I know there are already some post on this topic so sorry guys but they don?t answer some important questions for me. I am an Australian citizen who has accidently overstayed the 3 months in the Schengen area. I have a 2 year working visa for the U.K and was previously living there. Basically i have no intention of staying in Spain long term and was hoping to return to the U.K to work in the next few weeks which would make me about 5 weeks over the 90 days. I would prefer to be able to re-enter Spain again in the future and was wondering if people knew if leaving by bus or train was easier to avoid trouble? Also if they do look closely at my passport will they allow me to return to the U.K? I can handle not being allowed back but i dont want to return all the way to Australia. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

brock

It sounds like you haven’t been there TOO long as you’d have experience leaving the country and knowing that they don’t check your passport when moving between Schengen countries.

We’ve never heard of anyone having any problems overstaying their visa if you’re from a Western country. Obviously that’s no guarantee, but you’ll VERY LIKELY not have problems with the Spanish customs.

It’s the Brits you have to worry about. They’ll ask you a lot of questions. Good luck with them! 😊 (tip, enter the UK from a different country than the one you entered into Europe… and you’ve been traveling all over Europe, right? 😉 ).

The Expatriator - 20 September 2007 11:39 PM

It sounds like you haven’t been there TOO long as you’d have experience leaving the country and knowing that they don’t check your passport when moving between Schengen countries.

We’ve never heard of anyone having any problems overstaying their visa if you’re from a Western country. Obviously that’s no guarantee, but you’ll VERY LIKELY not have problems with the Spanish customs.

It’s the Brits you have to worry about. They’ll ask you a lot of questions. Good luck with them! 😊 (tip, enter the UK from a different country than the one you entered into Europe… and you’ve been traveling all over Europe, right? 😉 ).

If you are flying from Spain to the UK, they DO check your passport, or they are supposed to. If you fly to another Schengen country, there is no passport control. But, if you go to the UK, you go through passport control.

Thanks a lot guys for the replys and so fast too. Just one further question it seems that what your saying is that no matter where i leave to ill most likely have no problems with Spanish customs. Does this include non Schengen countries? Eg. If i can get out of Spain to Morocco or eastern europe for example, then id have no problems getting into the U.K? Or are you saying that because i arrived in Spain that if i fly from say Italy that the brits will be more lenient as its more obvious ive been travelling?

thanks again guys

thebrock77 - 21 September 2007 04:12 PM

Thanks a lot guys for the replys and so fast too. Just one further question it seems that what your saying is that no matter where i leave to ill most likely have no problems with Spanish customs. Does this include non Schengen countries? Eg. If i can get out of Spain to Morocco or eastern europe for example, then id have no problems getting into the U.K? Or are you saying that because i arrived in Spain that if i fly from say Italy that the brits will be more lenient as its more obvious ive been travelling?

thanks again guys

I don’t know if you will have a problem or not. Read my post carefully. If you leave from the Spain DIRECTLY to the UK, your passport WILL BE checked. If you travel from Spain to Portugal for example, there is NO passport control. However, if you then decide to leave from Portugal to the UK, again, your passport WILL BE checked. Will you have a problem? Probably not. But, there is a slim likelihood that they might look at the passport carefully and match dates. Unlikely, but possible.

Regarding the UK, they are not part of Schengen. So, even if you are barred from entering Schengen, it will not affect your UK status. Getting into the UK is not an issue at all. You have valid papers for the UK that are unrelated to Schengen.