Does anyone know France will stamp my (united states) passport traveling from the uk via ferry or train? Has anyone had any successful experiences in figuring out how to enter the schengen countries with no stamp? I over stayed (by accident) in the schengen area for 4 months last year and had no problems leaving but i'm not that interested in taking that much direct risk again. thanks!

They definitely will if you take the train and I think they will with the ferry. The UK isnt part of Schengen so anytime you enter or leave you will get a stamp and go through immigration in my experience.

awesome thanks!

Yes always IME on ferries as well for reasons jamikins gave.

I would not put too much emphasis on the visible stamp on your passport. Each time you enter or leave the Schengen area, your passport should be scanned. So even if you don't get a stamp, the info when you entered and left is in the system. Unless your passport did not get scanned when leaving the Schengen area.
While the UK and ROI do not participate in the Schengen "borderless" travel zone, they do participate in the other chapters of the Schengen agreement, i.e. in the pooling of data in the SIS database of people entering and leaving.
So any violation of the Schengen "90/180 day rule" for foreigners who do not need a visa to enter the Schengen area will also pop up when the UK Border agent will scan your passport. Whether or not that will raise a red flag is hard to predict.

What did they tell you when you overstayed? Were you told you couldn;t return for a certain time? Was there a fine?

It is very possible you will be questioned about this on entry - so you need to be prepared to prove that this time you will not overstay. Expect to be asked to produce your return or ongoing plane ticket.

Schengen Information System doesn't contain data about non-EEA citizens' movement into and out of Schengen - the system cannot cope with such an overload of information across all Schengen states. And scanning your passport, all they are doing is to see if you are flagged up on an alert posted by a member state, such as a fugitive on a run, convicted immigration offender with a ban and so on. Now, if you have had a run-in with the French officials in the past, it's possible that it is flagged up when your passport is scanned, and also with some other countries with whom France shares its data, such as Germany.

awesome, good to know Alec! thats sort of what i thought the system did. i was staying in Spain last year and nothing happened, they didnt even ask me how long i was there.

Also does anyone know where the problem arises? Does it come from when you go through customs in your home country or while you are still in the airport of the country you are visiting? I've wondered becuase my passport wasn't looked at while leaving Spain except when I checked in. I also had a friend that stayed for a year and left from morocco with no issues..

Good to know, Alec. Always good learning something.

Just a bit odd:
I thought that scanning and storing data is not an issue any longer in the age of terabyte storage for pennies.
Thinking about it, what sense DOES the system make if it can't even flag someone violating the 90/180day rule?

We travelled Eurostar London to Paris.
Passports (Australian)were scanned as we boarded in London, but arrival in Paris saw us all spill off the train and head for multiple exits, metro station etc, with no formalities.
We overnight trained from Paris to Venice - our passports were collected to allow border formalities to be undertaken during the night when we crossed into Switzerland.
Stamped out when we flew home from Rome.

>>Passports (Australian)were scanned as we boarded in London, but arrival in Paris saw us all spill off the train and head for multiple exits, metro station etc, with no formalities.<<

Yes but that's precisely because you passed through <b>French</b> immigration control when you joined the train in London.

I just wonder how anyone can overstay in the Schengen area 'by accident' for four months....

It was an accident whe i bought the round trip ticket. I wasnt clear, i over stayed by 1.5 months it was a total of staying in spain for about 4.5 months

With inconsistent practice of passport-checking and stamping at Schengen external borders, you are more likely to be caught overstaying when you come to the attention of authorities, such as traffic violations and being a victim of crime. Then invariably your documents are scrutinised and your overstay comes to light, or when you cannot produce evidence of sticking to Schengen rules such as travel tickets and hotel receipts. It's often the case of your showing that you have observed the law than for them to prove you have broken it.