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I am an Indian national and plan to travel to Portugal for a competition. This would be under Business reasons and the host will sponsor my stay there. However, I also wish to travel to neighbouring Schengen countries for tourism before/after the competition and probably arrive/depart through different Schengen countries for this.

The invitation letter received from the competition host includes only the competition dates. Is it fine if I apply for a business visa with more days of visit? How should I fill "Cost of travelling and living during stay" section in visa?

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There's no such thing as a dedicated "business visa" for Schengen -- only a uniform short-stay visa, which you can get if you present a coherent story about why you want to visit the area and why you'd want to go back home afterwards. Attending a competition is one such story to tell (and checking the "business" option when the form asks for the overall purpose of your visit is probably the right choice).

Since the competition is clearly your main purpose for going to Europe, you should apply to Portugal for your visa. However it is common and entirely allowed to combine a business purpose with a bit of tourism, especially when you're already traveling halfway around the world. You should provide full details of the entire trip you plan to make in the visa application to Portuguese consulate.

If your expenses are are covered partly by your host in Portugal and partly by yourself, simply state that truthfully. If the application form doesn't allow you to explain the truth in a clear way (note what you can usually check more than one of the options for most questions when several apply), answer its questions as well as you can, and give the full story in a free-form field or a separate enclosure with the application.

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  • Is it fine if I arrive/depart at different countries than Portugal?
    – evil999man
    Commented Jan 27, 2019 at 22:30
  • @evil999man: Yes, completely. Commented Jan 27, 2019 at 22:30
  • @evil999man, you should explain your itinerary and then stick to that. It would be "go to the competition, a bit of tourism before and after, arrival here, internal flight there, and so on."
    – o.m.
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 6:08
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As I have done always when applying for a schengen visa , for any tourism after the planned business time, it has to be supported by means of appropriate air ticket of return or onward travel as applicable and of course booking of stay done at decent places. As long as you have a decent earning to back your self financing claim of your stay after the business it should be OK.

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