According to the Portuguese authorities, police in the country have begun to take measures against all foreigners visiting the country who do not comply with the visa rules for visitors.
The Public Security Police stated that foreigners who have an expired visa and are staying in the territory of Portugal would have to pay fines of about €250.
The Fines
In addition, the authority has also decided to impose a fine on tourists who stay in the country beyond the number of days permitted for short stays.
Tourists can only stay in Portugal for a period of 90 days within a 180-day period. Several media outlets had previously reported that the Public Security Police in Portugal would start imposing fine on visitors.
According to them, all visitors who do not follow the rules would be subjected to the fine, which was around €700.
Even though the current law does permit such amount of fines, the authority denied the claims of imposing it.
It clarified that the fines applicable on visitors and tourists for not following rules were between €40 and €250.
The Statement
The Public Security Police in Portugal said that even though the law did allow them to impose fines of about €700. They had not asked any foreign citizen to pay such fines.
It clarified that if there was any negligence, or if the concerned person decides to go for voluntary payment. The fines imposed are between 40 euros and 250 euros.
The exact amount of fine depends on how long they have overstayed. However, even though the maximum permitted amount has not been imposed as a fine on any foreign visitor, it could be.
The Public Security Police did say that they could go for it in ‘severe’ cases when people break the rules with ulterior motives and internationally.
The Statistics
The Portuguese Agency for Integration revealed data showing that it fined 1,226 foreigners for breaking visa stay rules last year. Of these, the Agency fined 651 for irregularly staying in the country. Additionally, the Agency issued fines for various other reasons, including failure to renew residence permits. While there were also people who did not declare their entry into Portugal.
One of the popular destinations amongst tourists, Portugal receives visitors from all around the globe. Every year, the country records a high number of visa applications.
Data shows that there were about 207,654 Schengen visa applications that Portugal had received in the previous year alone. These applications came from various third world countries.
In the same year, the number of Schengen visas issued stood at 173,927, which included multiple-entry visas.
The number of applications that were turned down was 33,220. This means that about 16% of visa applications were turned down.
