Schengen Visa -- is it virtual? what does it look like?

As far as I know, and others will correct me if I'm wrong, if your son is a US citizen his passport is his Schengen visa, which allows him to stay in the Schengen area up to 90 days. If he will be staying longer than 90 days, then he would have had to apply for a student visa from the country in which he will be studying. There is no Schengen visa per se. I have no personal experience with a student visa so don't know if it's a stamp in his passport or just the letter you spoke of. Where will he be studying and for how long? I hope someone can give a more definitive answer.

If the consulate says that he is to present the letter on entry, this likely means the visa will be entered in his passport when he arrives.

While not a Schengen country, when I moved to the U.K. for work, I had a piece of paper with the terms of my 3 year work visa. On arrival, immigration stamped my passport with the visa and entered the date of my arrival and the expiration date which was 3 years after arrival.

What country is the visa from?

It's for Norway, but his arrival is Finland so the visa is Schengen in that sense.

I guess I'm old fashioned and expected a sticker of some kind affixed in the passport. So a letter works? That could be easily forged.

Although Norway is not in European Union but is in Schengen area. Visa are supposed to be issued by the country where you intend to stay the longest time. So if he will be studying in Norway, Norway should have issued the visa. It does not matter which Schengen country you land first.

He will need some proof eventually. As part of my job, I review travel documents and have definitely seen visas for the Schengen for university study. That said, I do not have a visa in my passport, but a separate residence card. I have to present my passport and the card together at immigration. To me it sounds like something is off, so maybe check with the Norwegian Embassy/Consulate?

I would check with the embassy
Does he have any papers that specifically say he has been granted a residence permit?

This website says that he needs to book an appointment within 7 days of arrival in Norway to obtain a residence card.

https://www.udi.no/en/received-an-answer/student-permit/your-application-for-a-study-permit-has-been-granted/#link-983

Laura: Your link jibes with what he was told, but going to the police sounded off, more like what you are usually required to do when a long term resident in Europe, register your stay with the police. But that link says that the police issue residence cards also, which is what I would normally expect federal offices to do. Maybe the police in Norway are federal employees?

Note to others: For Europe, the UK automatically allows 180 day stays to US citizens, which sure makes a semester abroad easier-- no special visa application or interview and all those associated costs. And some countries like Italy make the Schengen process easier by having volunteer interviewers scattered across the country so no need for airline tickets to fly to the required interview. And some countries process their own visas (NOT UK* or Norway which outsource this operation to a nasty vendor) so that saves the $100 vendor fee on top of the $385 Schengen residence visa fee.

*For stays over 180 days, i.e. a full school year.

My daughter got a visa to study in the UK. It was very confusing at the time, especially since some of the rules had just changed. Our best source of information was her university in the UK. Your son's university in Norway should have dealt with this a number of times before. Perhaps you can reach out to them. Our daughter did have an actual visa paper attached to her passport, but that was four years ago and the UK, so different of course. It did make us feel better to have physical evidence of a visa before sending her off so I understand your concern. I do remember one stipulation that I never understood. She couldn't enter Europe via Ireland when she was initiating the visa.

My niece just did a semester (under 180 day) UK study abroad and there was no paper visa, they used a "present this letter to immigration at arrival" system. Although without actually seeing the passport stamp, I'm not sure if there was even a visa involved, or whether the letter was just to assist entry with no questions asked and she got the usual visitor entry passport stamp.

This also supports the letter/no physical visa concept.

http://www.uio.no/english/studies/new-student/events/police-registration-help.html

Tom, When I was living in the UK, my passport got a different stamp than the one a tourist gets. You'll notice when you enter the UK as a tourist, the stamp says something like, "Leave to enter for 6 months ..." When you have a visa, the wording on the stamp is different.

I'm gradually realizing that the Schengen system is different from the US or U.K. where entering with the right visa is paramount. For Schengen all you ever get on arrival is an entry location and date stamp. Then the onus is on the passport holder at departure to prove they were legal during their stay, they stayed 90 days or less (or 180 or less if leaving Schengen zone via Kastrup airport) or can show a residence permit or other documentation proving they maintained legal status during their stay.

