Africa-Press – Angola. The scheduling of visa applications for Portugal at the Luanda consulate will have new rules as of June 25, with a prepayment of the service, announced the Portuguese ambassador to Angola.
According to the Portuguese ambassador to Angola, Francisco Alegre Duarte, who was speaking on the sidelines of the Day of Portugal celebrations, the objective is to reduce no-shows, whose rate is high.
Currently, the visa scheduling and processing service is provided by the company VFS, which charges users a fee of 36 euros, which will be charged at the time of scheduling.
“It’s another way to fight the abusive use of online scheduling platforms”, underlined the Portuguese diplomat quoted by Lusa.
The consul general of Portugal in Luanda, Cláudia Boesch explained that this modality (pre-payment of the VFS service fee) is already operating in other countries, aiming to reduce the no-show rate.
“Right now the no-show rate is around 30 to 40%, with this solution we think we will reduce it to 7 or 8%”, he said.
In his speech alluding to the commemorations of the 10th of June, at the Portuguese School in Luanda, the ambassador stressed the wish that Portugal and Angola continue to work “side by side with the common objective of shared prosperity”, listing the various areas of Portuguese cooperation already underway.
“On our national day we do not celebrate so much what sets us apart from others, but what brings us together”, concluded the ambassador, who has held the post in Luanda for about three months.
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