You can stay till Non 30th as per your visa.

Thought I would follow up with this original thread to save other students the stress I have been experiencing trying to figure this out.

I am in the same situation–have a student long-stay class D visa in France and it expires in a few days. Unfortunately did not renew it and have to be here for a couple weeks past the expiration date. Even though I have technically left the Schengen Zone twice before my visa expired (to Ireland), I am still worried about having trouble at the border.

I spoke with the French consulate in NYC who said that "leaving" does not matter. BUT a couple weeks past the day your student visa expires is OKAY but he made a point to say any longer is not........... Hope that helps anyone else in this stressful situation where no one will give you a straight answer! (Especially in France..).

Hi guys, thank you for your interesting input on this forum.

I'd appreciate if you could help me with my case.. it's quite the opposite of most cases I've read here..

My sister and I are Venezuelans and will be studying in Spain in October, and our classes begin on November 17th. Due to other reasons we HAVE to be in Madrid before October 10th, which is why we will be flying on October 2nd (1 1/2 months before the course start). We have already submitted our student visa application and it seems that our student visa will be valid from October 17th (1 month before the course start). So, is it true that we will have to enter Spain as tourists, leave Schengen territory let's say, October 15th and return on October 17th as students?
We won't be able to enter Spain as students if our visas are not valid for another 2 weeks right? Sorry if the question sounds too obvious.

Thank you very much for your help!

You do have to enter as tourists, not students, on October 2nd. Whether you need to exit the Schengen area and return to activate your visa is not certain. A representative at the Spanish Consulate in Los Angeles said that US citizens who enter as tourists can go to la Policía Nacional to activate their student visas without leaving and re-entering. I imagine that would apply to citizens Venezuelans as well.

However, many student travel web pages say it it is necessary to re-enter as a student if you first enter as a tourist. My son is studying in Madrid and to play it safe he re-entered to activate his student visa. When you get to Madrid, I would check with the people who run your program. Please report back and let us know what you find out.

I also advise you do it the proper way. While the Spanish authorities may be happy with the student visa being activated in-country at a polícia nacional station, other Schengen countries may not and you may face problems when travelling outside Spain, when only a Schengen entry stamp over or next to type D visa vignette may be acceptable.

Hmmm...I'm confused. How would authorities in countries outside of Spain ever know if/where the passports were stamped? There are no borders between Schengen countries. When my older son studied in Italy, he didn't even take his passport with him when traveling within the Schengen area - He used a US driver's license for ID at airports and carried a copy of his passport.

Under Schengen rules, your Type D visa will only be activated when entering Schengen from outside on or after the 'valid from' date on your visa. You will get Schengen entry stamp with the date and the border point, and mode of entry (by train, plane, ferry or car etc) placed over your Type D or right next to it, so other countries will know. If you get it activated within Spain, there will be no entry stamp and doubt may arise if the visa has been activated or not.

Alec,
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to everyone.

I read through most if not all of the comments and I can't seem to find an answer to mine. My husband plays basketball in Europe and has done so for 12 years now. This is his second year playing in France. Before leaving this year, we were told that his work visa would be applied for and granted in France, which has been the case. We were also told that as his family (my two kids and I) we would also be able to apply and be granted residency because of his employment after we arrived. However, that is not the case. They are telling us now that we must return to the US to get our visas to be able to stay longer than our 90 day tourist visa.
I am not sure why France is so different but we have lived in 5 european countries and always been able to apply for visas while in that country. That being said, this was not an issue last year as we all had Finnish residency cards for the duration of our stay for last season. (They expired in May 14')
My question for you is, if we cannot manage to get visas here, and decide to stay on our 90 day tourist visa, how long must we be out of the Schengen area before we can re-enter? Can we make a 3-4 day trip to london and come back again for 90 days or must we be out of the schengen area for 90 days before re-entry?

crosscheck.. "he didn´t carry his passport"? he was lucky. Very lucky. Not a wise thing to do at all.

...for flights, I mean. I'm quite surprised he was not denied boarding SOMEwhere. he obviously never flew ryanair, for one.

Here is the EU recommendation

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens...n/index_en.htm

and for non-eu

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens...s/index_en.htm

Wivey33: on a tourist stay you are allowed 90 days out of a 180 day period, so if you stay 90 day, you must leave for 90 days (180 days in total)

I have a distant relative who also played BB in europe (and israel and the mideast. He had a family and never had a problem. But that was several years ago and things may have tightened up.

Hopefully Alec will see your post and some useful advice for you.

Think you might get better responses if you reposted this as your own thread.

Each EU country can have its own rules on dependants' visa, as they are outside the remit of EU regulations. So if France has changed its immigration law and now requires you to apply for dependants' visa in US, then that's what you have to do (I don't know if they have done or not but I'm talking about principles, not individual cases). As stated, Schengen rule is 90-in-180 days.

Thanks for your response Alec.

lincasanova, I too was surprised that my son and his friends flew all over Europe without passports. I thought they did this out of flakiness, but in fact their university in Florence told them that US drivers licenses plus Italian student IDs would work within the Schengen area (along with copies of their passports for hotels) unless the airlines required otherwise.

On one flight to AMS they missed their connection and were put up by Lufthansa at a hotel in Frankfurt. They were concerned that they'd be stuck there forever and not be able to get on a flight in Germany without passports, but had no problems using just US drivers licenses.

They did fly on Ryanair and must have had passports for those flights...or perhaps the rules might have been different then - 3 years ago.

My other son is now in Spain and has been traveling domestically without a passport, but did take it with him to Oktoberfest last weekend (and managed not to lose it!)

hi again, lincasanova, I just looked at your link for non EU citizens - Sounds as if my son's Italian ID was actually a residence permit.

<If you have a valid residence permit from one of those Schengen countries, it is equivalent to a visa.>

But he swears he used his just his US ID for flights to Paris, Copenhagen, Barcelona, etc.

For travel within Schengen area, there is no immigration check, and when flying, only photo ID check is done to see that you are the person who is booked on that flight, carried out by the airline and airport staff, not by immigration officers (what is acceptable form of photo ID is laid down by airlines). Generally, non-EU citizens are advised to carry their passport when travelling in Schengen (because spot-check by police or immigration service away from the border is still possible) and there is general requirement in many countries to carry passport or national identity card issued by EEA countries.

The residency permit must go with his passport.. it is not valid on its own. ( Supposedly) I just say he was DARN lucky.

He obviously never flew Ryanair because they make you go to the counter in many countries an prove you do not need a visa in your passport.

I realize it sounds risky to you - it did to us as well because we were so used to borders in Europe. But the students in my son's program were told (by their major university) NOT to carry their passports around if their airlines didn't require them. They did fly Ryanair and must have taken passports on those trips. Their Italian student cards were separate stand-alone IDs, but the kids never had to produce them - just US IDs at the Florence/Pisa airport.

This whole Schengen issue is such a mystery because of different rules (and different levels of bureaucracy) in different countries. It is crazy that people have to come to fodors and tripadvisor for answers. The money situation feels 'off' as well because some Schengen countries still use their own currency. Everyone is confused: travelers, authorities and locals. I miss the guys coming aboard to stamp your passports on the trains.