# American in Portugal



## BigTed (Jun 30, 2008)

Hi

we have a Portuguese company and we have an American lady who has been working for us remotely in the states for 4 or 5 years doing various specific legal and administrative activities for us.

Our company is expanding and we decided that it would be preferable to bring these activities in-house, therefore we have asked the lady to move to Portugal to head up a team here. She has a lot of valuable experience, and it is quite specific, it would be incredibly difficult to find anyone else who has her skillset. Also, extremely fluent English is a must in the role she has. Therefore we are of the opinion that the criteria for finding employment here should be met.

We were informed by various authorities that the thing to do was for her to travel here on a tourist visa and then go through the process of applying for a full visa once here, which she has done and now she is here in Portugal.

We are going through the process of getting her a visa for Portugal, but the beaurocracy is taking a while longer than anticipated and we are concerned that her original tourist visa will run out too quickly.

Therefore, if anybody could answer the following questions it would be great:

1. How difficult is it to get an extension on a tourist visa?
2. If by some chance she cannot get an extension, or the red tape takes longer than the extension for example, is it possible for her to leave the country briefly and then return on another tourist visa?

Re the second question, I have heard various things - i.e. she needs to leave for only a day, or she has to leave for 30 days. If anyone has any concrete information about this we would be very grateful.

Best wishes

Ted


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## HappyasLarry (Dec 29, 2009)

BigTed said:


> Hi
> 
> we have a Portuguese company and we have an American lady who has been working for us remotely in the states for 4 or 5 years doing various specific legal and administrative activities for us.
> 
> ...


Hi Ted, you will probably find there are numerous persons here in PT (UK Nationals) who are more than qualified and have the necessary skillset for the position you refer to in your topic, myself included! 

Someone will no doubt be along shortly to answer your query, but in the meantime, Good Luck!


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## -mia- (Dec 23, 2009)

Your future employee will have to leave Portugal for 90 days. She can only be in the Schegen area for 90 days with in a 180 day period. You can send here home or send her to Switzerland for another 30 days. 

As for getting her a work visa, I believe you will have to prove that you looked already in Portugal then in the EU before you can get a visa for someone from one of the "third" countries. But you are already in the processes so... I don't know how to advise you. 

Also, you should check if she is allowed to work for you while she is on a tourist visa. You might not want to inform immigrations that she is working for you in PT.


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