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I have a c-type single entry Schengen visa issued from Spain. And this is my first time Schengen visa. I wanted to go to Rome first for 3 days and then to Spain for 4 days and then back to my country from Spain. I had all the internal flight ticket from Rome to Barcelona and the hotel's non-refundable reservation and also the international return ticket from Barcelona. All that and I was denied boarding assuming that my first entry should be Spain. Is that something legal?

I was at Cairo international airport and I was denied boarding at the check-in desk of Royal Jordanian. My complete itinerary is as following: on 15/6 Cairo to Amman then Amman to Rome then on 18/6 Rome to Barcelona then on 22/6 Barcelona to Cairo.enter image description here

Rola
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    Possible duplicate of Should my first trip be to the country which issued my Schengen Visa? – Henrik supports the community Jul 03 '19 at 10:47
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    Can you give further information on which airport you have denied the boarding and which airlines. – N Randhawa Jul 03 '19 at 11:03
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    @Henrik Not a duplicate: unless there's something significant missing, the OP should not have been denied boarding. – lambshaanxy Jul 03 '19 at 11:05
  • N Randhawa I was at Cairo international airport and I was denied boarding at the check-in desk of Royal Jordanian – Rola Jul 03 '19 at 12:31
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    Can you post your complete itinerary from your origin to destination. – RedBaron Jul 03 '19 at 14:17
  • RedBaron my complete itinerary is as following: on 15/6 Cairo to Amman then Amman to Rome then on 18/6 Rome to Barcelona then on 22/6 Barcelona to Cairo. – Rola Jul 03 '19 at 15:12
  • Hmm, perhaps Jordan has particular rules about transit passengers requiring a visa issued by the particular country they're transiting towards? – hmakholm left over Monica Jul 03 '19 at 19:21
  • On the other hand, the indirect flight also makes it more believable that the airline made a mistake. A check-in agent handling a flight from Cairo to Amman might not be well trained on the finer point of Schengen's visa policy. (Though, of course, they ought to be able to escalate to a supervisor who can find out). – hmakholm left over Monica Jul 03 '19 at 19:25
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    Related: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/135751/denied-boarding-although-i-have-proper-visa-and-documentation-to-whom-should-i?rq=1 – Nate Eldredge Jul 03 '19 at 21:51
  • Itinerary looks fine and assuming your are Egyptian, you don't need a visa for entry into Jordan. Maybe the agent thought your Schengen visa had some restrictions. Can you post the photo of your schengen visa (with all personal info blanked out)? – RedBaron Jul 04 '19 at 06:02
  • RedBaron I've posted a photo of the Schengen visa. – Rola Jul 04 '19 at 11:24
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    It's not particularly important to the airline, but when you applied for the visa did you submit the same itinerary that you eventually followed? The most frustrating thing about this is that with that itinerary you are not allowed to get a visa from Italy, and had you applied for one the application would have been rejected with instructions to apply to Spain. – phoog Jul 04 '19 at 19:12

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As you describe it, the itinerary you were following was perfectly consistent with your visa. There is no requirement at all the the first entry should be to the member country that issued your Schengen visa.

If the airline refused to transport you for this reason, then they were definitely mistaken.

You probably have a legal claim against the airline, but that depends on the law in the location where you tried boarding, or possibly in the location where your contract with the airline was executed. You should seek help from a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction; random Q&A sessions on the internet cannot help you file a lawsuit by yourself.

This assumes that Jordan does not have problems with a transiting passenger continuing towards a different Schengen state than the one that issues his visa. Even though Spain and Italy don't have a problem with that, Jordan is free to set any kind of strange rules of their own. (And some of the rules listed in the Wikipedia article sound pretty strange already -- e.g., EU citizens can enter with ID cards rather than passports, but only if they arrive on a direct flight from Brussels specifically???)

