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I (U.S.A. citizen) currently have a Dutch residence permit for purpose of family reunion. When my sponsoring family member will leave the Netherlands later this year, I will also have to turn in my residence permit.

At that point my goal is to switch over to a Schengen tourist for up to 90 more days. The Dutch immigration office told me this is ok but I'll need to exit then re-enter the Schengen Area, and she gave the example of taking a one-day trip to the U.K.

Instead of the U.K. I've wanted to go to either Andorra or the Faroe Islands. Neither of these are Schengen, but my understanding is that due to their locations they do not have border controls with the Schengen zone. Is this true?

Would that further imply a weekend trip to the Faroe Islands or to Andorra might not work to switch my status from long-stay resident to short-stay tourist (i.e. no place to get a new passport stamp)?

Edit:

To comments about using the expiry date on the residence permit as proof: My long-term residence permit is not a dated visa stamp in my passport. It's a plastic card that I'll need to relinquish when I leave the Netherlands. (I intend to keep a photocopy for records though.) Also, because I must leave when my sponsor leaves, I'll be relinquishing it and re-entering as a tourist many months before the expiry date printed on the card.

Jeff G
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    @GayotFow, the requirement to leave and re-enter seems silly to me too, but is alluded to other places on Travel SE as well. Know of any written regulations where I could double-check this? – Jeff G Jun 04 '16 at 21:17
  • Anecdotally in case it is relevant - Iceland is in Schengen, Greenland is not, however there were no border controls between these two either when I flew last year. – Tim Malone Jun 04 '16 at 21:46
  • @GayotFow How is the start of the 90 days determined if there's not a re-entry? – Tim Malone Jun 04 '16 at 21:47
  • @GayotFow That makes sense. So we'd be looking for some authoritative source that says it would automatically be considered a "visitor" rather than an overstay. – Tim Malone Jun 04 '16 at 22:00
  • From the above link: "If a travel document does not bear an entry stamp, it may be presumed that the holder does not fulfil, or no longer fulfils, the conditions of duration of a short stay. However, the non-EU-country national may provide any credible evidence of having respected the conditions relating to the duration of a short stay, such as transport tickets or proof of his/her presence outside the territory of the EU countries." @JeffG This seems to imply that your evidence of your previous visa could satisfy; however if I were you I'd be wanting clarification that this is correct. – Tim Malone Jun 04 '16 at 23:47
  • @GayotFow At least German authorities interpret the regulation in a way such that it requires leaving and re-entering the Schengen area so that one can stay new 90 days. However, they acknowledge that it is a rather silly formal requirement, so you can get a 90 day residence permit instead at the local authorieties. See 6.1.8.2 VwV-AufenthG. I don't know if that would hold up in court but not everyone would want to try. – neo Jun 05 '16 at 10:51
  • A fascinating discourse. Even if @Gayot finds that the law says one doesn't have to leave and re-enter Schengen, I'll remain apprehensive because the Dutch immigration authority told me you must. In that case, it would mean there's discrepancy between theory vs. how something is enforced in practice (also neo's comment for Germany), and I do NOT want to be caught on the wrong side of that in the airport! In short: I'm still curious about the entry stamp from Faroe Is. or Andorra. The leave and re-enter requirement perhaps should be a separate SE question. – Jeff G Jun 05 '16 at 21:50
  • Sorry we've hijacked your thread, Jeff! I suppose though you either need to know whether you don't have to exit, or whether you get that entry stamp? I just found this question - http://travel.stackexchange.com/q/69331/10264 - the accepted answer of which points out that even exiting doesn't fulfil the 180 day absence rule. ping @GayotFow – Tim Malone Jun 05 '16 at 22:53
  • You certainly should get an entry stamp when leaving Andorra. Andorra is not in the Schengen area and its border with Spain or with France should be treated as external borders (and I even read about someone being refused entry). In practice, it's true that you might be able to cross it without being asked for your passport but if you seek a border guard, they can and should stamp your passport (as opposed to an internal border where you won't find anybody to ask and stamping documents is not allowed). – Relaxed Jun 06 '16 at 11:07
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    OTOH, I still don't understand the advice you were given by the IND. I agree with @GayotFow that getting an entry stamp is not required but I also don't see how it would solve your problem. To be able to enter the Schengen are, you first need to leave it. In principle, the length of your stay should be checked at this moment. People contemplating a round-trip out of the Schengen area to get an entry stamp usually plan on leaving while they still have a valid long-stay visa to prove they have been staying legally until now. – Relaxed Jun 06 '16 at 11:13
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    But if you have to relinquish the residence permit when leaving the country, you would present yourself to the exit check with nothing and no recent entry stamp. It would only work if you could count on sneaking out of the Schengen area without a proper check (which might actually be possible in Andorra) or if you would do the whole thing before handing the permit over to the Dutch authorities. – Relaxed Jun 06 '16 at 11:17
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    I called the Dutch IND again and a second representative confirmed that I need to leave and re-enter the Schengen area for a day to switch over to tourist status. He also suggested that border control will have access to the information that I'd been staying under a residence permit. – Jeff G Jun 08 '16 at 14:37
  • @JeffG That's a good point, that they'll have access to the information. If I were you, I'd follow this advice to be on the safe side. And as others have said, you should be able to ask for a stamp if it's a manned border. – Tim Malone Jun 11 '16 at 04:29
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    @Relaxed It seems that there are different interpretations about whether it's necessary to leave and re-enter, even from one Schengen country to another. The question seems never to have been decided by the courts. I recently saw a document in which one country was seeking information from the other countries about some question of law; one of the points they were asked to clarify was this one, and the responses differed. Unfortunately, I did not note the URL for the document, and I cannot find that document now. – phoog Sep 30 '16 at 21:12
  • Could this be a case of "it makes the paperwork easier" so they're telling him to do that, rather than something that requires more work on their part? – Joe Sep 30 '16 at 21:59
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    @Joe it could be, but if they're interpreting it that way, does it matter why? If their interpretation is found to be wrong by a court, the former resident could presumably avoid being fined, deported, or banned, but that could be an expensive and time-consuming battle, and a round-trip ticket on the ferry is probably a lot cheaper. – phoog Sep 30 '16 at 22:10
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    @Relaxed I found it; it's from 2011: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/european_migration_network/reports/docs/ad-hoc-queries/residence/337._emn_ad_hoc_query_duration_of_stay_and_refusal_of_exit_5aug2011_wider_dissemination_en.pdf. France, Germany, and the Netherlands, among others, require exit; Czech Republic, Estonia, and Finland, among others, do not. – phoog Sep 30 '16 at 22:14
  • @phoog Interesting although it's not really clear what this means in practice. Does the Netherlands require that from someone holding a Finnish residence permit? The other way around? On what basis? – Relaxed Oct 02 '16 at 22:23
  • @Relaxed I agree. There are many cases and permutations that (it seems) nobody has considered. They probably can't require that of someone on a Finnish residence permit; it seems their response is based on a requirement in national law that the holder of a Dutch residence permit leave within four weeks of expiration. – phoog Oct 02 '16 at 22:25
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    Follow-up: instead of pressing the issue asked here with the authorities I ended up just going to the U.K, then re-entered Schengen as a tourist via Norway, no questions asked by Schengen officials. However the UK immigration agent did require proof (a plane ticket) that I was going to leave Schengen again before my tourist stay was expired, before he even let me into the UK. – Jeff G Oct 04 '16 at 13:10
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    I entered Andorra by bus today. There were both immigration and customs checkpoints at the border. However, they did not stop the bus nor look at anyone's documents or baggage. So I do not have proof of entry in my passport. I do have a receipt from burger king, but since it does not have my name on it, nor the "last four digits" of a credit card number, it also doesn't prove I was here. But finally, I can get documentation from the hostel that I slept there two nights. If that's not enough, the headers of two e-mails might prove that they were sent from inside Andorra. – WGroleau Mar 29 '18 at 19:26

