Croatia Non-Schengen - Now Schengen Zone - ISSUE - Please HELP

Yikes. No help but I would think you have a problem. Even if you left Schengen now you would have overstayed unless you just arrived in Poland. I might suggest starting to quickly make an alternate plan for the rest of Poland and Italy. Croatia has been scheduled for a while to become Schengen in 2023, so I wouldn’t think not knowing will be considered an acceptable excuse, but I am certainly far from official.

I'm not sure what offices you are thinking about, but you have a problem and you need to change your itinerary. If I'm correct that is 134 days in the Schengen area and that is not a minor overstay and might lead to a substantial fine and/or ban. Not to mention the risk of getting caught in a random border control and getting deported.

yes we are looking at flights to leave asap. we are not trying to stay any longer.

Good. I don't know what you are planning and where you are staying. But there are many other options, you can add a week in Montenegro and a few days extra in the UK e.g.

Yes, leave as you soon as you can, today.

Just realised that I misunderstood your post. If you've already been in Spain for 36 days and Croatia for 45 day and Poland for 6 days, you are very close to overstaying if not already over.

Hope your exit goes smoothly, however....

As Croatia became a Schengen member on Jan 1, the "i didn't know" may not get much sympathy.

If you are already over 90 day, hopefully the fine will be on the lower end of the range, and you are not deported to 'your home country'. Just "leaving" the Schengen zone may not be an option.

If you are over the 90 day limit, I suggest you buy refundable tickets to where ever, in case you are compelled to 'go home', and cannot use the tickets to 'some non Schengen' destination.

You have already overstayed the 90-day limit. I'm nearly certain there's no way to fix this now. You need to get out of the Schengen area immediately, and I think you need to go somewhere from which you won't later need to take a flight with a connection in a Schengen country. My guess is that Ireland, the UK, or somewhere outside Europe (Morocco, for example) would be best.

You're at serious risk of major negative consequences here--a sizable fine and being banned from all Schengen countries for a number of years are often-mentioned penalties for Schengen overstays, but perhaps they'll be lenient under the circumstances. I'm a bit surprised the Polish Immigration folks didn't say something when you arrived for this second time in Poland on approximately Day 88.

I think all you can do is be polite and explain what happened when it is pointed out that you have overstayed. Accept responsibility; don't get angry. I'd go to the airport very early for my outbound flight, because there's a risk your interview will not be short; there's no sense missing your flight and having to pay for another ticket in addition to all the other possible problems.

thank you everyone for your reply

we are booking direct flights out to the us now

Good luck! Let us know how it goes! (And also good for you for taking action when you realized you have a problem.)

Good luck! And if you can't find a flight to North America tomorrow, it might be a good idea get to Ireland or the UK tomorrow and stay there.

And the advice of getting to the airport early is very good advice! You'll need a few hours buffer.

Pls keep us updated. Good luck!

I took a quick look at the website flightsfrom.com and found there are (apparently) Saturday flights from Warsaw to these places:

NYC, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles
Toronto
London
Edinburgh
Istanbul
Tel Aviv
Dubai
Doha
Cairo
Marrakech

You're already aware of the non-Schengen Balkan countries, and you can fly there from Warsay.

In addition, there are flights to Armenia (Yerevan), Azerbaijan (Baku) and the country of Georgia (Tbilisi), but I don't know how easy it would be to get back to the US from that area without going through a Schengen country. There are also flights to destinations in eastern Asia, but they seem less practical in your situation.

I'd definitely not want to take a flight with a connection in another Schengen country. There used to be a bilateral treaty between the US and Poland that allowed US citizens to remain in Poland after the 90-day Schengen limit. I don't know whether that treaty is still in effect. Even if it is, I have little confidence the Immigration person examining your passport will be aware of it. However, there's a very slight chance it could save you here. That chance will not exist if you get on a plane to, for example, Frankfurt and go through the Schengen exit procedures in Germany.

but I don't know how easy it would be to get back to the US from that
area without going through a Schengen country.

Probably not that easy, but it shouldn't be a problem since you can stay outside the Schengen area when changing planes.

Thank you everyone for your advice. We booked flights out of Poland to the US. We will be sure to take the advice and go to the airport EXTRA early to deal with passport control. And we thought we were so careful when planning this trip last year. What a bust!

