NYC

The VFS Facility

What To Have Handy

When you enter the facility, you queue up. You first pass through a metal detector and then empty your pockets and put those items through a scanner.

The want to see you VFS appointment confirmation page, so have that out and available. Keep it out. After you clear this security area, they will direct you to (and it also says it on your appointment sheet) the floor where your appointment is. You then take an elevator to that floor. Getting off the elevator, there is another security guard who will ask to see your appointment letter and will check you in. (Honestly, I’m not sure why they need to do it twice or how anything might change between the first check-in downstairs and the very short elevator trip to you floor…but okay… just don’t think you were done with the appoinment confirmation after the first use!

Might as well empty your pockets and get your stuff together before you get to the head of the line, you will have to do it anyway.

List of What to Have Handy

• VFS Appointment Confirmation
• Apostille Letter From the FBI describing your background check
• Your Passport
• The data packet you compoiled

Be prepared to surrender your passport

At some point, you must surrender your passport in order to receive the Visa. As described elsewhere, the process is that you surrender your passport and they will return it to you. The process however can take up to 3 months! So do not have any trips out of the country planned.

I did ask, and was told, that I did not need to surrender my passport at that time. If I wanted to travel, if I wanted to go back to Portugal, that would be okay… HOWEVER, at some point you will be contacted, quite possibly while you are traveling internationally, and you must fly back to New York City in order to surrender your passport. And, when you do surrender it, you will still need to wait for a period of up to 3 months.

It was unclear to me if the process had anything to do with backlog and volume or if it was about the back office people who are processing the visa application having questions and needed additional information to complete the visa process. The reason I say this is that I was told at the end of my encounter that my information and documents looked very good and that I should not have any ‘problems’ (but I don’t know if that means faster processing times?)

It Was Not an Interview

I had heard from others about “the consulate interview” and I thought it would be just that. It was not. For those of you who are familiar and know, it seemed more like an appointment with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in a busy city or town - basically walk in, get a ticket (I saw no tokens but the did refer to tokens, something I did not have and wasn’t required to have) and wait for your turn. Then you walk up to the counter (desk) and talk with your representative. I will be referring to this process as an encounter and not an interview. Again, you were not questioned, you were just required to present your documentation to the agent when requested, or en masse if requested.

Passport Photos

Be aware that for Portugal, and other Schengen visas, you cannot use a U.S. Passport photo (you are to provide two pictures) I presented my passport photos and was told that the picture is too large. For the Schengen visa, the picture is smaller. See my note below, I think a good U.S. passport photo can be trimmed down to the required size without a problem. But, just know that they are looking for ‘Schengen sized’ passport photos for the visa.

I was required to get my visa picture taken again, at the VFS office, but this added at least 30 minutes to my time there because I had to wait for my name to be called. If you want to save time, bring the correct sized photos

The Visa Fee

You do not need to present a Money Order or Cashier Check as payment for the Visa Fee. All, fees are charged and paid for by credit card. But only Mastercard and Visa. The will not accept American Express. I had paid the $44.27 in advance, so I was not charged for that. But, my total for this visit was $179.03 This, I was told, included the visa fee and a courier fee for the return of you passport by FedEx

Observations

TWO (2) SCHENGEN SIZED PASSPORT PHOTOS!!!

Even though, listed on their requirements page, VFS says you need to bring two passport photos for attachment to your visa, I did not find out until I got there that they want SCHENGEN sized passport photos - which are smaller! Jokingly, I asked the representative working with me if we could just trip the photo with a pair of scissors. She told me that the actually did do that but had received pushback from ’the powers that be’ and that they needed the smaller photos!

Interestingly, when I finally was called for my photo to be taken, the gentleman took my pictures and showed me the different sized pictures. Again, jokingly, I asked him if he could just use the cutting tool he had to trim my U.S. passport photo. He was able to trim it and it was just fine (even though I opted for the better photo that he had taken!). Keep this in mind and try to bring the smaller versions of the passport photos. Perhaps mention it to them if you only have the larger photos.. Maybe they can trim it - as long as it doesn’t take too much off the top ;)

They Remove the Staples From The Documents

Either you or your lawyer has most likely assembled ti information and put it into a similar order as listed in the checklist. Like my documents, multiple pages were stapled together to keep things together (a very good idea) but know that when you hand the packet over to the representative he or she will start removing the staples on all the pages. This is done becouse one of the final steps is to scan all your documents into the system. You might be able to save some time by either using paper clips or by just not using staples. Use yellow stickies to differentiate the sections too.

YOU DO NOT NEED a Cashiers Check or Money Order

They did not even take mine… they do not want it! They will take your credit card (Mastercard or Visa - NOT American Express!) and charge everything on that. I will have to redo my math and accounting also. They will charge you the VFS fee for NYC and the Visa Fee but also a courier fee in order to FedEx your passport back to you

Bring your Cellphone!

They do say that they allow you to bring your cellphone, but require it to be in silent-mode. But, also note that they will ask you to take a photo of the FedEx Shipping label they will create for you while you are there. This is so you can track the return of your passport. Take a couple of photos and then email it to yourself so you have multiple copies of this stored in a couple of locations. It will be easier to find later when you need it to track the return of your passport.

I had duplicates of everything

Not knowing, and perhaps reading it somewhere, maybe on the VFS website, I made sure to have duplicates of everything. Personally I don’t think it is a bad idea, but it was unnecessary. And in the case of some items (the FBI background investigation with the apostille attached) they only need that. Those documents are not returned to you, so having a copy for your records might be a good idea. But again, duplicates were not necessary.

Shout Out

Just a shout out to Sara / Sarah / Zara (I don’t know how she pronounces or spells her name). She was professional, thorough, knowledgable, friendly, helpful, and very very very nice!

Have questions about moving to Portugal? Drop a comment below!

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