How do U.S.cruisers deal with visas in Europe?

[Jdege]

If a U.S. citizen who'd been cruising the Caribbean for a few years decided to head to Europe for the hurricane season, not for a permanent stay, but for something beyond the standard Schengen Area 90-day tourist visa, what would they do.

As a hypothetical, assume heading over with ARC Europe in May and returning with ARC in November.

Are there extended visas available? Do people spend time outside the Schengen Area? If so, where, U.K., Ireland, North Africa, Croatia?

How do people manage?

[boatman61]

Most countries one cruises the visa is applied for and granted on arrival... exceptions are Iran, Cuba, China, USA, N Korea.. there you get locked up instead..
All of W Europe and N Med is like this.. also Turkey.. pull into the port.. take all the paper work to the HM and that's it.. cleared in for 90 days.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by boatman61

All of W Europe and N Med is like this.. also Turkey.. pull into the port.. take all the paper work to the HM and that's it.. cleared in for 90 days.

Yes. And once you're in, you can wander through all the Schengen Area without difficulty - until your 90 days are up.

But what if you're looking at a six-month stay? Head to the UK or N. Africa? Is there some extended visa that is reasonably available?

By "reasonably", I don't mean this:

Want To Live In Europe? "Buy" A Residency Permit

[Lizzy Belle]

I asked Google, which returned a lot of results.
This article is from 2012, but it might help you find out more relevant info.

How to (Legally) Stay in Europe for More Than 90 Days

[lodos]

following is a copy from noonsite.com All the info you need is in this site


Greece is at last in harmony with the rest of the European Union and from 1st October 2015 will now issue Transit Logs to non-EU boats valid for 18 months.


Turkey
you can get a one year transit log and extend it every year for 5 years the you turn in transit log and if you want to come back all you have to do is check in in one of the greek islands have the proof when you get back. this will start new transit log

[yeloya]

Making all the way from Caribbean to Med for just max 5 months seems a bit too streched althought I did exactly the same two years ago the other way around..

You will have to sail a lot, 11-12.000 nm and if you make 150 nm a day as an average, that makes 3 months of sailing out of 5 months trip. There have been hardly any place where we spent more than a day. I like sailing and was happy, my wife not really.. There are so many nice place to visit in the Med; Balearics, Sardegna, Sicilly, Croatia, Greece and Turkey..
The best would be to to hit Gibraltar (before that already Azores is a part of Schengen) beginning June, then rather quickly run towards Turkey and leave the last Greek port before yr 3 months are done. This will be end of August. You can spend max a month in Turkey and hit back Gibraltar. Theoritically you can stay in Turkey much longer but the Med starting with November is full of surprise + you may miss the start of ARC.

The best would be to come towards Turkey slowly, spend the winter there and restart the way back in May next year. Sparing just a month for crusing Turkey and Greece combined would really be pitty.

Cheers

Yeloya

[dlymn]

Once in the Schengen zone, it's not common to have your passport checked for entry date,but it can happen. Most countries have some form of port of entry procedure which you're expected to conform to on arrival. The big risk is when you check out. Some countries have a few officious customs guys who are just waiting for you to overstay. If they detect an overstay, they might choose to apply the letter of the law and ban you from the Schengen zone. This might be a hassle if you've just flown home for Christmas and left your boat there.

There are some people who've cruised around the Med for years and have never been challenged. I wouln't advise doing this. Others make sure that they move out of the zone for 3 months and then go back in for 3 months. Turkey,Libya, Albania are places that some people overwinter then return to the Schengen zone.

I think these laws are meant to stop people living permanently in the EU zone without contributing formally to the economy. Recreational sailors are a bit like collateral damage and most countries understand and sympathise.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by yeloya

Making all the way from Caribbean to Med for just max 5 months seems a bit too streched althought I did exactly the same two years ago the other way around..

Trying to see all of Europe in five months seems absurd. Spending the summer in Vågsfjorden, though, might be worth it.

[chuckr]

So you are going to sail all the way from the Caribbean to the Med for 5 months and then back again. Or as you posted above to Norway for a bit. If that is your plan park your boat and fly over and charter, makes more sense. Do you have any idea how big the Med is?

We sailed over in May of '13. Our first year we got to Portugal, southern half of Spain, Balerica Islands and down to Tunisia for the winter. We were over our Schengen days by about 3 weeks but when we checked out in a small port in Sardinia the only thing they wanted to know was "Non Schengen" to which we replied yes and they stamped us out with no issue.

