Schengen rules have changed

[goboatingnow]

e the less popular tourist destinations are effectively curtailing their tourist intake further as tourists are forced to ration their 90 days across more and more countries???

Europe just gets weirder and weirder the more I have to do with it!

No just about as weird as the US

[Greenhand]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

you're a big international spy book fan I see

Actually, I recently learned that there are legal ways to hold two passports, such as when you need to travel for business on one while sending the other off for a visa for another trip. Or you do business in one country where entry would void your multi entry visa for another (ie Saudi Arabia and Israel).

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Greenhand

Actually, I recently learned that there are legal ways to hold two passports, such as when you need to travel for business on one while sending the other off for a visa for another trip. Or you do business in one country where entry would void your multi entry visa for another (ie Saudi Arabia and Israel).

Not in any country I know. You can for example carry a cancelled passport for the purposes of showing your visa but only one is active. I used to do that when I had an old B1 visa stamped into an old passport.

Dave

[Greenhand]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Not in any country I know. You can for example carry a cancelled passport for the purposes of showing your visa but only one is active. I used to do that when I had an old B1 visa stamped into an old passport.

Dave

Here is a link to the affadavit required for the Chicago office for second valid US passport.

http://www.travisa.com/travforms/lao-chicago.pdf

Yeah, I thought the person considering it was bonkers, as well. Not that there are considerable restrictions.

[Barra]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

The number of people who can afford to take 90+ day vacations is a very small group. Most that can take that kind of time are very wealthy and can get around it (educational sabatical visas, long stay visas, buying property). They have often have lawyers and assistants who just make it happen.

Internal to the Schengen area it's actually a boon to travel:
- If you wanted to drive from Portugal to Poland, it was a minimum of 4 border crossings.
- If you wanted to fly from London to Paris for a quick weekend, you had to clear customs and imigration both ways.
- Not the end of the world but another little hassle to discourage travel.

The non-schengen cruising community makes up a small fraction of a percent of tourists. They will see no significant impact on tourism by opening it up to longer visas.

Um I flew from Barcelona to London then London to Paris by train last time I was there. Customs and immigration both times. Schengen did not remove the hassel just the need for multiple visas.

And I reckon there are far more retired types, long service leave types etc that would travel for more than 90 days than you suggest, they are just scared off by the hassel ( and not having those assistants you talk about to smooth the red tap)

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Barra

Um I flew from Barcelona to London then London to Paris by train last time I was there. Customs and immigration both times. Schengen did not remove the hassel just the need for multiple visas.

And I reckon there are far more retired types, long service leave types etc that would travel for more than 90 days than you suggest, they are just scared off by the hassel ( and not having those assistants you talk about to smooth the red tap)

My bad. The UK is not part of the Schengen, so the London example doesn't apply. Change the example: Paris to Rome. Come to think of it, it's probably the biggest benefit for folks who live near the border and cross regularly (ie: live in Austria and work 5 miles away in Germany). Before it may have been 5-10 minutes clearing each way and now you don't even slow down.

Retired folks spending a year (or longer) in France would typically get a long stay visa specific to France. There are income rules (a bit hazy what exactly they are) but if you have a healthy bank account or pension, what I've found by researching the top is it works fine. Once in France, you can visit other countries at will because there are no border checks. You do move into a gray area if you get a long stay visa for France and immediately travel to Spain and stay for 6 months. There is no practical way to track you but if they found out and got ornery, they could probably claim you are in violation of the schengen visa for your time in Spain.

From what I have found, if you are in the $5000/month cruiser group, you can probably get a long stay visa with a bit of explaining that you will be on the move. The $500/month cruisers need not apply. (no judgement implied, just what I've found researching the topic and following blogs where people tried to get long stay visas)

If you are a professor on Sabattical or a student, you can get special educational visas thru local colleges.

The Schengen is a tourist visa. If you are moving there long term for work, you need a work visa.

So it's still a pretty small slice pie we are looking at.

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Not in any country I know. You can for example carry a cancelled passport for the purposes of showing your visa but only one is active. I used to do that when I had an old B1 visa stamped into an old passport.

Dave

Australia allows it, but given the restrictions it's not really possible for most people.

[alex_sauvage]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Couldn't someone just get two passports and every 90 days take a short flight to a non-schengen country and then swap passports on their return.

It is an interesting question. What if you hold two passports through dual citizenship? You could in principle use both in turn: clear in and out using one passport and enter next country using second one. Would that be technically illegal?

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by alex_sauvage

It is an interesting question. What if you hold two passports through dual citizenship? You could in principle use both in turn: clear in and out using one passport and enter next country using second one. Would that be technically illegal?

Probably illegal but whether you get caught is another matter.

I have two passports, one is Swedish so my Schengen worries went away 10 years ago

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Barra

Um I flew from Barcelona to London then London to Paris by train last time I was there. Customs and immigration both times. Schengen did not remove the hassel just the need for multiple visas.

And I reckon there are far more retired types, long service leave types etc that would travel for more than 90 days than you suggest, they are just scared off by the hassel ( and not having those assistants you talk about to smooth the red tap)

Given the UK is outside the Schengen area , yes it doesn't work in that case. Drive round mainland Europe , fly from Paris to Madrid , notice passport checks ,,,,,,,,,

Schengen is about free movement of people within a borderless area. The common visa thing is a result of such decisions , not the reason for them

Common Schengen visas are in place about 15 years. The statistics don't show any particular change in tourist demographics. US numbers and duration in Europe are generally driven by the health of the US ecomonic and the latest scare.

