cenourinha

That's what I suspected, but I was afraid they'd pull the 6-months LEGAL residency requirement card on me... but knowing you're in the same situation in Denmark (waiting for residency) is really comforting, thank you!

Yep, 6 months.

Here I am with another question! This one's really stressing me out.

I arrived here in Portugal on December 27 on the visa waiver program. Obviously, that three-month limit passed on March 27. In the next two weeks me and my fiancé will be getting married and applying for my residence permit, but we ran into a little delay because the translator that we're working with for my birth certificate had a computer problem, then we had a bank problem in getting the money transferred, now we're just waiting to receive the certificate in the mail and the soonest we can have the wedding is 15 days after we turn the certificate into the registry here.

Anyway! To make a long story short... because of these circumstances I'm going to be a week or two without a visa or permit... Portugal is actually very lax on visa restrictions so I know my problem won't come when I go to apply for a residence permit, but I'm afraid that when we file the petition the Embassy is going to say, well, you were out of status for two weeks, you failed, no visa for you guys! Despite the fact that all of our other documents (the ones we had to go to the Embassy and get) are dated for before the 3 month mark and we already would have been married and with my permit by now, if it weren't for this snafu with the translator...

Do I have a legitimate worry here? Or am I just stressing?

(Obviously the Embassy is the only one that will really know, but I'm not going to call them and say, HEY, I was here without a visa for a few weeks...)

I checked with the embassy and they said we can definitely file in June! (And also that processing there usually takes a few weeks, and that you can only file on a Thursday )

Thanks! Without VJ I would never have thought we could apply that early and we would have been stuck waiting until September without having to.

Well, I'm new here, probably I should hop over to the introductions board and introduce myself but I'm gonna give this a shot first...

I currently live in Portugal with my Portuguese fiancé. I moved here with the intent to stay and live but we realised that we can have a much better life if he comes to the US with me, and we've since cemented that decision - I set us up an apartment there, talked to my employer about returning and will be making sure there's a place for my fiancé at the company in case he can't find other work when he arrives, and most importantly... I reenrolled in school there. The fact that I reenrolled means I'll start in September, and I'll obviously have to go back to the States then. I would really like to have him with me there as soon as possible - we've already spent most of our relationship as a long-distance couple and I don't want to give him up again, surely you all understand!!!

Here's the dilemma.

We're getting married next month, which means that in September I'll meet the 6-month residency requirement (I personally think this is ridiculous, since September of 2007 I've spent less than 6 months outside of Portugal but because because it was on student and tourist visas it doesn't count! Argh!) to file in Lisbon for him to come with me. I assume this would be the quickest way to do things, and I could go back to the States while everything goes through and he'd come as soon as everything is finished.

But the fact that we're getting married now means we could also file the normal way right away in March and give everything another 6 months to go through while I wait to go to the States in September, but I also know that it would probably take more than 6 months.

What I'm wondering is, should we file now for him to come over to the US on a spousal visa or should we wait to file for the visa in September when we can do it directly through the Embassy in Lisbon? Will DCF be faster or do we have a better chance getting him sooner if we file now and give it 6 more months to go through?

Olá! Também sou nova no forum... não sou de Portugal (sou americana) mas já cá vivo há quase um ano e meio, vim para cá estudar e acabei por encontrar o amor da minha vida, um alentejano Vamos casar já no próximo mês, vamos ficar em Portugal até Setembro e depois vamos para os EUA, pois lá consegue-se ganhar mais dinheiro... cá estou muito feliz, se eu pudesse escolher ficaria... mas Portugal nunca foi um país rico, e com a crise financeira é quase impossível construir uma vida, comprar uma casa, etc. etc. Há filas nos centros de emprego, as pessoas que querem trabalhar estão a ir para o estrangeiro. Está a ser mesmo difícil.

Mas vamos ter sempre sempre saudades do nosso pequeno país!

Beijinhos para todos