In theory you're right, Badger, but in this situation I'd want to avoid as many risks as possible. If something went wrong with the connection, the travelers could end up not being able to stay airside as they had expected. This is at the top of my mind because I've been trying to figure out how I could take advantage of the Danish extra-time loophole without either paying the exorbitant fees for frequent-flyer departures out of the UK or risking an unexpected face-to-face encounter with a Schengen-area Immigration person at some other transfer point.

The non-stop flight to the US makes this concern moot.

In theory you're right, Badger, but in this situation I'd want to
avoid as many risks as possible.

That's probably a good idea, and since to OP found a direct transatlantic flight it's not really a problem.

This is at the top of my mind because I've been trying to figure out
how I could take advantage of the Danish extra-time loophole without
either paying the exorbitant fees for frequent-flyer departures out of
the UK or risking an unexpected face-to-face encounter with a
Schengen-area Immigration person at some other transfer point.

SAS has direct flights from Copenhagen to Washington DC.

we booked a direct flight to Chicago just to ensure the least risk

we booked a direct flight to Chicago just to ensure the least risk

Great! I hope you report back how it went.

Thinking of you today. When you catch your breath, let us know how it all went.

We had absolutely no issues at the airport in Krakow. We went to passport control immediately and the man stamped our passports. We are on the plane now. Thank you everyone.

what a relief!!! so glad you're set.

Wonderful!

Happy to hear your good news!

We had absolutely no issues at the airport in Krakow. We went to passport control immediately and the man stamped our passports

Good to know it went well.

Were you still under the 90 limit? Or did the officer just not want to bother with the paperwork, as it was evident you were 'on the way out' to the US?

If you were over, I wonder if there is a note 'in the system' that will cause a problem next time you try to enter.

In 2018 my daughter-law-to be overstayed her student visa by close to 3 months after meeting my son. There was no issue when they left for and returned to her home in Iceland later that summer, and she had no issue moving around Europe for her classes after, or on their subsequent return to Iceland in 2019. And no issues on her entry to the US after her Green Card as granted in 2020.

About the only issue was that because of the overstay I could not get them to go in to IRS in Philly to do the simple process for her ITIN as that probably would have set off alarms; the inability to do this caused all of us aggravation getting it the hard way the following year while they were abroad (but that is a whole other long story).

Larry....does your daughter in law have an Icelandic passport? If so, Iceland is part of Schengen.

In what country was she studying?

Actually overstaying a student visa by 3 months is not an issue if your nationality is one that does not require a visa to travel to Europe. For the purpose of calculating compliance with the 90 days in 180 rule days stayed on a long term visa (eg. a student visa) are not counted. Therefore is not an issue for many nationalities to go and tour Europe a bit after finishing a year studying.

Hi, Frank II. My d.i.l. is an Icelandic native and citizen. The U.S. was one of several places that she has taken study abroad courses, the only non-Schengen one. She was not concerned about being able to return to Iceland late, but they did not want to have IRS question her if I sent them to apply for an ITIN. The ITIN was necessary as they married before she left and his taxes would be filed from Iceland. As they had immediately applied for a Green Card on marriage with our sponsoring her, my son could NOT ignore the marriage and file as single as the relationship had to be fully proven. And a tax return was unfortunately necessary for him as although he had no taxable income after deductions for the year and nothing had been withheld, so that a return was otherwise not due, he had received ACA credits until they married. And even though no refund nor underpayment was involved, one must file a return if they get ACA credits. And believe it or not, he could not file married separately as a quirk in the law says that you cannot receive ACA credits if you file married separately - even though this happened before the marriage - and there would have been a nasty penalty if he did so.

There was actually a bigger problem end of year. HE was waiting for his work visa in Prague, and it took too long. They had planned to spend XMAS in Reykjavik (she was in classes in Germany), but I caught that HE was over the 90 days, and surely would have been caught on passport check transferring in Gatwick or on return to Prague. I was able to convince him to stay put and she came to him, the work visa came though shortly thereafter. At this point after getting her Green Card and 2+ years in the U.S. they have returned to Iceland for grad school and I suspect possible full-time residence, he will certainly get naturalized ending that issue.