hmakholm left over Monica
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    It also depends on the nationality of the airline. If it was an EU airline, EC261 applies automatically. – jcaron Jul 03 '19 at 12:13
  • @jcaron: Right -- but enforcing that right can still be up to private legal action, and I'm not sure the usual compensation mills would take a case where the airline alleges that the passenger had insufficient travel documentation. (And even so, if one is outside the EU, stipulating that EC261 compensation rules govern would not necessarily be advantageous, because that limits the compensation to the regulation amount even if the airline's error caused greater actual expenses to the OP). – hmakholm left over Monica Jul 03 '19 at 12:15
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    I imagine "from Brussels specifically" is a "let's make things easier on EU officials who aren't entitled to diplomatic visas for whatever reason" rule, rather than something intended for use by the general public. Still, that's quite a bizarre way of doing it. – Kevin Jul 03 '19 at 20:06
  • I need something official from the EU visa code regulation that states that I had no right to go on with my trip or to prove my rights. – Rola Jul 04 '19 at 09:25
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    @Rola: if the lawyer you're consulting with cannot find the relevant regulations himself, get another one. That's what you pay him for! – hmakholm left over Monica Jul 04 '19 at 09:38
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    @Henning Makholm. I'm already trying to find another one more expert in such a case. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure things out I can't wait hand folded when I feel I was unjustified. – Rola Jul 04 '19 at 11:28
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    @Rola: It is hard to give an authoritative reference for the fact that a particular rule doesn't exist. The best I can point to is article 5 of the visa code, which describes which Schengen state a visa should be issued by -- which is not always the state through whose external border the traveler will enter. – hmakholm left over Monica Jul 04 '19 at 15:32
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    (I can't find anywhere in the regulations where it says black on white that visas are valid for the entire external border. It used to be article 10 of the Schengen Convention, but by the time the rules were moved to the Visa Code in 2009, it seems to have been a so basic "everyone knows" fact that they didn't bother to retain wording for it explicitly...) – hmakholm left over Monica Jul 04 '19 at 15:32
  • @Rola This answer doesn't go quite far enough. Under Schengen regulations (as you well know), a traveler with the itinerary under discussion is not allowed to get a visa from Italy. If Royal Jordanian sticks with this policy, they will be sucking money from hapless nationals of Annex I countries who want to enter the Schengen area through a country other than their main destination. So perhaps your legal argument should be that they were expecting you to have a visa that would have been impossible for you to get. – phoog Jul 04 '19 at 19:31
  • @Henning Makholm: I've found the same article 5 and read it word by word ,still couldn't find anything related to first entry state of a first time Schengen visa. – Rola Jul 04 '19 at 19:43
  • @phoog: I'm not sure that argument is ultimately convincing. Yes, such a rule would mean that annex I would effectively be forbidden from following the OP's itinerary, but that does not prove it's not how the rules are! Perhaps (so the airline's lawyer might argue) they simply have to restrict themselves to itineraries that it is possible to get visas for? – hmakholm left over Monica Jul 04 '19 at 19:44
  • @Rola: The point about article 5 is that for an itinerary where you enter at a country that is not your main destination, you're supposed to have a visa issued by a different country than your first port of entry. There would be no point in the regulation directing travelers with particular itineraries to apply for a visa at a place where the visa they got would not be valid for their itinerary. ((Yes, this is the very argument I've just told phoog is not necessarily convincing. But it is still an argument, and the best I can see that builds only on the text of the regulations)). – hmakholm left over Monica Jul 04 '19 at 19:47
  • @Henning Makholm: all I got about that issue was on how to read the Schengen visa sticker which says that beside " valid for " if written " Schengen states" then you can visit all states, but if abbreviated letters then you are only allowed entry to the corresponding state. – Rola Jul 04 '19 at 19:47
  • @Henning Makholm: I really appreciate you effort and support. Thank you so much. – Rola Jul 04 '19 at 20:25
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    Indeed, I should not have suggested that as a legal argument. But it is a practical one, since the Schengen codes clearly (1) do not prohibit such an itinerary and (2) require the traveler to get a visa from Spain for it. @Rola as to where it says explicitly that the visa is valid for entry into Italy, that is on the visa itself, where it says "valido para/valable pour/valid for Estados Schengen." – phoog Jul 08 '19 at 18:53
  • @Rola you might consider asking on [Law.SE]. Maybe someone there has an idea. If I were you I would look into complaining to the Egyptian civil aviation authority. That probably requires a formal written complaint to the airline. See my answer for some ideas about that. – phoog Jul 08 '19 at 19:55
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I don't know much about Egyptian law, but in those systems I'm familiar with, your goal here is to put Royal Jordanian in a position where the burden of proof is on them to show that your visa was not sufficient. This shouldn't be too hard to do, because you had a visa that said literally on its face that it was valid for all Schengen States. So you should submit a claim based on that evidence and ask them to show you the source of the purported requirement to hold a visa from the port of entry.

