Pls. i need your opinion on this my nairalanders. I have Portugal Schengen visa but am not really interested in going to Portugal. Can i use this visa to travel to any other Schengen country without touching Portugal the issuance country?

cyphanet:

Pls. i need your opinion on this my nairalanders.  I have Portugal Schengen visa but am not really interested in going to Portugal. Can i use this visa to travel to any other Schengen country without touching Portugal the issuance country?

Your journey to other schengen countries will start from Portugal as the visa was issued by Portuguese embassy, is that not the rule?

You can go to any schengen country with that visa,but your itinerary should include Portugal .Just in case any questions arise.

As Nigeria has no direct airlink with Portugal(am not too sure though),you have to pass through another schengen country to get to Portugal,so the rules shouldnt affect you that much

MrPrsdent:

You can go to any schengen country with that visa,but your itinerary should include Portugal .Just in case any questions arise.
As Nigeria has no direct airlink with Portugal(am not too sure though),you have to pass through another schengen country to get to Portugal,so the rules shouldnt affect you that much

but he doesn't want to go to Portugal, how will him go to other Schengen countries first without having Portuguese entry and exiting stamp on his passport?

justwise:

Your journey to other schengen countries will start from Portugal as the visa was issued by Portugal embassy, is that not the rule?

  No, that's not really the rule, a Schengen visa holder is allowed to use any of the participating states for arrival, but he'd need to explain to the immigration officers his reasons for arriving through their country and must have evidence of links with Portugal, and if he has no reasonable reason, the immigration officers reserve the rights to cancel the visa even though it was issued by the Portuguese authority.

Vicjustice:

  No, that's not really the rule, a Schengen visa holder is allowed to use any of the participating states for arrival, but he'd need to explain to the immigration officers his reasons for arriving through their country, and if he has no reasonable reason, the immigration officers reserve the rights to cancel the visa even though it was issued by the Portuguese authority.

Exactly my point.He can always say he is continuing on to Portugal by road

MrPrsdent:

Exactly my point.He can always say he is continuing on to Portugal by road

Vicjustice:

  No, that's not really the rule, a Schengen visa holder is allowed to use any of the participating states for arrival, but he'd need to explain to the immigration officers his reasons for arriving through their country and must have evidence of links with Portugal, and if he has no reasonable reason, the immigration officers reserve the rights to cancel the visa even though it was issued by the Portuguese authority.

Ok guys, thanks for clarifying that.

On a side note. . what happens if he went to other Schengen countries without going to Portugal?

justwise:

On a side note. . what happens if he went to other Schengen countries without going to Portugal?

As far as he keeps within the rules of his visa,there shouldn't be any problems.But next time Portugal wouldn't issue him a visa.He has to use another schengen embassy

justwise:

On a side note. . what happens if he went to other Schengen countries without going to Portugal?

  That would be a breech of the visa regulation, and if detected that he has nothing to do with Portugal, his visa could be cancelled for reason of the abuse and that will have great impact on his subsequent visa application. But hardly would they detect, though

What about if am flying from somewhere like Ukraine and not Nigeria this time, Do i still need to touch Portugal before going to my destination?

cyphanet:

What about if am flying from somewhere like Ukraine and not Nigeria this time, Do i still need to touch Portugal before going to my destination?

Do you even understand the answers that you've been given?

its better you Fly to portugal first to avoid un-neccessary questions at the point of entry!

cyphanet:

Pls. i need your opinion on this my nairalanders. I have Portugal Schengen visa but am not really interested in going to Portugal. Can i use this visa to travel to any other Schengen country without touching Portugal the issuance country?

The Schengen visa once issued is good to visit all the participating countries, you are supposed to get the visa from the country in which you'll be spending the majority of your time or the point of your first entry into the Schengen zone, so applying in a country you will not spend any time in could end up as a very bad idea.
It will definitely be a bad idea not to visit Portugal at all, whether you stay there or whether you just land and fly mmediately to another Shengen country or to the country where you will spend most of your time in the Schengen area during your trip does not matter, but if you mention Portugal on your form as your first point of entry into the shengen zone, having an entry stamp of Portugal to play safe is definitely a good idea.

They can also ask you for an initiery,hotel bookings etc at the point of entry,note that having a valid shengen visa is no gurantee that you will be allowed into the shengen zone,if they find you suspicious they will question you,my advice is, play safe and fly to Portugal first.

