Schengen question?

[Flaneuse78]

Hello All,

I have been perusing the forums on Schengen visas and find the information very helpful. I have a few questions about Schengen travel and hope that someone can answer it for me...

I arrived in France on 25 Nov 2006, and overstayed my 90-day allowance by 19 days. This was outside my control, because I was waiting for the US embassy to reissue me a new passport to replace my damaged one. Leaving France, I was not stopped for overstaying. I am now back in the US, trying to return to France as soon as possible.

From my calculations, the 180-day period ends on May 24. So does this mean that I can return to France on May 24 for another 90 days? What about my overstay? Could I be denied entrance because of that, even if they didn't catch me on the way out?

Here's the tricky part: Because I have a new passport, I only have the stamp from when I left France, and not for when I entered on 25 Nov 2006. I have my old passport with the stamp from 25 Nov 2006, but it also has the other stamps to prove that I overstayed. Its a Catch-22 situation: my old passport will prove that I am starting a new 180-day period, but also proves that I overstayed. What to do?

One last related question: I remembered that the French authorities scanned my passport on the way into France. Now I have a new passport with a different number. I am wondering that even if they scan my new passport, could they match me up with my old passport? Would they go to such lengths? Am I stressing too much about all of this? I don't want to do anything illegal--I just want to return to France!

I hope someone can help me, or at least share some similar experiences. Thanks so much in advance.

[camorra11]

I am in almost your exact same situation and am trying to resolve it.

I am an American citizen, 19 years old, arrived in France on February 1 and my 90 day visa (tourist, on my passport) is due to expire by May 1 (thereabouts plus a few days because Feb has 28 days). When I arrived in France, I had been told by numerous people that all I had to do was leave the EU for a day or so, say to go to Switzerland, and then return to France to have my 90 day visa renewed. Today I have found out that this is actually not the case because of the 90 day in 180 day rule in the Schengen space.

I am desperately looking for a way to prolong my stay in France. A few questions:

1) For the 90 day in 180 day rule -- is this 90 consecutive days? Can I for example leave the Schengen space before my 90 days are up and re-enter and then have a new 90 days? Or can I just not spend up to 90 days anywhere in the Schengen area in a 180 day period?
2) If I return to the US (I'm an American) can I apply for a long stay visa and then re-enter France on that visa? Or must I wait until the 90 days outside of the Schengen space have passed to re-enter France period, regardless of it's on a long stay visa or not?
3) Is there any way I can go to the Prefecture and ask for an extension of my 90 day tourist visa? Most gov't websites I check say they will refuse me, but does anyone know someone who has done this?

Thank you for any help you can give me.

[Flaneuse78]

Hi Camorra11,

For my own situation, I did a bit of research, so hopefully I can answer your questions. However, I am no immigration expert. Here goes.

1) It is not 90 consecutive days, its 90 days TOTAL in a period of 180 days, which begins on your first day in Schengen territory. After your 90 days are up, you cannot reenter Schengen territory after leaving for a few days--this does not restart the clock and give you 90 more days.

2) The Schengen tourist visa and a French long-stay visa are completely different things--you don't have to wait the requisite 90 days before returning to France on a long stay visa. This is the route I tried. I wanted to apply for a French long stay visa to return to France as soon as possible without having to wait. However, this is much harder than it sounds. I was told at the Consulate that 1) The visa would take at least 6 weeks to acquire, 2) You have to prove at least 1800 dollars per month in the bank (I got very conflicting information regarding the number), 3) Have a prepaid lease on an apartment, 4) Health insurance for the entire duration, 5) a bunch of other documentation, and 6) I would probably be rejected anyway (They told me that the longstay visa is normally for people wanting to make France their legal residence, like retirees). In the end, it proved not worth it for me, because even if I got the longstay visa, by the time it was issued, I would be able to travel back to France without a visa anyway.

3) Don't even bother going to the Prefecture. I tried this too. They're terribly bureaucratic and rude, and give you no useful information. They did tell me, however, that they only grant extensions on tourist visas in cases of emergency (lost/stolen passport, medical emergency, etc.). It sounds like you need a pretty good reason.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, drop me a message. I could point you to a few other sites with information.