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I have a Schengen visa and invitation letter came from France, but I want to stop at Frankfurt instead. Frankfurt is only 1 hr from Fauburg where I want to go. Paris is 4 hr plus changing flight from Frankfurt and immigration and all at Paris will take around 7 hr plus for me. I have a ticket on Lufthansa to Paris with one stop at Frankfurt.

My question is whether can I stop at Frankfurt even though my final destination is Paris.

mkennedy
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Deepak Sharma
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    You'll go through immigration at Frankfurt anyway (first stop within Schengen). Are you checking any luggage? If so, it may be difficult to retrieve it in Frankfurt. The airline may also cancel your return ticket. – mkennedy Apr 20 '17 at 17:50
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    @mkennedy I think the question is not about dropping second leg of the itinerary, but about buying a ticket straight to Frankfurt, doubt being if OP can enter in Germany having visa issued by France. OP is that right? – Kuba Apr 20 '17 at 17:54
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    I took out some useful information when I was editing it; let me put it back in. It implies that OP does already have his ticket. – mkennedy Apr 20 '17 at 17:56
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    By the way, I cannot find any "Fauburg". Do you mean Strasbourg? That's probably one of the quickest French places to reach by public transport from Frankfurt, but still it will take around two hours in the best case rather than one. – hmakholm left over Monica Apr 20 '17 at 19:08

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As for passing immigration control in Frankfurt, that is completely fine. You would do that anyway if you were flying to Paris, because the Schengen-internal flight to Paris leaves from the "domestic" side of the border controls in Frankfurt.

In some places on the net you can find written that you need to have an onward flight towards the country that issued your visa, but that is an oversimplification: Any reasonable arrangement for onward transportation to your main destination country will do, land or air does not matter.

However, if you plan to do this, you need to change your flight ticket be for Frankfurt only. This may cost you (possibly large) change fees, but is inescapable. Airlines are notoriously unhappy about passengers leaving an itinerary in the middle (because they often charge more for a direct flight to Frankfurt than for a connection through Frankfurt).

Without changing tickets, you will have problems getting your bags in Frankfurt (they will be transferred to the Paris flight automatically -- you won't see them for customs purposes, because you would clear customs on arrival in Paris). And even if you travel without hold luggage, the airline will probably cancel BOTH legs of your return flight without any refund after you abscond from the connecting flight in Frankfurt.

hmakholm left over Monica
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