I want to stay in Europe!

Well, here we go again.

A tourist visa allows you to stay in Schengen countries up to 90 days during a 180 day period. So, just going out and returning will not do it. (So, if you stayed in Schengen for 90 days, you'd have to leave for 90 days before you could legally return.)

If you attempt to live under the radar, you take the risk of being caught. If caught, the penalty would not only include immediate deportation but the possibility of being banned from Schengen countries for up to 10 years.

An extended tourist visa (one that allows you to stay past the 90 days) is only around $45 US, so it probably is a good idea to consider just paying that amount in order to be able to legally move around the EU for your extended period of time.

For more information, contact the embassy of the EU country that you will be first arriving to. Information is available on the US State Department website - click the country of arrival at the bottom and then get the contact info for their US embassy.

There also are visas that allow you to travel and even work in EU countries - these are not difficult to obtain for American and Canadian citizens. Talk to the embassy for more details if you want to be spending a bit of time working while you move around.

Come home. You have taxes to pay.

There are several regular posters here who have a good working knowledge of the applicable laws. Read their responses carefully. One thing that most regulars will not do, however, is give advice on how to get around the law.

Tom is right. We are not going to give you advice on how to break the law. It is unethical and you should have a higher personal standards than to become a law breaker. A major segment of this country is very unhappy about illegal immigration and you want to be an illegal alien in another country?

Information for Reg. Us expats over here in Europe are also required to file income tax in the States. One is not excused from that just cause you live overseas.

Ashley, if you want to stay here, you will need to find a job. This will be easier in some places then others. Teaching English is quite popular in many of the big cities, or working in day cares that want native English speakers. These firms will help you get a residency permit and work permit. Or, you can try finding a job on one of the military bases. They do not pay very much though.

I do NOT recommend trying to stay here without going through the legal channels. Please pay attention to what Kent and some of the others have told you.

Good luck job hunting.

Getting a student visa to stay in Europe is not and should not be viewed as an easy way to overstep the Schengen rules. I'm in the process of applying for mine, and unless you have concrete proof from a university or other learning institution (as well as a good chunk of money in your bank account to cover monthly expenses, a round-trip plane ticket back home, etc.) they will not issue you the visa. Long story short, if you want a student visa, you better be enrolled in some sort of study abroad program or accepted to a European university with serious plans to attend classes. Otherwise you'll find yourself in a lot of trouble.

Sorta kinda similar to this topic....there is a potential my husband's job could pull him to Europe (more of a hope than a reality), It could be Amsterdam or Germany. So he would have a work visa - no prolbem. However he read on some blog somewhere that I would be required to take 600 hours of educational classes because I would be without a job. Is that true? Just curious. It might not really even happen, but we can dream. (My dreams don't consist of 600 classroom hours though!!)

Amy...your husband's company should be able to fill him in about that. But in most cases, a spouse isn't given the automatic right to work when their partner is transferred because of their employment. I'm not sure where the 600 hours of class time comes from.

The ability of the spouse to work depends on the work visa issued. I was given automatically given a work visa when my husband was given highly skilled migrant visa in the Netherlands.

I definitely did not have to take any classes upon moving here. Although I wish I had taken some more intensive Dutch classes.

That's true Laura....but that's a migrant visa. I think the question dealt with someone being transferred overseas for work, not a potential migrant. With employment visas suchas that, spouses are rarely granted permission to work, unless they apply on their own merits for similar permission. It might do to check American corporations that do business in your husband's potential destinations and offer your services to see if they'll grant you your own work visa.

Please forgive me, it's the grammarian in me. What does "currenty took" mean.

Obviously she means "is currently taking", or "is currently on", not "currently took". I think most people understood without you pointing out the error in her sentence structure. (And by the way, it says "currently took", not "currenty took" -- but I still understood what you meant.)

James, seeing that you haven't been posting long you might not understand Norma's post 666. It's just that there have beem similar post in the past. No one here that posts will tell a person how to break the law. Just a suggestion, but think before posting unkind remarks.

James, Norma.....take it outside.

Norm,

I believe all work visa in the Netherlands are migrant visas. Whether is it is a migrant visa or a highly skilled migrant visa has to do with the level of salary and skill set. It doesn't have anything to do with the length or future plans.

I forgot to mention that he read this specifically about Germany (the 600 hrs). I have never come across this, so I am wondering how accurate his information is. He got is from a blog and you know how useless those are....just kidding ;)

So yeah, his company is picking up steam overseas and we have no reason to think he would go except by shear determination on his part to get a spot. So we like to dream.

Well if I won't be able to work, 600 hrs isn't a bad way to keep me busy and acclimate me to the new surrounding...but being studious was never my strong point.

Well, Eddie did say he/she was a gramarrian not a speller

"It's just that there have beem similar posts in the past."

And in some of those, the posters became defensive and a bit rude when we tried to explain the applicable laws, which conflicted with what they wanted to hear. Call it "cognitive dissonance". So, that's to what Norma was referring. To her credit, so far, that has not been Ashley's response.

James, why don't you read your last posting....and follow your own advice.

I love you guys

I am just glad I have dual citizenship and can travel on a EU passport when I go to Europe! The Schengen visa regulations seem to have complicated rather than simplified travel in Europe.

Where is Ashley???

Thank you for responding everyone...
I want to stay in Europe and I want to do it the correct way. I don't want to get into any legal problems...
I guess the best thing to do is visit the embassy and ask them what my options are... but i know that if i want to work here in Europe legally i have to find an employer who will sign my visa and the work i currently have isn't going to go through that with me... yes i can search i guess for some english speaking job and hope they sign my visa but the country that i am currently in, everyone already speaks english

I just want to stay for the rest of the summer, so three months over the 90 day stay I am allowed. there has to be some way that this can work!?? Do you really think customs is going to stop me when i fly home if i only stay three months over my stay?

Jo, like many newcomers who don't get the answers they want, they simply disappear. Probably to another board where they'll help her break the law.

Hopefully she is too embarrassed to come back and maybe realized that it was an inappropriate question.

You mean U.S. Customs?....they have nothing to do with it. No U.S. official is going to give you a hard time nor can they give you a visa for any other country except the U.S.

It's Immigration officials of the country you're in, or Schengen, that matter. Customs is just for declaring goods.

In a word - yes. And it's not customs that will detain you - it's immigration. Here's something you might want to think about before you try to do what you propose:

Throughout the world there is now widespread use of highly reliable biometric identity instruments. Most passports and visas and individual country identification cards carry RFID chips. Even if people manage to get into the European Union illegally now, they will find it increasingly difficult to obtain work, either legal or illegal.

Not only are countries cracking down on illegal immigrants, they also are increasing pressure on businesses that hire illegal workers.

One of the work rules of the Schengen agreement is that although all jobs must remain open to qualified applicants from throughout the EU, the employer must provide justification if they hire someone from outside of the EU. For certain high-demand occupations, like skilled health care workers, PhDs and some high tech workers, these rules are waived. So if you don't have an advanced degree, you need to find an employer who can justify to their government why they need to hire you instead of an EU citizen.