Immigration in Europe falls under the police. In Austria the immigration police are called the Fremdenpolizei and are part of the Ministry of Interior. I do, however, go to a city magistrate office to apply for and renew my residency card.

Schengen is just an agreement for Visa free travel. There isn't the old visa stamped in your passport, instead they stamp when you enter and when you leave. As an American citizen, you can stay up to 90 days (in a rolling 180 day period) in the 26 countries that are part of the agreement. Other places, like the UK, have similar 90 day visa free travel, but they aren't part of Schengen. Some people push the limit and stay part of their trip in UK rather than Schengen, or vise versa, to stay under the 90 day limit. If I were trying to stay more than 90 days on Schengen, I would carefully document my stays outside the zone to prove I hadn't exceeded the limit.

Some people think you can simply spend a day in the UK, then return for another 90 days. It doesn't work that way. It's a rolling 180 day period and you can legally be in Schengen for 90 days within that window.

If you violate Schengen, the most common punishment is you lose permission to visit for a number of years (I think it's normally five or ten year suspension).

I believe everything I've said is correct. If not, I hope others will correct me. I've never done the student visa so I'll let others with experience talk about that.

The Schengen agreement is purely for tourist purposes only. In all other cases the decision is bases on national law, so it is up to each country to decide the rules to be applied, so countries are happy to let people take short courses etc. without additional requirements beyond those of Schengen and some are not.

In cases where a person needs to inter a different Schengen state in order to get to the state where they intend to reside, a visa often referred to as a Schengen D visa is issued that state. This visa allows you to enter the Schengen area and travel directly to your destination and only that.

The letter your son has been issued is sufficient evidence of the D visa. But it is very important that he follows the instructions and presents the letter even if not asked, so that he is fully compliant with the rules.

As a response to the post above, the D visa is more than just a transit visa. It is a visa which allows an individual to remain in a country (even the country of entry) for a period outside of the 90 days, for a variety of reasons. This visa needs to be applied for in advance of entry and is an actual visa placed in the passport by the embassy abroad.

Too much confusion here.

Schengen area has more implications that just tourist visits. Schengen visas for longer periods come with a set of travel rights and permissions within the area, not in an equivalent manner (one cannot apply to study in Finland then ditch the program there and just start studying in Germany, for instance, in the same visa), but in regard of travel in the Schengen Area while on a long-term visa for another country in the area.

As for fretting about passport stamps, there is really no issue there: several countries do not use physical stamps of passports anymore (and the number is dwindling), but instead log the visa data in some central database and issue a letter. Upon arrival, the person registers with the appropriate agency (UDI, in case of Norway), where data from the visa is already stored, and then issued residence cards, civic registration numbers, foreigner registration certificate or any other relevant documment. Even the letter given to the applicant is just a duplicate of the registered data in their system.

I know it might sound strange for Americans or even British, but this is just how public administration is organized in most of continental Europe: there is a central registry of the resident population, and if you move (including citizens who always lived in the country, it is not just something for foreigners) you notify the agency responsible for civic registration. Immigrants might be subject to special registration requirements and in many countries, this is done at a sub-office of the main national law enforcement agency. Everybody must be registered and that registration automatically determines tax liabilities, official address for government communication (such as the address where any agency can officially reach you by presumption) etc.

It is just a different system. That is all. No need to lose sleep over it.

(Additional comment: stamps on passports of visitors to Schengen Area are also becoming obsolete as FRONTEX is becoming universal as intended. I have read many a worried traveler comment about "I arrived in Italy from US, they looked at my passport but did not stamp it". Worry not, as long your RFID-enabled passport touched the reader of the immigration official, your info was read and stored, stamps would be just reassurance to the visitor, not to the unified Schengen travel database official users)

What I can count on in a trip is that upon entry in the Schengen zone, I will get a passport stamp. When I leave the Zone, I'll get a passport stamp, likewise for entry in the UK and departing from it. On the return flight to SFO and going through Immigration, I know I will get another stamp, a "Readmit USA" one.

We entered Slovenia via Croatia by road in April and the Slovenian immigration folks did not stamp our passport. For what that's worth.

I have noticed recently, say from 2014 on, that upon return at SFO, I don't automatically get a US stamp, unless I ask for it. They have always obliged. When I see/sense my passport is not going to be stamped, then I ask.