3 Answers3

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I am not sure why your ask Will I get a Schengen entry stamp when leaving Andorra or Faroe Islands? because as I understand your plans it seem what you need is an exit stamp from Schengen, or an entry stamp for somewhere outside the Schengen agreement.

Obtaining such a stamp from Andorra would seem to be easy. From Wikitravel:

A souvenir passport stamp may be available at the border on request.

and

Border control officers at both sides are generally fine.

Taken together I interpret "may" to mean something like "all you have to do is ask" - rather than, say "may ... or may not".

At least you would appear to have four chances: out/in Schengen and in/out Andorra with any one of those possibly sufficient.

There is some advice about The Faroes here:

you won't get a stamp if you arrive from Denmark (you could probably ask for one at arrival, but that would be atypical I guess)

you can also ask for a stamp at the airport or the very least at the police station in Tórshavn

When I left though, there was an immigration guy who checked passports/ lengths of stay (from entrance into Iceland I guess??). He then stamped my passport with an exit stamp that said DK -- Føroyar.

I've heard they check all documents upon entering by ferry

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pnuts
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  • "I've heard they check all documents upon entering by Ferry" False - the Faroes has an open border with the Schengen Area, and ferries only run from Denmark and Iceland, which are Schengen countries (as well as part of the Nordic passport Union, another open border Agreement) – Crazydre May 13 '17 at 09:27
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The Andorrans nowadays don't stamp any passports unless you ask for it, and their stamps are not Schengen stamps, nor do they issue exit stamps

The Faroe Islands, although not itself part of the Schengen Area, is a territory of a Schengen country and has an open border with the Area, so unless you fly to/from Edinburgh, there are no immigration checks. In any case, when there are checks, Danish Schengen stamps are used.

An Andorran entry stamp

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And a Faroese exit stamp

enter image description here

Crazydre
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I asked two friends who, separately, made the trip from Barcelona Spain to Andorra, and back to Spain. One was traveling on a Canadian passport, the other Turkish. Neither one received a stamp at the Andorra border—but they did not explicitly ask for one either.

Jeff G
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