Spain and Portugal are part of Schengen zone. You need to have a Schengen visa from the country that will be your point of entry to EU. So if you land in Paris, you'll need Schengen visa from France and that visa enables you to travel freely to any Schengen zone country.
So where you apply depends on what your point of entry is. Also, what is your nationality? Having a green card will definitely help with obtaining a visa but maybe you don't have to have visa at all?
I know quite well how the Schengen visa works. I have lived in Spain for a year and a quarter.
I understand that you do not need to apply to the country of your first entry necessarily. You have to apply to the country in which you will be staying the most. I tell you this because I'm Peruvian, i am a LPR and there aren't many direct flights from Lima to European cities (in fact, Peruvians enter through Madrid or Amsterdam). The friends i have that now live in Europe have entered this way but their connections in the end were of course to other places in the EU (from Madrid / Amsterdam to France, Germany, Italy, etc etc).
In my case, there were and still are direct flights from Lima to Madrid, so i applied directly to the Spanish Consulate. That situation is clearly stated also in their visa applications. Choose an EU consulate of your preference and look for the application instructions...
Anyway, my quesion was not related to the way the Schengen visa work, but to the way the EU Consulates deal with the visa applications. To let myself being understood, i will have to say that the spanish consulate in Lima is just a bunch of miserable jerks who are willing to make you suffer while applying and processing a tourist visa (and those who want to immigrate lawfully via family or work aren't that well treated too). My last experience with them was in sept. 2001 and it seems they haven't changed their ways. But to add more suffering to this, my mother applied for a visa to visit me while i was in Spain. At that time she was a LPR and she asked for 15 days. Although she is a moderately affluent person, she was only given 7 days and after she politely asked for a consideration since she wanted to visit me, she was told to not to use the visa if she didn't agree with the decision and to apply again after the visa period was expired. Of course this angered her and cancelled her trip.
I have been told by an travel agent in Lima that the Portuguese consulate is usually more flexible about the visa procedures and, of course, there they treat you like human being. In fact, with a Schengen visa you can send to hell your pre-arranged plans and travel freely through the Schengen agr. territories, as long as you spend one night in the original place of stay in your application.
I want to make a trip to Europe the next year (most likely october), which i think it will take 28 days. As i will be living in the NYC area, i just wanted to know if any European consulate is flexible enough (well, i know it's not easy but i do not want to be humilliated while in the process, i'm no sado) to ask for a tourist visa that will enable me to make such a travel (in fact, less than 21 days is no good and i don't want to waste my time having an argument with a square-headed good-for-nothing bureaucreat).
I hope this gives more insight to what i'm looking for.
Mozzer