If there are countries prone to stamping less and less, I am glad the French and the Germans are still stamping since going over I always land at Paris CDG or FRA, if not London LHR.

"When I leave the Zone, I'll get a passport stamp, likewise for entry in the UK and departing from it."

When I left LHR last fall (Delta Terminal 3) I did not get an exit stamp. I did get an entrance stamp on arrival. I sort of panicked after we were in the air and realized I had never been channeled thru a border control but the business traveler next to me reassured me that this is normal and it is done electronically.

Fred, Do you have a US passport? Why would the US authorities stamp a US passport?
The purpose of the entry stamp is to prove you entered the country legally, when and under what conditions. And the exit stamp proves you exited within your time limit.
As a citizen of a country you can come and go whenever you like with no restrictions, so why stamp the passport?

Within the EU the same logic applies. EU citizens have a right to travel and stay in any EU country, so EU countries never stamp EU passports, and anyway EU citizens can travel between EU countries using ID cards, which you can't stamp.
I fear after Brexit my currently pristine British passport is going to fill up very fast.

@Pam: The UK doesn't stamp on exit, never has. There is no passport check on exit, but the airline is obliged to collect passport info and check your passport, which they then report electronically.
At St Pancras, Eurostar staff record passport details, because you don't need to give a name when you buy rail tickets.

I have had a US passport since 1971, my first trip over.. Why would the US authorities not stamp your passport upon returning from an overseas trip?. In the past, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and the early years of the 21 century, my passport was always stamped upon returning after the usual questions.

Only recently, as pointed out above, have I noticed that after the perfunctory questions about my trip is my passport closed without it being stamped. That is the moment I ask for a stamp, which so far they have always obliged me, and I get my "Readmit" stamp.

I have had a US passport since 1971, my first trip over.. Why would the US authorities not stamp your passport

Because it serves no purpose. Why, as a US citizen, does your entry into the US have to be recorded in your passport? It is a waste of effort, slows down the passport queue, and ends up filling up your passport sooner.

In the hundreds of times I have entered or exited the UK or the Schengen Area in the last few years I have never had my passport stamped. If they had stamped it, I would have had to renew it long before the 10-year expiry.

Passports for US Citizens are not stamped departing from the US as there is no immigration process at departure.

Passports for US Citizens are always stamped upon entry into the US.

All the US passports since my first dated March 1971 have had the US stamp upon reentry. Prior to the 21st century, getting that US stamp was a matter of course when you were finished with the Immigration Officer at SFO, plus I was/am glad that the US Immigration Office stamped it. Going over to Europe prior to Schengen and landing in CDG or FRA (the only 2 I arrive at from SFO on the continent), my passport was never stamped. The guy just looked at me, did what he had to in the 1970s, 1980s, and returned my passport without a stamp. I was disappointed.

Prior to Schengen I went to the UK twice, the first time 1971 SFO to Gatwick, my passport was stamped, the 2nd time in 1987 arriving at Harwich by the night/day Hamburg ferry, the passport was stamped. Each time I came back to SFO, my passport was stamped...happily.

With Schengen nowadays, arriving at FRA or CDG from SFO, it's stamped, likewise with the UK, leave the Zone, it is stamped again. Based on the experience of the most recent trips, upon reentry don't expect you US passport to be stamped unless you ask. I think (?) I may have asked the last 5 times, otherwise I would've not received the stamp "Readmit" If one does not want a stamp after they are done with you, don't ask. I' m just glad they are still obliging when I ask...every single time thus far.

waiting for the day when you use an app on your phone to cross borders rather than a paper booklet

Apple and Google are likely better at tracking movements than governments!

My passport has not been stamped the last 2 times I passed through immigration at ORD. The most recent time was September 2016.

My new passport (and previous one) was stamped on first reentry to the US. That was at DEN for both of them. Not stamped since when I return home. And yes, I do have Global Entry. Don't recall it being stamped entering the US otherwise before or after I got GE.

Sorry! Upon rentry in the US, the stamp states "Admitted" and the date, not "Readmitted" as posted above. I checked since I have kept all my cancelled passports (as documentary evidence) and they show each time I came back, obviously at SFO, it was stamped.