Visas – Priceless
We finally got up the energy to take a leave Santorini, but we only made it as far as Naxos, another beautiful island in the sun. During our down time here we started to work out our plans for the next few months. This part of the trip has always been a vague “we’ll just go around Europe until October,” but now we actually have to start mapping out a real route.
Remember all those stories about kids just out of college who backpack around France and Spain for 6 months? Well, it turns out to be a lot more complicated than that. We learned more about something called a Schengen visa than I cared to know. I had heard of it before, but didn’t really think it applied to us. I’ve been to Europe – you just show up, they stamp your passport, and you go have a nice holiday, right? That’s partially true…if you are only planning to be in “Schengen countries” for less than 90 days out of 180.
No problem, we thought. There are still a few places in Europe that are not part of the Schengen agreement, so we can go to there to help gain a little extra time by leaving the region. Switzerland was one of these countries and we had planned to spend about 3 weeks there. In the 6 months since we’ve been gone, things changed. The Swiss joined the Schengen counties in January, so now any time we spend there will count toward our 90 days. Turkey is another country which is not part of the agreement, but we’ve already been there. Croatia and the UK are just about the only places that are not part of the Schengen region that we wanted to visit. And Liechtenstein, which might be good a few extra days too.
Before I get a bunch a comments saying that there are ways around this, we’ve checked out all the options already. One option that seems to come up on internet message boards and is popular with students is to just overstay. The risk is that you might be fined, if they even notice that you are still here, or you might get your future rights to a visa revoked. There’s also the possibility of jail time, but the “experts” on the internet seem to think this has a low probability. It still doesn’t sound like a very good plan to me. I might want to come back and visit these places again, aside from the fact that fines and jail don’t sound like much fun.
The other option is to get an extension to your visa. The information on the web is confusing and often contradictory on how to do this. Since we are US citizens, we are part of a Schengen visa waiver program. It means that we didn’t have to get an actual visa because it’s waived, but we are still subject to the same 90 day requirements as if we had a Schengen visa. That’s all fine until you attempt to get an extension to a visa that you don’t actually have. Did I lose you yet?
If you understood all that, the next step would be to go to the local police station or high commission in whatever country where you want stay past the 90 days. They all have different procedures, but generally you have to fill out a lot of forms, show proof that you have insurance, lots of money, and won’t be a burden to their society. At that point, most people get rejected and sent back home.
We’ve decided to go with option three, which is just to count our days carefully, spend some extra time in non-Schengen countries, and to make the most of the what we have. 12 days and counting…
We put a few of those days to good use here in Naxos. This view is near the entrance to the harbor called the Portara, the doorway to a temple of Apollo that is 2500 years old.
halftime
May 12th, 2009 at 6:25 am
I would just go to Ireland and stay forever and ever…
May 12th, 2009 at 10:32 am
That’s useful information but its left me a little confused..how would the authorities know whether you’ve been staying in a “non-Schengen” or “Schengen country”?
Back in 2003, I remember crossing the Liechtenstein/Switzerland border daily without so much as an immigration check.
May 12th, 2009 at 10:43 am
From what I’ve read, it’s your responsibility to make sure you get a passport stamp, or keep hotel receipts to prove where you where. Sounds like a pain, but I’m not really complaining… just glad to be here.
May 12th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Also, most immigration checkpoint guys in the Schengen countries won’t really check or care whether you’ve overstayed. The problem comes when you try to leave the region (for example to come back to the US). That’s when they will actually check to stamp you out and find out whether you’ve been around too long. It’s possibly even automatic if your passport was swiped in one of those readers when you first enter the region.
May 13th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Sheesh, spend your days on the Intertubes trying to elude the Visa police. Good thing you don’t have a job….or wait.
I guess you do. :>)