Davedavy:

The Schengen visa once issued is good to visit all the participating countries, you are supposed to get the visa from the country in which you'll be spending the majority of your time or the point of your first entry into the Schengen zone, so applying in a country you will not spend any time in could end up as a very bad idea.
It will definitely be a bad idea not to visit Portugal at all, whether you stay there or whether you just land and fly mmediately to another Shengen country or to the country where you will spend most of your time in the Schengen area during your trip does not matter, but if you mention Portugal on your form as your first point of entry into the shengen zone, having an entry stamp of Portugal to play safe is definitely a good idea.

They can also ask you for an initiery,hotel bookings etc at the point of entry,note that having a valid shengen visa is no gurantee that you will be allowed into the shengen zone,if they find you suspicious they will question you,my advice is, play safe and fly to Portugal first.

I think you guyz are on point, it may affect you @ point of entry if per-adventure u are asked to provide a travel itinerary and ticket itinerary, once the details in there is contrary u are in 4 it. i believe it is always evident when u dnt get to ur major destination. A client of mine got a Belgium visa and refused to visit d country, after his visit to schegen area he was unable to renew is visa @ d same embassy (beligium). they asked him to come with his hotel reservation were he resided in belgium and boarding pass be4 he can get his visa renewed. apparently he cudn't provide dis information and it led to denial. fortunately he met me and i decided to channel it thru france, he got d visa by chance and i warned him neva 2 fall victim again.
So bros send atleast one hour in Portugal before going 2 other schegen countries.
is Portugal visa easy 2 get?
1luv

Dear people here,

I have gotten last August 2011 D-Visa type. As I filled my application, they told me to fill both the residence application and the shengen application. I was planning to land in Germany and wrote in the application the the first entry member state is Germany (my country of destination is Germany too), but they delayed the Visa that I had to change my tickets and I had to land in Netherlands first.

Now on my Visa I have the stamps of entry/exit from Netherlands Airport Schiphol, as if I didnt even land in Deutschland. Although it was only a transit and I stayed all the time in Germany. Will that make a problem for me, if I will apply for another Visa to Germany?

They messed it all up with me, and I'm afraid.

I knew that a D-Visa is allowed to visit other Member states, but what makes me afraid are the stamps!

My Visa was somehow weird, it was D-Visa for less than 3 months (training purpose) I don't know how,

@ Ehaaabb

You shouldn't have any problem with the German embassy,but i hope you have evidence that you actually attended the training you went for,they might ask for that.I have seen people denied subsequent shengen visas because they didn't visit the previous issuing countries.

@Davedavy

Thank you a lot for your concern. I have papers from the hospital saying that I did the training in that period of time. I have also papers (entry/leaving) from the town's citizens' office where I was living that time with dates a little bit later (I arrived on 5 August but registered myself on 16 august), as I didn't find time before that. I have the ticket itself. Taxes' paper was sent to me in my adress in Germany, I have it as well.

I was worried as I don't have the boarding pass from amsterdam to frankfurt. But I have the papers I mentioned above plus the boarding pass from frankfurt to Amsterdam and to my homeland. Will that work if they asked about it? Thanks.

Ehaaabb:

@Davedavy

Thank you a lot for your concern. I have papers from the hospital saying that I did the training in that period of time. I have also papers (entry/leaving) from the town's citizens' office where I was living that time with dates a little bit later (I arrived on 5 August but registered myself on 16 august), as I didn't find time before that. I have the ticket itself. Taxes' paper was sent to me in my adress in Germany, I have it as well.

I was worried as I don't have the boarding pass from amsterdam to frankfurt. But I have the papers I mentioned above plus the boarding pass from frankfurt to Amsterdam and to my homeland. Will that work if they asked about it? Thanks.

Yeah,the documents you have will work.

I had a German Shengen visa but plans changed and i could not go there. I went to France instead and no one asked me any silly question.

Whether it's shengen (C) or national (D), it's allowed to land in and visit any shengen country, starting from the 5th of april 2010 due to the VISA Code. The D+C type of Visa is abolished and the D Visa alone is enough. This is true, right?

Previously, it ws mandatory, first to apply and get the residence permit from the country to be allowed to travel through Europe, but now, the Visa D alone is enough.

I don't think it matters any.
Since 2006, I have been issued Schengen visas for France (thrice), Spain, and the Netherlands.
Last year I flew KLM from Lagos to Amsterdam and from there to Barcelona, and the schengen visa was from the French Embassy. I never went to France on that trip.

@stonerock,how easy is it to get a schengen visa through d french embassy here in nigeria

@poster
Since you have portugal shengen visa and you intend not to see portugal, your in ukrian why dont you use auto bus or international trian since hungary is a gateway to shengen and has its border with ukrian ?