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Question about schengen visa

Posted by (Seattle) on

This is sort of a complicated situation/question, but I'll try to explain it the best I can.

I am currently studying in Germany and I have a student visa and residency permit. I arrived March 30, 2010 and will officially be leaving Germany August 30, 2010. I have a visa good for my entire stay in Germany and I was told as a US citizen I also get 90 days outside of Germany within an 180 period under the Schengen visa.

I am travelling to Greece for five weeks (I will return to Germany for one day and go to the US from there before my visa expires), and I was also in Greece 8 days at the end of May. That would be 44 days outside Germany, which clearly does not exceed the 90 days. My concern is actually about the time I spent in Germany before they actually gave me the student visa. I didn't go get the visa/residency permit until about a month and a half after I was in Germany. So my current visa/residency permit says May 17-Sep 1. Does the time I spent in Germany before May 17 count as days under the Schengen visa since I technically didn't have the visa in my passport yet? If those days are counted, I am worried after I spend my time in Greece it will exceed the 90 day maximum.

Posted by
10344 posts

As you already mentioned, yours is a complex set of facts. In the past, we've answered a few basic Schengen visa questions here. But in your case you probably don't want to rely on the guesses or amateur internet research done by anyone here. Because expert advice is especially important in situations like this, you probably don't want to take the consequences of wrong guesses by amateurs here--sounds like it will be worth the bother of getting knowledgeable advice from someone whose job includes making decisions on facts such as yours. Best wishes on getting an accurate answer to your question.

Posted by
23267 posts

Second Kent's recommendation. The consequences if you screw this up are sever so you need to go to the gov't.

Posted by
4 posts

Thanks for the reply. So are you saying that under my German student visa it shouldn't matter where I travel or how long I stay there as long as it's in the Schengen Zone?

Since I will be travel in the Schengen zone, is there actually anyway for them to check which countries I've been to since they don't stamp passports? Is it somehow stored digitally?

Posted by
4 posts

So then they wouldn't even have record of me leaving Germany and entering Greece and they wouldn't have any idea how long I stayed in Greece? How can they prove people overstayed their 90 days then? That doesn't really make sense to me, but I guess it may solve my potential problem either way.

Posted by
23267 posts

I will just repeat -- no one on this site is an expert on a very technical subject. All you are getting is opinion and it is worth what you paid. It is my understanding that if you leave the zone you should retain copies of tickets, hotels, etc., that would show when you were out of the zone.

Posted by
4 posts

Thanks for the replies everyone. My student visa for Germany doesn't take away from my Schengen visa. I still get 90 days outside of Germany and so I guess as long as I don't exceed those 90 days outside Germany I should be fine. Thanks again.

Posted by
10344 posts

Free advice on technical/legal issues is usually worth what you pay for it. Hopefully, Marie will be getting advice from someone with the requisite knowledge to authoritatively address her situation.

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