Dave


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[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by chuckr

Judy -- how do you know Tunisia is unsafe???? Be there??? or what?? I happen to winter over here and it sure is a heck of a lot safer than almost anyplace we have been in over 6years of cruising --- we have traveled inland over 4,000km and the people have been friendly and helpful -- it is simply a wonderful country and very safe
it is obvious from your posting that you have no idea what you are talking about
and YOU OWE THE PEOPLE OF TUNISIA AN APOLOGY --

and i am not a muslim nor tunisian -- i am a evangelical christian and an american
and we plan to winter over here again next year

next time before you post i suggest you check your facts

Sorry, but I disagree. American friends on 3 boats visited Tunisia last season. Two reported no problems but did not feel welcome or comfortable and stayed only long enough to obtain fuel. The third reported that half the people would spit at them when saw the American flag and the other half of the people were welcoming. The US State Dept has posted warning regarding travel to Tunisia. Enjoy your stay there. We were looking forward to visiting Tunisia back when we started this adventure in 2006, but we will not be going there in today's political climate.

Judy

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by Nikki S

...obtaining longer stay visa in individual EU country is a joke. We certainly could not do it for Italy.

Judy

Hi Judy,
was there any reason given for why you could not get Italian National (long stay) Visa? (we are just about to apply for one)[/QUOTE]

The Italian consulate said that a marina address could not be used as an address; we would have to have both a marina address and a land residence. Also, must purchase medical insurance acceptable to Italian healthcare rules; almost none of the American policies are acceptable. Adding an apartment cost to the marina cost and the medical care cost to meet their requirements means that obtaining a long stay visa in Italy for these 2 elderly Americans was too cost prohibitive. So we decided to just leave the boat in Italy and fly back to the USA for 90-150 days. We plan to check into obtaining a 90-day visa for Spain when we are back in the USA next winter. Spain also requires medical insurance meeting their requirements and we can buy that. If they will accept a marina address then hoping it will be possible to obtain that visa for Spain.

Judy

Judy

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Then I missed it or did it happen ?

In my experience of clamp downs, its usually something else that caused an issue and it rippled into these types of things.

I mean think about it, In Europe , especially in the western med, if you actually can get a berth, you go into yacht marina, you do not enter a commercial harbour. In a yachts marina, the pleasant girl on reception thats a photocopy of your passport ( for ID), Your registration ( so they can determine your length to bill you ) and your insurance details ( cause the marina needs it). Of all the things that might stop you is actually the insurance!.

AT no point have you yet met an immigration authority. So unless you go off searching for him or her, you'll never likely actually check in. There you stay until the budget blows up ( 2-3 days) and you're of with a smile.

Half the time your on anchor in a bay, none is looking for your passport.

Yes if you want to stay for long periods then it can become an issue. But to cruise round the Med, The reality is as was pointed out a few posts ago, the people actually doing it are just laughing at this debate.


dave

You actually believe that this type behavior is acceptable? If one did this then one is an illegal alien in that country. Get hit by a car or have a heart attack or some other unavoidable problem and you are in major trouble. Yeah, some of us insist on obeying the laws. I think that is because these are laws and not merely suggestions.

Judy

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by svBeBe

Sorry, but I disagree. American friends on 3 boats visited Tunisia last season. Two reported no problems but did not feel welcome or comfortable and stayed only long enough to obtain fuel. The third reported that half the people would spit at them when saw the American flag and the other half of the people were welcoming. The US State Dept has posted warning regarding travel to Tunisia. Enjoy your stay there. We were looking forward to visiting Tunisia back when we started this adventure in 2006, but we will not be going there in today's political climate.

Judy

one of the things i love about 2nd hand information is that i don't believe it -- if we had listened to 2nd hand information about how bad or dangerous things are in this or that country we would never have left the usa --

Not sure where your friends stopped but we have been here over 6 months - visited almost the entire country and never once denied we were from the USA and in fact told anyone who asked that we were americans -- as i said we have traveled over 4,000km in tunisia by road, visited little cities and big cities - visited medias and back alleys, walked all over big and little cities, pick up a farmer to show us the way to luke skywakers house, and never once felt threatend or unsafe -- and the tunisians we met were more than gracious to us -- and most helpful --



as for the US State Dept - if i listened to all their warnings i would have never visited mexico, guatemala, honduras, colombia, and a few others --


i would like the boat names of those boats that got spit on and where as i am headed to tunis soon and will stop at the tunisian tourist office and give them the data so they can look into it -- email address would help also --

i guess the 6 plus months we have been here and our travels does little for you -- as our experience is beyond a stop for fuel --

Oh yea we also travel by bus and van almost everywhere - except for our excersions into the county and do it on our own - no guides no nothing except for a map -

All i know is i am a lot safer in Tunisia than in Houston or Miami or New York or Los Angeles or Dallas --

again you are using 2nd hand information to give a bad rap to a country that does not deserve

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by svBeBe

You actually believe that this type behavior is acceptable? If one did this then one is an illegal alien in that country. Get hit by a car or have a heart attack or some other unavoidable problem and you are in major trouble. Yeah, some of us insist on obeying the laws. I think that is because these are laws and not merely suggestions.



Judy

I'm not condoning it, merely pointing out a response from another poster.

I fail to see why having a heart attack , or getting hit by a car will have anything to do with overstaying. Europe isn't the US, you will get free medical emergency care irrespective of your visa position

Dave


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