How many countries come in Schengen?

Is it possible to visit any schengen country when you have applied for a visa to portugal?

• i have applied for a schengen visa as im visiting Portugal. however there is a 5 hr and 14 hr halt at Paris and Amsterdam respectively while flying to Portugal. is it possible to go around the place while im there? both the places come under the schengen countries.

• Answer:

  Actually "it is not possible" but "you must" enter the first Schengen country you arrive at, since that is where you go through the immigration process. A principle of the Schengen agreement is strict control on the outer borders, no control (open borders) for travel between the Schengen countries. Your visa valid for "Estados Schengen" covers that. The flights to your second and your final destination will be Schengen internal flights without any immigration/customs controls, you just need to show your passport to the airline check-in agents. A 5 hours stop will not be sufficient to explore the city, it will take more than one hour to go through immigration, pick-up the baggage and go through customs check. The 14 hours stopover gets you a good chance to take a train and go to the city center. BTW: The previous answerer has provided some incorrect information from a commercial website. Bulgaria and Romania are no Schengen countries at present, Switzerland has joined the Schengen zone in 2008. http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/WillkommeninD/EinreiseUndAufenthalt/Schengen.html ..