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I am a Canadian and waiting for my Portuguese citizenship now. I spent 60 days in Portugal already and want to go to France during Christmas time. Can I enter France even my stay in Schengen is more then 90days? I have my application copy from the immigration department, can this be the proof of my stay?

Queenie
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  • What do you mean by “proof of your stay” and “waiting for my Portuguese citizenship”? If you are not (yet) a Portuguese citizen, you have to abide by the 90/180 rule. – Relaxed Nov 04 '15 at 22:37
  • Where will you be between now and Christmas? – Relaxed Nov 04 '15 at 22:37
  • I will stay in Portugal because my lawyer in Portugal told me that once I applied the Portugese citzenship, I am eligible to stay in Portugal to wait for my official citizenship card. – Queenie Nov 04 '15 at 22:42
  • Is there any way that I can travel from Portugal to France in such case? – Queenie Nov 04 '15 at 22:43
  • @Queenie Are you naturalizing or you are just trying to confirm your Portuguese citizenship? – Karlson Nov 04 '15 at 22:48
  • This is my first time applying for the Portugese citizenship and the so called "EU card". I am still waiting for it. I am worry that I can't go to France during Christmas. – Queenie Nov 04 '15 at 22:52
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    @Queenie it depends on the legal basis for your stay in Portugal and on the basis for your Portuguese citizenship application. – phoog Nov 04 '15 at 22:52
  • @phoog2 what do you mean by legal basis of my stay? I applied for my citizenship in Progutal through the Golden Visa program. I purchased some property over the value of 500 thousand euro and applied for the citizenship. Can I still travel to France even I stayed more than 90 days in Portugal? – Queenie Nov 04 '15 at 22:59
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    Golden visa allows for permanent residency, which you should still have while your citizenship application is in process. – Karlson Nov 04 '15 at 23:23
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    Have you already held the golden visa for six years? Or are you applying for it for the first time? If the latter, then you are not in fact applying for citizenship. – phoog Nov 04 '15 at 23:50
  • As the OP has added a "Thank you" answer:

    You can also mark an answer that you found resolved your question (if any did) as accepted by clicking the tick mark next to it.

     – CMaster Nov 06 '15 at 16:13

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Since you are applying for citizenship of Portugal under the terms of the Golden Visa program, you have presumably held such a visa for at least six years. If that is the case, then you are a Portuguese resident, and time spent in Portugal does not count for the 90/180 rule. In that case, you can travel to France without any problem.

If in fact you are applying for the golden visa for the first time, you are exempted from the 90/180 rule in Portugal while this application is pending, but time spent in Portugal still counts as far as authorities of other Schengen countries are concerned. In that case, you would not be allowed to travel to France after spending 90 days in Portugal.

In practice, however, you are unlikely to encounter any problems if you travel to France, since there are no border checks unless you drive through Andorra.

phoog
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    +1 but I am not sure your inference is correct. The question is a bit confusing but the fact that the OP has only been in Portugal for 60 days and that a lawyer told him he is tolerated on the basis of his application (for citizenship?) suggests he has no current long-stay visa. – Relaxed Nov 05 '15 at 07:50
  • @Relaxed I also rather suspect my inference is incorrect. The facts you cite suggest that the second interpretation is more likely, that the pending application is in fact for the permit, not citizenship (has the golden visa program even existed for six years?). I wrote the answer to give more weight to the OP's statements because I was uncomfortable about assuming that they were misguided. – phoog Nov 05 '15 at 13:49
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Since you are apparently not a Portuguese citizen at the moment, the answer would seem to be negative. France grants extensive rights to EU citizens but is not bound to recognize any special status or tolerance granted by Portugal. So waiting for Portuguese citizenship is not relevant per se.

In practice, there are a few details (including the lack of border controls between France, Spain and Portugal) that makes the situation a bit more blurry but as far as the letter of the law is concerned and until you actually become a Portuguese/EU citizen, you have no right to be in France past 90 days in the Schengen area without a French long-stay visa or residence permit.

Alternatively, a Portuguese long-stay visa or residence permit would also work in this situation because the time spent in Portugal would not count towards the 90-day limit and only the stay in France would happen under short-stay rules (cf. Can I visit Schengen countries on a Type-D Schengen Visa?).

Community
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Relaxed
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