A relevant quote from the Schengen Visa Code, from Article 2(2):

‘visa’ means an authorisation issued by a Member State with a view to [...] an intended stay on the territory of the Member States of a duration of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period;

There is no mention of restrictions based on the issuing state.

A relevant quote from the Schengen Borders Code, from Article 6(1), which lays down the entry conditions for short-term visitors, and in particular 6(1)(b):

1. For intended stays on the territory of the Member States of a duration of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, which entails considering the 180-day period preceding each day of stay, the entry conditions for third-country nationals shall be the following:

[...]

(b) they are in possession of a valid visa, if required pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001, except where they hold a valid residence permit or a valid long-stay visa;

Again, there is no requirement that the visa be issued by the country whose territory is being entered. Council Regulation 539/2001 is simply the lists of countries whose nationals do and do not require Schengen visas for short stays (since replaced by Regulation 2018/1806). This means that to enter Italy, you must have a Schengen visa that is valid for Italy, which you had. It does not matter that it was issued by Spain.

Another line of reasoning to consider: The ground staff should have checked your documents against an industry-standard database called TIMATIC. There, they would have seen that you require a visa to land in Italy. They would have seen some additional notes about Schengen visas, of which the last is

Schengen "C" type visas must be valid for the visited Schengen Member State. This is specified in the "valid for" field of the visa.

Once again, this shows that your visa was valid. The only requirement your type-C Schengen visa had to meet was that it indicate that it was valid for Italy, which it did.

If I were you, I would look to see whether the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation concerns itself with passenger complaints, or whether there is some other body that does so. Also look at the Jordanian Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission or other official bodies in Jordan that might take interest.

I would write a letter to the airline asking for a full refund (and perhaps other compensation) on the basis that you had a valid visa for your destination. Include a copy of the visa, emphasizing that it says it is valid for Schengen states. It will be their responsibility to show why a visa issued by Spain is not valid for entry into Italy.

You might also consider a social media campaign discouraging people from flying on Royal Jordanian because they do not understand how Schengen visas work. If you start telling people to fly on European airlines instead, you might get their attention.

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phoog
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  • I've already sent a complain to the Royal Jordanian airlines explaining my whole case and requiring compensation and this was their reply : ( " Please allow us to clarify that our staff at Cairo Airport abided by the set rules of European Regulations, in which for any first not used C type Schengen visa the passenger must enter first to the issuing country, and not allowed to enter any other Schengen state. We would like to point out that we have embassies’ advisors who follow this issue on every European flight and they recommend denying any passenger not fulfilling this regulation." ) – Rola Jul 08 '19 at 22:17
  • @Rola ask them to point you to the regulation and to identify the "embassy advisor." It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that they are lying. – phoog Jul 08 '19 at 22:21
  • Then I've replied that I needed an official document signed from the EU proving their decision, but I didn't receive anything till this moment and I don't think I will. – Rola Jul 08 '19 at 22:21
  • @Rola you might try writing to the Italian embassy (in Jordan and/or Egypt) asking them to confirm this and, if they do confirm it, asking them to cite the law or regulation on which they base their advice. – phoog Jul 08 '19 at 22:22
  • I will make use of your references. I was in need of them, thank you. – Rola Jul 08 '19 at 22:28
  • Yes, I'll do that and I think I'll ask them by mail (you've already mentioned)to have their reply ready in hand. – Rola Jul 08 '19 at 22:30
  • I've sent an e-mail to the embassy of Italy and this is their reply:" yes, you can enter first in Italy, but you must have with you evidences of your further route to Spain ( hotel reservation, flight or train tickets )." This means Royal Jordanian had NO right denying my boarding. But what about the one I called at the embassy of Spain telling me I should enter through Spain first?!! – Rola Jul 09 '19 at 09:45
  • @Rola what about that one? Who was it? What authority did they have to make that statement? As has been said repeatedly on this page by different people, the statement was incorrect. The reason that person made the incorrect statement is anybody's guess. – phoog Jul 09 '19 at 11:51
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The airlines feedback is totally wrong, the main destination country is not necessarily the first entry country. I traveled few months ago to Switzerland and Germany, I entered the Schengen area from Switzerland although the visa is issued from Germany. I read you also contacted the Italian Embassy and they confirmed your eligibility to enter the Schengen area through Italy although your visa is issued from Spain. So, and regardless to the person you contacted in the Spanish embassy, the airlines decision is unlawful and you should sue them in order to incur the total non-refundable cost that you paid.

