French Schengen Visa Valid

[sirlim]

Hi!

I have a 'Circular' (1-year multiple entry) schengen visa issued by the French embassy in Manila last December 2013. It is technically valid until January next year. Can I still use it to travel to Germany and the Netherlands later this month given that both countries are not part of the original travel plan that made me apply for that French visa in the first place?

Also, another hypothetical question. In case they say a visa is valid for 3 months, multiple entry but the "Duration of Stay" field says 15 days. Does the 15 days refer to how long each visit should last at most or the total number of days you can stay in the Schengen zone for all your visits during that validity period?

[ban.s]

Yes, you can use the visa for travel to Netherlands and Germany as long as it's valid and you haven't travelled total of 90 days within 180 days period.

Circulation visas with validity 1 year or longer usually state duration of stay = 90 and they can be used for travel upto total 90 days in each 180 day period. So in 1 year, 90 days in first 180 days; the clock is reset again, so again 90 days in the next 180 days.

Shorter duration visas can only be used for travel upto the period mentioned in the duration of stay; so a 6 month visa with duration of stay =15 can be used for max 15 days stay (either consecutive or multiple visits) within the validity of the visa.

[sirlim]

Thank you for your answer.

I am getting mixed messages about whether this is allowed. On one hand I had friends who used their French Schengen visa to travel to other Schengen states after coming back to the UK from a trip to France (i.e. France-UK for several days-other Schengen countries-UK for several months-other Schengen countries). My friends were based in the UK at the time. But on the other hand, I heard horror stories in this forum (e.g. http://www.immigrationboards.com/europe ... 21011.html ) about nationals being denied another Schengen visa for failing to use it to visit his "main" destination country.

I can prove that at least for my first visit, I used my French Schengen visa for France (as evidenced by exit stamps at Gare du Nord, albeit it is faint yet I have a "back-up" stamp from the UK border officer at Gare du Nord).

Will visiting Germany and the Netherlands on my 2nd Schengen trip on the said French Schengen visa be a particular problem if I plan to apply for a Danish Schengen visa (which I may likely do in the spring as I wish to visit Denmark)?

[ban.s]

You are free to visit any Schengen country during the validity of the visa.

Schengen authorities however may refuse to grant future visas if they felt the applicant abused the previous visa and was a merely a visa shopper. This is primarily inferred if (a) the applicant didn't even visit the country that issued the schengen visa and/or (b) The applicant visited the country that issued the visa but not in their first trip.

[sirlim]

For the first visit, in case the exit stamp placed by the French schengen authorities is unclear/not inked properly (to prove that one indeed stayed in France), how worried should one be in the future? What if one has a UK entry stamp done in Paris? I also hear that poorly-inked stamps or not even stamping at all is something the French passport authorities may be known for (especially at CDG airport).

[ban.s]

Stamp on passport doesn't conclusively prove visit to a particular country. As schengen is a border free area, stamp on passport is given at the first port or entry / last port of departure irrespective of the main destination. E.g. you may have a dutch issued schengen visa but if you don't directly fly into a dutch airport and travel via Paris or Frankfurt or Zurich through a connecting flight, then the passport will bear the entry stamp of CDG/FRA/ZRH. Similarly stamping is not always done in borders such as Calais / Dover.
Schengen authorities are aware of such situation especially travel options though key Hub European airports and I wouldn't worry too much.
Suspicion usually occurs if the travel pattern is completely different e.g. - French issued visa holder has first entry stamp of Greece or Malta; German issued schegen visa holder first entered Malaga in Spain....etc.

[sirlim]

So suspicions will more likely occur if we used an airport usually not recognised to be a major hub/gateway? We entered through Rome Fiumicino on a French Schengen visa last time though we declared that during our last visa application (passport stamp was also unclear on that occasion).

[ban.s]

It was just an example and there could be hundreds of travel optionas to the schengen area so don't pay too much attention to the travel via key hub airports

[sirlim]

Thanks so much for this advice. At least I don't need to worry about solely travelling to Germany and the Netherlands on a circular French schengen visa (or do I?), though I am planning to apply for a Danish Schengen visa as I intend to visit Denmark first then France - 3 days each in the spring so that makes me nervous.

It brings me to another topic: how do I deal with issues such as stamps not properly inked? This has happened twice (both entry and exit) during my previous schengen visas. The stamps are barely legible. I am worried that unless I can show my UK entry stamp done at Paris, I may have difficulty proving that I did not overstay.

[ban.s]

I personally don't think there should not be any issue.
Having said that I haven't seen your passport stamps and I will not be making a decision on your future application. As a backup keep supporting documents from your previous trips especially transportation, hotel booking and credit card statements (if applicable) handy.

recently I took some of my family members on a roadtrip to Europe. The French border officials at Dover didn't stamp the passport; so there isn't any entry stamp
on return also french officials at calais allowed us to pass without any passport check - however this time we stopped the car, walked to the immigration counter and asked them to put a departure stamp. so there is no entry stamp on the passport but a departure stamp. and the funny part, the UK Border entry stamp bears an incorrect date.

so in future apply in good faith and In the unfortunate case of any dispute you can provide those additional documents to support your claim

[sirlim]

I do have the following:
a) boarding card for my trip from the UK to Italy (in my mobile phone)
b) Eurostar reservation (I don't know where the actual ticket is since it was a print out from my computer and I obviously can't access past tickets anymore)
c) UK entry stamp in Paris
d) credit card statements

The worst part is authorities in neither schengen country I visited scanned my passport into their database hence they don't have a record of their own of when I actually entered.

One final question, once we are in the Schengen area and almost midway into our trip, are we allowed to slightly shorten our trip our stay in what was originally our "main" destination to the effect that it is no longer our "main" destination (e.g. 6 days in Italy and 9 days in France in that particular order became 8 days in Italy and 7 days in France)?

[ban.s]

Travel plans do change for various reasons and often these are unavoidable circumstances however it's recommended not to change something that would have had material impact on the original decision.
Having said that no one is going to check what combination of days you spent in France and Italy. You are probably bit worried because ideally you should have applied for Italian schengen not only because you spent most time there but it was your first port of entry. But anyway you can't change anything and I don't believe this will have any issue as you indeed travelled to France and have French stamp + UK entry stamp from Paris Gare Du Nord.

[sirlim]

The main thing that brought about that change was a decision to extend our stay in the UK (before travelling to the Schengen area) as someone joined our travelling party at the last minute and wanted to see the UK with us. As we bought a non-refundable/non-amenable Eurostar ticket that departs France, it meant that the total number of days we spent in the Schengen area would be reduced. The originally Italy segment was already compressed at 2 nights per destination and reducing it further would press us for time since these destinations involve a considerable amount of distance.

Let's just wait and see