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I am Eritrean living in Canada with a refugee passport and I'm going to Amsterdam from Calgary (no stops). I don't know if I need a Schengen visa, because when I went to the airport they said I need one because I'm stopping in Iceland. I cut my ticket and I'm flying a different airline and I made sure there no stops. I have tried searches but none answer my question. I have a piece of paper which says that there is someone in Amsterdam I will be staying with.

Xan
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user95069
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    Amsterdam is in the Schengen zone. Unless you are eligible to enter the Schengen zone without a visa you will need one to enter the Netherlands. – DJClayworth Apr 16 '19 at 01:42
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    Both Iceland and Netherlands are in the Schengen area. Whether you stop in Iceland, or fly direct, will have no bearing on whether you need a Schengen visa. You were either given bad advice, or somebody misunderstood something. – Greg Hewgill Apr 16 '19 at 01:49
  • Is Amsterdam your final destination? What is your nationality? – phoog Apr 16 '19 at 02:04
  • I'm Eritrean and yes Amsterdam is my destination. – user95069 Apr 16 '19 at 02:10
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    I want to make sure I understand correctly. Are you currently in Canada, and will fly one-way to the Amsterdam with an Eritrean passport? And is Amsterdam your final destination? – Astor Florida Apr 16 '19 at 02:14
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    I live in canada and i have a Refugee passport. I'm visting my brothers in Amsterdam. kinda, Amsterdam is final destination but i will be back in canada after a month. – user95069 Apr 16 '19 at 02:32
  • final destination means in this context you're not simply changing planes in Amsterdam. – jwenting Apr 16 '19 at 05:57
  • Is the refugee passport Eritrean or Canadian? If it's Canadian, to all intents and purposes you are Canadian, not Eritrean so your question is a little confusing. – Dhara Apr 16 '19 at 11:09
  • @Dhara for visa purposes, holding a Canadian refugee travel document and holding a Canadian passport are very different things indeed (the first requires a visa in most Schengen counties, the second does not) – etmuse Apr 16 '19 at 12:10

1 Answers1

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As a citizen of Eritrea, yes, you need a Schengen visa to go to Amsterdam. This is true whether you fly there by way of Iceland (or any other Schengen country) or directly.

If you fly through Iceland, you will enter the Schengen area in Iceland, for which you need a Schengen visa, and your flight from there to Amsterdam will be an internal Schengen flight, so you will neither leave nor reenter the Schengen area, legally speaking. The same will be true if you fly through any other Schengen airport.

If you fly directly to Amsterdam, you will enter the Schengen area in Amsterdam, for which you also need a Schengen visa.

So no matter what, you need a Schengen visa.

This analysis assumes that you do not have a residence permit from a Schengen country. If you do, the residence permit authorizes you to enter the Schengen area, and you do not need an additional visa.

You mention in a comment that you are traveling with a refugee travel document, presumably issued by Canada. That changes your situation in the Schengen area somewhat, because you are allowed to enter five Schengen countries without a visa (assuming the linked resource is up to date, which it may not be; I could not confirm). The Netherlands is not one of those countries, however, so it doesn't change the ultimate answer. For more information, see the related question Travelling through the Schengen area with a Refugee Travel Document issued by the USA, but note that the privileges afforded to the bearer of a refugee travel document depend on the country issuing the document, as described in the previous link.

phoog
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    You may want to clarify "Without passport controls"; I know you mean immigration/border controls specifically, but many people confuse the stages security, boarding, border/immigration, and customs; on an Iceland-Netherlands flight, three of those may still ask ID, so a flight "Without passport controls" it is not. – gerrit Apr 16 '19 at 07:20
  • @gerrit: Citizens of Schengen is allowed to travel between the countries in Schengen with any national ID, not necessarily a passport (some countries in Schengen doesn't have any other national ID, but that's irrelevant here), so at all those stages you mention (and I agree it's worth remembering, and not confuse them) it's ID control (and it's not a given, I don't think I showed any form of ID the last time I travelled internally in Schengen), not passport control. So technically phoog is right, but it's probably best to be ready to show a passport. – Henrik supports the community Apr 16 '19 at 08:39
  • @Henrik If checked by customs (OP enters EU Customs Union), I don't know if anything else than a passport suffices for non-Schengen citizens. Does it? – gerrit Apr 16 '19 at 08:55
  • @gerrit: Probably now, but I don't know if there are any rules for certain non-Schengen citizens, that would allow them to use something else than a passport. Which is also why I wrote that it's best to be ready to show a passport and that it's technically (I should probably have emphasized that before) that phoog is right, the exception is not relevant for the OP (or that many who will ever benefit from this answer). – Henrik supports the community Apr 16 '19 at 09:08
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    @gerrit: I've never heard of customs caring about passports -- except if they need to fine you for smuggling and want to be sure whom they're fining. – hmakholm left over Monica Apr 16 '19 at 09:09
  • @HenningMakholm If I declare goods and write who I am they will just believe who I am? Or will they accept (for example) a driving license from Malawi or a photo ID from a school in Laos as evidence? I have done a declaration once (in Keflavík) and I think I did show my passport, but maybe they would have accepted an Ontario Photo Card too? I don't know. – gerrit Apr 16 '19 at 09:11
  • @gerrit: Evidence of what? I admit I've never traveled with goods that need to be paid duty on, but I'd always imagined that customs were happy enough to receive cash (or, perhaps, nowadays plastic). It's not clear to me why they would need to be sure of the traveler's identity. – hmakholm left over Monica Apr 16 '19 at 09:20
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    Something that was buried in comments to the question but has a lot of relevance: OP has a refugee passport ([sic], presumably a refugee travel document) from Canada. – Xan Apr 16 '19 at 10:18
  • @Henrik I don't see why it would be 'best to be ready to show a passport'. ID card is as valid document as passport is for internal Schengen flights. I've travelled a lot with just ID card within Schengen area and I am yet to encounter any problems or even weird looks. – kukis Apr 16 '19 at 11:16
  • @HenningMakholm In my case, one of my pieces of luggage was delayed. To get my luggage, I could either sign a form declaring that it did not contain anything to declare and have it delivered to my hotel, or I could pick it up from the airport in person when it arrived. For the former case I think they did ask me to prove my identity. I suppose that when declaring goods they record who is importing, but maybe I'm wrong. – gerrit Apr 16 '19 at 11:40
  • @Xan I did see that comment, and it would have changed the answer if the destination were in Germany, but as the destination is in the Netherlands, it does not. – phoog Apr 16 '19 at 12:20
  • It would be a good idea to provide argumentation for that, since refugee travel document allows some visa-free travel. – Xan Apr 16 '19 at 12:22
  • @gerrit do you have a suggestion for a better phrase than "passport controls"? I once used the phrase "immigration controls" in a question, and at least one person incorrectly understood that the question was about immigrating. – phoog Apr 16 '19 at 12:24
  • @xan I've added a paragraph with a couple of links. – phoog Apr 16 '19 at 12:45
  • @phoog I would have written "without border controls", although with a customs border that's not accurate either. I apologise for being not very constructive by criticising a phrasing without suggesting a better alternative. – gerrit Apr 16 '19 at 12:50
  • @gerrit no matter. The concern is a legitimate one. I've edited the sentence to remove the focus on documents and instead underscore the meaning of "internal flight." Do you think this is better? (I don't want to get into a comprehensive account of when and why it might be necessary to show the passport because it's rather unimportant to the main question here.) – phoog Apr 16 '19 at 13:14