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I am a UK student who visited Italy in July of this year. The validity of my visa was for one month, with multiple entries. The date of entry was 6/7/22 (Pisa) and the date of exit was 26/7/22 (Brussels), which was well within the dates of validity. Everything was done in haste, but it went fine and I got back to the UK seamlessly. Only recently did I see the duration of stay on my Visa sticker: 15 days!

This has made me very anxious, as I have made a terrible mistake. I need to know how to get past this. How serious is this problem? No one stopped me or asked me anything at Brussels Charleroi border control. If I plan to apply for a new Schengen visa, would I be rejected, fined, or banned? I hope not. Should I choose my destination carefully to avoid severe penalties? Would it help if I postponed all travel plans to Europe for a year? Any advice would help, thank you very much.

More details: I am Indian and a PhD student in the UK. I went to a conference in Italy and had flight tickets booked to and from Italy. I submitted them with my Visa application and mentioned a tentative plan to visit my friends and family in Paris (the reason for asking for multiple entries). The change in plans was because I ended up having to combine Italy and Paris together in the same trip as my PhD deadlines had changed, so there was only a single entry into the Schengen area, and I stayed in the Schengen area during the whole trip.

JonathanReez
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AllIsWell
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    When you say "I am a UK student", I suppose you mean you are a student in the UK, but you are not British, are you? If you are, why did you ask for a visa? If you aren't, what is your citizenship? What was your initial itinerary as submitted in your visa application? Was there a reason for the change in plans? Did you indeed stay inside Schengen during the whole trip? – jcaron Dec 07 '22 at 15:50
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    Yes sorry, I'm an Indian, student in the UK. I went for a conference in Italy, I had flight tickets booked to and from Italy. I submitted them with my Visa application and mentioned also a tentative plan to visit my friends and family in Paris (the reason for asking multiple entry). The change in plans was because I ended up having to combine Italy and Paris together in the same trip as my PhD deadlines had changed, so there was only a single entry into the Schengen area, I stayed in Schengen during the whole trip. – AllIsWell Dec 07 '22 at 16:06
  • If emails or published documents from your institution show the change in deadlines, preserve the links and print out the docs as support to explain the overstay if or when you next apply for a Schengen visa. – DavidRecallsMonica Dec 07 '22 at 18:16
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    Most likely the officer saw the dates and decided that it's within the terms of your visa, and that's that. If anything, it would have a positive effect on your next application - you were allowed in, and honored the terms of your visa. To make sure, I think there is a way to ask the EU about your record, but don't know details. – ugoren Dec 09 '22 at 15:08
  • @ugoren The OP had a visa valid for a stay of 15 days’ duration but stayed 21 days. How does that ‘honour’ the terms of the visa? – Traveller Jan 06 '23 at 09:27
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    @traveller, The validity of my visa was for one month, OP stayed 21 days – ugoren Jan 06 '23 at 10:54
  • Do you have documentation for the original visa length decision? If I'm reading correctly you were issued with a 1 month visa, but then at the border the immigration official changed that to 15 days either deliberately or mistakenly? – Tom Jan 06 '23 at 12:33
  • @ugoren The OP had a visa valid for a month; within that month the maximum number of days he/she was permitted to stay was 15 days. See https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/51221/should-i-follow-what-was-mentioned-in-the-duration-of-stay-or-in-the-validity – Traveller Jan 06 '23 at 15:36
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    @Tom There was no change at the border, the OP appears to have misunderstood the terms of the visa. Visa validity and length of stay duration are two different limits applicable to the one visa. Both have to be observed eg https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/51221/should-i-follow-what-was-mentioned-in-the-duration-of-stay-or-in-the-validity and https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/visa-sticker/ – Traveller Jan 06 '23 at 15:45

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