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My visa expires on March 17th and my plane arrives at 9:10 PM on that day. I will then take a bus from the airport to the Schengen border, reaching the border around 2:00 AM on March 18th (so I will leave the Schengen area 2 hours past the expiry date on my visa). What kind of consequences will I face for being late?

JonathanReez
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Татьяна Заусаева
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    Will you arrive into the Schengen area on that last day of Schengen visa validity or are you inside the Schengen area already then? – Willeke Feb 27 '23 at 18:15
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    Given the date is so far in the future, why don't you contact the immigration officials and see if you can work something out? Or perhaps reschedule your flights so that you don't overstay? – ProgrammingLlama Feb 28 '23 at 02:26
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    The travel times you claim only work if everything goes according to plan. Any sort of travel mess-up could delay you further, and that will be your fault for failing to account for delays. Therefore I would move the departure up a full day so you have 22 hours of recovery time for delays. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Feb 28 '23 at 04:10
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    @Harper-ReinstateMonica It's different if the overstay is due to a flight cancellation or transport delay. Article 33 of the EU Visa Code allows extensions due to force majeure. OP would need to make sure they have evidence that they tried to leave on time, but couldn't. – user71659 Feb 28 '23 at 04:31
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    @user71659 I don't think that a flight scheduled 2+ weeks in advance can be considered "extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties" – Rsf Feb 28 '23 at 08:30
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    @Rsf That's not what I'm talking about. I'm responding to Harper's comment about travel delays, specifically "that will be your fault for failing to account for delays". – user71659 Feb 28 '23 at 08:33
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    @user71659 COVID lockdown. Earthquake. Special Military Operation. 11/9/01 national ground stop. Those are "force majeure". Rainstorm delaying a departure for an hour causing you to miss a connection, that's just another day at the airport. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Feb 28 '23 at 18:48
  • @Harper-ReinstateMonica: Missing a connection implies already being out of the territory which requires a visa. That said, assuming the initial flight is cancelled and you are still in the territory, this would still be considered a force majeure relative to the traveller, as they had no way to predict nor control this. – Flater Mar 01 '23 at 03:07
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    I was in a similar situation in 2019 and my bus reached the border from Paris to UK almost an hour after my visa expired. The immigration officer didn't even notice it and just stamped it. The funny thing was, Europe exit stamp had the next date stamp on it and a few minutes later at the UK immigration who work on UK time(-1 hour) stamped it with the previous day. So, I technically exited Europe after visa expired and entered UK while the visa was still valid. – Anonymous Mar 01 '23 at 00:31
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    I wouldn't rely on this. Accidentally reaching the border late due to unexpected delays and cancelled flights is reasonable. For the expected case, we should always look to reschedule the flights, even if its expensive, rather than complicating future visa applications. – Anish Sheela Mar 01 '23 at 02:23
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    UK is in Europe (and in 2019 it was in the EU), so you didn't exit Europe, you exited the Schengen area. – Henrik supports the community Mar 01 '23 at 10:38
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    In theory you can apply for a visa valid from March 18th to supplement your existing visa, though in practice it may be too late at this point. If your plane arrives from outside the Schengen area there is a chance you won't be admitted because you do not plan to leave before the end of your visa's period of validity. – phoog Mar 01 '23 at 12:16
  • as @Anonymous points, one hour, even one minute after midnight, is overstaying of a full day (according to the stamps).

    What are the consequences of overstaying of one day?

     – EarlGrey Mar 01 '23 at 15:16
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    I am echoing a point already made by @Willeke and phoog but where what's the point of origin of the flight you mention? This plan could backfire badly. – Relaxed Mar 02 '23 at 17:49

1 Answers1

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Some sort of sanction is always theoretically possible but would seem unlikely, at least if you already are on your way out. However, I think the question and earlier answer miss the main issue, which has been alluded to in several comments.

If you present yourself to a Schengen external border on the day your visa expires, you should be asked how you plan to exit the area in time not to violate the conditions of that visa. The details of your visa are also much more likely to be scrutinised when entering than when leaving. And since you are clearly planning to overstay, it seems to me that the only legal decision is to refuse entry. Unlike possible sanctions for a brief overstay, this is not a matter at the discretion of the border guards, you plainly do not fulfil the conditions for entry as laid out in the Schengen Borders code.

If the border guards do notice and act on it, it would have severe consequences. You would be detained until you can be put on a plane back to where you came from. In addition to ruining this trip, it would create a black mark on your record that you will have to report for many future visa applications, even beyond the Schengen area.

If the flight you mention in your question is indeed a flight from a place outside the Schengen area then I would strongly recommend finding a ticket allowing you to catch an earlier bus or cancelling this trip altogether, even if it's expensive.

Relaxed
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