The articles written by the PÚBLICO Brasil team are written in the variant of the Portuguese language used in Brazil.
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With the delay that can exceed 120 days To obtain visas for Portugal, the Portuguese Government decided to increase the number of people dealing with the matter in various consulates around the world, including those in Brazil. To this end, a competition was opened on September 18 to hire another 50 employees through the Ministry of Foreign AffairsPortuguese equivalent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brazil.
Vacancies are reserved for people with a higher education degree — preferably in Political Science — and those registered for the selection process will go through three stages of evaluation. First, candidates will take a knowledge test, which will be done online, with the computer’s camera on. The questions will be related to the legal area (legislation for foreigners, free movement under the Schengen Agreement and Portuguese administrative legislation) and the functioning of the Portuguese consular network. Next, there will be a curricular assessment and then a psychological assessment.
The competition indicates that the contractorswho will be civil servants with full rights, may have to travel abroad. The deadline in which new employees will start working is not indicated in the selection process. The assessment of lawyers consulted by PÚBLICO Brasil is that the process should take months.
For lawyer Vanessa Bueno, the number of new employees is insufficient to unlock consular services. “It will help, but little. For everyone, 50 is not enough. Brazil may have more problems, but it is not just in Brazilian consulates. There is a lack of employees in the United States, Africa and the East,” she assesses.
She mentions that, in addition to issuing visas, other consulate services are late. “In São Paulo, if a Portuguese citizen tries to get their citizenship card or passport, there is no agenda. The same thing happens in the United States. There are Portuguese people who travel to Portugal just to renew their passport”, he reports.
Difficulties
For mobility consultant Karol Ximenes, the hiring promised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be a positive step. “In the face of so much difficulty and delay, it seems to me that 50 more employees will help a lot”, she considers.
Karol reports that the delay in obtaining visas for Portugal harms not only those who want to study and work, but also investment decisions in the country.
“There are people who don’t want to hire a relocation service because they don’t know when they will receive their visas. They say it will be available in three months, but there is no certainty. This also hinders doctoral and master’s students, who need the document”, he points out.
She says it’s not just visas that face problems, citing one of the cases she has handled. “I have a Portuguese client, who lives in the United States, whose husband is trying to take away her Portuguese nationality. Given the delay, she will come to Portugal in October to renew her documents”, she says.
Students and workers with contracts affected by the slowness of visas are also mentioned by lawyer and master in Law Rosana Gomes. “Many miss out on admission to graduation and job vacancies due to the public administration’s lack of capacity to provide answers effective“, he notes. When contacted, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not return interview requests.
