We are picking our daughter up from a semester abroad and have the whole trip planned out with accommodations reserved but just learned that the way her visa is stamped she will need to leave the Schengen to get a stamp from a non-participating country. Our trip is/was planned through Germany and Italy for three weeks. From what we can figure the best option is to leave out of Venice and go to Croatia. Leaving on a Sunday on Venezia line we found a 17:15 ferry from Venice to Rovinj. I'm still trying to work out the return trip back to Venice. Does anyone have advice on how to make this work best? Do we need to stay overnight to request a passport stamp or can we make it a day trip? From what I'm reading about Rovinj we will wish we could stay much longer but we are having to squeeze this into an already fully booked trip. Right now we are booked for Saturday night and Sunday night in Verona then Monday night through Wednesday night in Venice so I'm thinking we need to cut Verona to one day or eliminate all together and head straight from our Friday night in Hall, Austria on to Venice and over to Croatia. Our trip is coming up soon so any help/advice is appreciated as we try to figure out how to make this work.
Posted by
Reno, Nevada
1025 posts
Make sure you understand all the aspects of the Schengen visa process. Here is a link to one site. If you have questions, rather than rely upon the participants of this Forum, you may want to make inquiries to the U.S. State Department or other officials.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
You should not need to stay overnight just to get a stamp (though you may have to ask for one). But I'm not sure why just crossing the border and coming back would have any benefit. Does she have a long-stay visa that can specifically be converted to re-start as a tourist visa with this simple step? I'm not familiar enough to know whether they work that way.
Under the Schengen short-stay visa rules for tourists who can stay a maximum of 90 days within a 180-day period, just leaving does not reset that time clock; you have to stay away for a relevant period of days.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Why do you want a passport stamp? Is it as a souvenir or for some other reason?
If you are not an EU/Schengen citizen your passport will be stamped at the border when you enter or exit the Schengen Area. How long you intend to leave for (minutes, overnight or permanently) is irrelevant. The border person does not care.
You passport will not get stamped when travelling between Schengen Area countries, there will be nobody there to stamp it.
If you think you need a stamp to get around the time limit on staying in the Schengen Area, forget it. The limit is 90 days in any 180. Leaving does not make any difference, it just stops the clock. When you re-enter you will have as many days used up as when you left.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Schengen visa process. . . . . If you have questions, . . . ., you may want to make inquiries to the U.S. State Department or other officials.
No! The US State Department, or any other foreign government has nothing to do with Schengen rules.
If she has a visa, she needs to check with the authorities in the country which issued the visa.