Hello everyone. I encountered an issue with the visa applications for Portugal for my wife and daughter in China. I obtained my residence card at the end of last year (2023) and applied for my wife and daughter's visas at Portugal's visa center in Beijing earlier this year so that they could visit me. However, the result came with a refusal of the visa application as they stated that they believed my wife and daughter could have the possibility to stay in Portugal for longer than allowed by the visa. When we were applying for the visas we did not expect a refusal since we believe a visa for visiting family members is a simple matter. We had documents demonstrating our financial ability to afford a 90-day stay in Portugal but did not go into details about our plan in Portugal.
Although we did not fully explain our intention to go and stay in Portugal in the visa application, one of the officials in charge of the visa application called us to gather more information on this. In the call, we honestly told them that my daughter is currently not enrolled in a Chinese high school (because we just came back from Canada where she did a few years of study but did not like the life there), but we want to visit Portugal for a short period to let my daughter to experience the life there and to take a look to see if she like the country and its educational system. We are not certain about whether she will stay in Portugal for her studies and we might go to other destinations in the future if she decides that she does not want to stay there. Therefore, we applied for visas to allow my wife and daughter to visit me in Portugal instead of a family reunion visa. The official did not say much further but just told us that we should apply again for the family reunion visa, and then we got the refusal on our application not long after the call.
I want to make an appeal against the visa refusal by the methods outlined by the visa center. Either:
- Appeal to its hierarchically superior administrative organ (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), within 30 days, from the notice of the refusal/revocation/annulment (according to article 59 CPTA referred to by article 193 number 2 CPA) in that case, the appeal must be directed to the minister holding the Foreign Affairs portfolio.
or
- Lodge the special administrative action of annulment, together with a plea for the emission of the due administrative act (within a deadline of 3 months counting from the notice of the refusal/revocation/annulment, according to articles 69 e 59 CPTA) in the competent court of law (Lisbon's Tribunal Administrativo de Círculo, as determined by article 22 CPTA).
However, I am not sure what documents I need for either of these two methods and where I should send the documents. I am really confused about where the appeal should go in the first method. After some research online I did not gather much useful information. Someone also said that a lawyer would be needed for an appeal, but how and where can I find a lawyer on this, and if anyone knows the approximate cost of this?
Thanks for everyone's help in advance.
