My passport was stamped with an exit stamp while transiting to another Schengen country via Turkey. Was this a mistake?

Question

We were travelling from Valencia to Athens via Istanbul, Turkey. We had a travel itinerary to visit Greece and had a valid Schengen Visa.

However the visa officer at Valencia Airport stamped an exit schengen stamp on our passport. When we reached Istanbul, we were denied entry on the onboarding flight to Athens stating that we had a single entry schengen visa and there was an exit stamp on our passport, so we cannot enter schengen country again.

Is was a mistake on the part of the visa officer. I am not sure whom I can complain to regarding this. Can someone please guide.

Curious, how did it work out (as I assume you cannot enter TUrkey either)? — Crazydre, Sep 14 '19 at 14:27
@Crazydre I assume the OP either had a visa for Turkey, or is a citizen of a country whose citizens do not need a visa to enter Turkey. — Patricia Shanahan, Sep 14 '19 at 15:47
@PatriciaShanahan What makes you assume that? They were only supposed to transit Turkey, which certainly doesn't require a visa — Crazydre, Sep 14 '19 at 15:48
@Crazydre The OP does not complain about being denied entry to Turkey and being deported to their home country, which I would expect for a traveler who can only transit Turkey, cannot return where they came from, and cannot board their ongoing flight. The airline would be very unlikely to allow someone on a Spain to Turkey flight without either checking documents for an ongoing flight or for entering Turkey. — Patricia Shanahan, Sep 14 '19 at 15:54
Note that even if this was a mistake on the part of the border guard (which, as others have explained, it wasn't), you wouldn't really have any effective recourse. — Relaxed, Sep 15 '19 at 07:09
@PatriciaShanahan But there was an ongoing flight and the airlines only checked the Schengen visa in a cursory manner (failing to notice that the Schengen visa was single entry). If they realised the Schengen visa did not allow reentry, they could have denied boarding for that reason. Since they didn't, they would not be concerned about the ongoing flight. Either way, they have no reason to care about a Turkish visa. But it's indeed possible (or even likely, given the list of countries covered by Turkey's e-visa policy), the OP could enter Turkey anyway. — Relaxed, Sep 15 '19 at 07:17
@Crazydre Turkey e-visa policy is really broad. If you fly one of the main Turkish carriers (and guessing from the name the OP might actually be exempt from that requirement), have a Schengen visa and book a hotel, citizens of nearly every country could make themselves eligible for a conditional e-visa, even at the last minute. — Relaxed, Sep 15 '19 at 07:20
That might be a separate question, but I assume airlines only check if the passenger can legally enter the first leg in a series of flights. — Quora Feans, Sep 15 '19 at 13:04
@QuoraFeans Which may well be dependent on whether they can enter the final destination — Crazydre, Sep 15 '19 at 13:11
@Crazydre: maybe he can't, the OP does not say it explicitly. And they can't go on on their journey. Maybe they are stuck in the airport for several years. I see a movie plot here. — Quora Feans, Sep 15 '19 at 13:16
Something similar happened to an Indian collegue of mine (on a Stockholm - Prague via Kiev flight). Het just got put on the first flight to India... — Krist van Besien, Sep 16 '19 at 02:37
Question should be asking was this correct, rather than assuming what happened was incorrect. — Emobe, Sep 16 '19 at 09:53
This question is yet another case of "absolutely, under no circumstances, should you take connecting flights through countries you don't actually intend to visit trying to save money on airfare". You will end up spending a lot more. — R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE, Sep 17 '19 at 02:25
@R.. And I would augment "absolutely" to "absolutely positively" when you are talking about two countries with a history of unhappy relations. — Lee Mosher, Sep 17 '19 at 15:54

score 107 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 15 '19 at 04:25

Your thinking seems to be that because you were flying from one country in the Schengen Area to another country in the Schengen area, then you were not really "exiting" Schengen, so should not have been given an exit stamp.

This would be absolutely correct - IF you were catching a flight that went directly from Spain to Greece, or went via another country in the Schengen region (eg, Spain -> Germany -> Greece).

However Turkey is NOT in the Schengen area. Thus your flight actually had you departing the Schengen area as you flew to Turkey, and then re-entering it when you arrived in Greece. This is true even if you were only in transit in Turkey and didn't actually enter the country - once you walk through immigration in Spain you are deemed to have left the Schengen area.

With only a single entry visa it it not possible to take this flight. Your "single entry" was used when you entered Schengen the first time. Flying to a non-Schengen country (eg, Turkey) and then returning would require a visa, and you didn't hold one that was still valid so you were correctly denied boarding.

Presuming both of your flights were booked on the same ticket, the airline in Spain should not have actually let you take the flight to Istanbul as you didn't hold the correct documents for the entire trip - however at the end of the day the responsibility for having the correct documents falls to the traveler.

Responsibility on the airline is to ensure you have the right visa for the flight's destination. Not for other flights you might take. — dan-klasson, Sep 17 '19 at 13:59

score 57 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 14 '19 at 14:34

Turkey is not in the Schengen area, so going from Spain to Turkey is exiting the Schengen area and therefore your passport gets stamped with an exit stamp.

But the exit stamp is actually entirely irrelevant for your problem.

The stamp that's a problem for you is your entry stamp from when you first entered Spain. This means that your single entry is now spent, and you're not allowed to enter the Schengen area once more, which you would if you were allowed to fly from Turkey to Greece, as Greece is within the Schengen area.

(If you didn't have the exit stamp, it would still be obvious that you had in fact left the Schengen area at some time, since you're currently outside that area rather than still inside).

If you don't have a visa that's valid for the itinerary you're trying to follow, that's your problem. Not that of the various officials who are correctly administering the rules.

score 13 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 17 '19 at 01:05

I think in addition to the other answers it might be beneficial to mention that the way the Schengen area works is there are no borders inside the Schengen area.

Once you're inside you can go anywhere, it's like a house where only the entrance door has a lock and the room doors don't have locks, once you enter through the entrance door you're in and can go to any room now. But if you want to go to the garden or a neighbour you have now left the house and cannot go to any of the rooms until you re-enter the house again through the main door.

Even though you say that you just wanted to go from Spain to Greece, you didn't just go from room Spain to room Greece within the house, instead you rather left the house to go to your neighbour (Turkey) on your way there and because of that now to actually get to room Greece you have to re-enter the house (Schengen) and you don't have permission to enter the house more than one time. But if you wouldn't have left the house (Schengen) you would have been able to go to as many rooms (Schengen countries) as you liked.

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 14 '19 at 11:47

If you entered and left the Schengen Area in Spain to Turkey then your Single entry C-Visa has been used.

A entry stamp for entering the Schengen Area must exist.
Receiving an exit stamp from Spain to Turkey is correct.

An image showing the C-Visa and entry/exit stamps would be helpfull to clarify.

My passport was stamped with an exit stamp while transiting to another Schengen country via Turkey. Was this a mistake?

4 Answers4

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