AymanG
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Finally, after almost 3 weeks of searching the core of my case is that since my visa was issued from Spain, then my first entry should be from Spain and that was confirmed through a phone call with the embassy of Spain in Egypt regardless being a first time visa or not. I don't know if that goes on any nationality. Bottom line is, I was the one mistaken not to refer to the embassy before the trip and just depend on general knowledge. Anyway, I hope that no one gets into a headache like that and if you have any concerns just refer to the authorized source.

And I want to thank each and everyone who answered or wrote a comment on the post.

Rola
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    I doubt you are right in this answer, It is the more important visit or the longest stay and only if there is neither it is the first entry..... – Willeke Jul 08 '19 at 18:27
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    This is incorrect. There is no requirement to enter the Schengen area through the country where the visa was issued. Who did you speak to at the Spanish embassy? Was it a Spanish consular officer or a local staff member? You were indeed denied boarding incorrectly, and you should not stand for it. Suppose you were flying to Spain from an African country with no direct flights to Spain. If this supposed requirement existed, it would prevent you from booking a flight on an airline based in another Schengen country, which is of course an absurd thing for the EU to do. – phoog Jul 08 '19 at 18:55
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    Furthermore, the authoritative source for entry requirements in Italy is the Italian embassy, not the Spanish embassy. – phoog Jul 08 '19 at 19:07
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    This information, from wherever derived, is not correct. – Andrew Lazarus Jul 08 '19 at 20:13
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    This is not correct, the Schengen Visa should be issues by the country where you will stay the bulk of your time, first entry has no bearing on this. – Matt Douhan Jul 13 '19 at 23:31
  • @Matt Douhan: Yes, you are absolutely correct and I've sent both embassies (Italy and Spain) e-mails to check the eligibility of my itinerary and the reply was from Spain to refer to the embassy of Italy, and from Italy I was authorized as long as I had hotel reservation and flight or train tickets to Barcelona. So, I had all the right to enjoy my plan. – Rola Jul 13 '19 at 23:41
  • It's the Spanish embassy (ie the country that issued his visa) that is stating this rule. Therefore, one must assume that the Spanish rules are different to the rest of the EU – Matthew Barclay Sep 02 '19 at 16:36
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Usaully a VISA applies only for the country where you land first. So passing from Joardan and then to Europe, means that you need a VISA for Jordan. It applies also if you go to Canada from Europe passing thru USA. You need to get a VISA for US as well, just for landing there.

Francesco Cicciuzz
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    @ Francesco Cicciuzz: you are correct, but in my case being Egyptian doesn't require a visa to Jordan. I've been there on a transit before. – Rola Jul 04 '19 at 14:32
  • It's from Jordan to Europe that requires a VISA. It dowsn't matter if you can go to Jordan being egyptian. The agreement is between Egypt and Jodan. Between Jordan and Europe may not be valid. – Francesco Cicciuzz Jul 04 '19 at 14:57
  • (Aside, the USA is unusual in not allowing visa-free transit.) The OP doesn't need a visa to be in Jordan. The OP does need a visa to be Schengen, but he has one of those. – Martin Bonner supports Monica Jul 04 '19 at 15:26
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    Note that "visa" is just an ordinary word. It shouldn't be written in all caps. – David Richerby Jul 04 '19 at 15:30
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    "Usaully a VISA applies only for the country where you land first." That just doesn't make sense. A visa applies to the country (or organization, in cases like Schengen) that issued it. – David Richerby Jul 04 '19 at 15:31
  • Rola did not need a visa for Jordan because Egyptian citizens do not need a visa to transit in Jordan. Rola does need a visa for the Schengen area and had one, so should not have been denied boarding. Someone who needs a visa for both Jordan and the Schengen area would have needed two visas for this itinerary, but Rola does not. – phoog Jul 04 '19 at 19:16