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I am residing in UK for the last 1 year and I am holding a C type Multiple entry Schengen Tourist Visa in my Indian Passport which is valid until 2020. This was issued for France, couple of months before. My spouse is a British citizen and I got this visa as a family member of EU/EEA citizen.

I am having a conference for 3 days (official visit) in Portugal on Feb 2019. The flight ticket, accommodation bookings will be taken care by my office as it will be a group trip. Could someone please let me know I require another Schengen business visa for visiting Portugal for this conference or can I use my existing Schengen tourist visa?

If I could use the Schengen tourist visa, do I need to carry any documents with me when travelling ?

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  • Related travel.stackexchange.com/questions/51192/…
    – RedBaron
    Dec 21, 2018 at 16:27
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    You've got two issues: the purpose of the visit and the fact that you're traveling without your spouse. Neither issue disqualifies you from using your existing visa. You should always be able to document your compliance with the Schengen entry conditions when you enter the Schengen area, however, so yes, you should carry the documents, though the chance that you will need to show them is probably small.
    – phoog
    Dec 21, 2018 at 17:24
  • Thank you for the response. So on the schengen visa for France, it does mention “Famile EU/EEA”. Do you think I would need my wife to travel with me or should our marriage documents be sufficient?
    – Arunm007
    Dec 22, 2018 at 18:46

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There is no such thing as a "Schengen Tourist Visa". What you have is a uniform short-stay visa, which is valid for short visits to anywhere in the Schengen area for any legal purpose.

You may have originally applied for the visa based on a tourist visit, but since you were granted a multiple-entry visa, the particular purpose you applied for does not restrict which kind of visits you can use the visa for later.

(This assumes that your visa does not have any annotation on it that says it can only be used when you're accompanying your spouse. The rules seem to allow member states to issue such restricted visas when they're based on being family members of EU/EEA citizens, but it does not appear to be common -- and it would in any case be strange to do so if they otherwise trust you enough to issue it with two years of validity).

As a third-country national you should always be prepared to document your plans and purpose of the visit when you enter the Schengen area. (This holds for both visa-free entry and short-stay visas). The probability of actually needing this documentation is generally pretty low, but may depend on how white and/or scruffy you look.

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  • Thank you for the response. So on the schengen visa for France, it does mention “Famile EU/EEA”. Do you think I would need my wife to travel with me or should our marriage documents be sufficient?
    – Arunm007
    Dec 22, 2018 at 18:44
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    @Arunm007: Does it actually says "France" instead of "États Schengen" in the "valid for" field?
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Dec 22, 2018 at 21:58
  • It says “Etats Schengen” for “Valid for” field but on the top right corner it says FRA in a yellow colour writing
    – Arunm007
    Dec 23, 2018 at 23:49
  • @Arunm007: The country code in the top right identifies the issuing state; it does not limit the validity. I think you can ignore the "Famile EU/EEA" notation -- it seems just to document the circumstances of the issuing (e.g. that you wouldn't have needed to pay for the application), but that has no direct relevance at the border.
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Dec 23, 2018 at 23:55

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