By your saying you sail the Caribbean I am not sure what you mean as when most people talk about the Caribbean they only mean the Eastern Caribbean. Have you sailed the Western Caribbean? You can sail that through hurricane season and it can be quite nice.

But sailing across for 5 months sure seems silly to us when there is so much to see. We just finished year 3 in the Med and still a lot to see and experience. And we are an American boat and deal with Schengen and I do not care what people say Schengen is a problem and there is no easy or real way around it. But you learn how to deal with it as we and a lot of other people have.

A check of your profile reveals nothing. So I am unsure if your serious or just making conversation. What kind of boat do you have? How is it equipped and what is your crew?

[skipmac]

Hi Jdege,

Good question and one I have researched in depth as I am also contemplating a trip to EU. There have been several previous threads that went for many pages discussing this exact issue in great detail. Here's one that I started not that long ago that generated six pages of comments and suggestions. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ad-108260.html

Bottom line, you get 90 days EU Schengen visa automatically with no problem but as far as I can tell there is absolutely no extension on the Schengen visa. In theory you can get an extended visa from an individual country for one year or even longer. In practice most of the countries in the EU have very stringent requirements to get one of these. Most require you apply from your home country before traveling there, most have strict requirements to qualify for the visa, typically:

- Students, easy but you have to be enrolled in a recognized study program.
- Family ties
- Work, usually requires sponsorship and proof of employment

Some countries offer long term resident visas but the process looks long and complicated, requiring proof of income, medical insurance, background checks and such.

In the past it has been correct that traveling in EU by land or sea, one was seldom if ever asked for visas or passports so a lot of cruisers in the past have just stayed as long as they wanted, acted responsibly, didn't look like poor boat bums, and everything was fine. I would not try this myself and I'm hearing that this is getting more difficult as security tightens and EU wide computer get better.

The current best, legal option is to spend 90 days in then 90 days out of Schengen. It is possible with a bit shuffling between countries as there are a number of places in EU that are not in the Schengen treaty zone. UK, Ireland, Gibraltar are a few. North Africa is also an option but with current unrest I'm reluctant to consider that.

There is discussion of implementing a one year Schengen tourist visa but I'm not sure of the status of that idea. Might be worth checking.

[sailorboy1]

This is a little off topic, but:

I've been reading these threads for years and have yet to read of a story where a cruiser got into any real trouble for overstaying. By real trouble I mean something like a big fine or jail time etc. as if all they do is make you leave that seems mostly an "oh well".

[boatman61]

You are the problem.. the boat is easy to sort.. coupla days out of Schengen and she's got another 18mths..
So.. assuming your from the US... make your crossing to the Azores in June.. then head for Baiona N Spain and enjoy the ria's along the coast as far as Bilbao etc.. when you reach the corner coast hop the French coast all the way to the Channel Isles..
Then.. depending how much time you have left either carry on as far as you like before jumping across and then doing the UK.. winter along the S coast where you get some great winter sailing so you can explore some awesome coastline.. ending up at Falmouth.
When eligible for Schengen again jump off for a straight run across the Biscay and clear in at Porto.. 7 days run max.. start another 90 days..
After that... see what the next few months bring with the ME clusterflock..

[seaward 42]

This "topic" has been already turned upside down and inside out hundred times . There is at least couple of dozen threads and hundreds of posts on CF about this. and by the way Croatia is member of EU for the last couple of years ...as far as I know.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by chuckr

So you are going to sail all the way from the Caribbean to the Med for 5 months and then back again. Or as you posted above to Norway for a bit. If that is your plan park your boat and fly over and charter, makes more sense. Do you have any idea how big the Med is?

The five months wasn't a plan, it was an example of why a stay of over 90 days might matter. Staying in Europe for several years might well be reasonable. Staying for less than 90 days is not. From what I could see, five months would be the minimal reasonable stay, crossing in one season and returning the next.

So, another question. How do the 90 days accumulate?

If you spend a couple of weeks in a Schengen Area country, then check out, make a long voyage to another Schengen Area county, is the time in transit included in your 90 days?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by seaward 42

This "topic" has been already turned upside down and inside out hundred times . There is at least couple of dozen threads and hundreds of posts on CF about this. and by the way Croatia is member of EU for the last couple of years ...as far as I know.

Maybe a nit picky point but important to this discussion. The 90 day limit on stays is for countries that signed the Schengen Agreement which is not the same as the countries that are members of the EU.

For example Ireland is a member of the EU but not a signatory to the Schengen Agreement. Switzerland is a signatory to Schengen but not a member of the EU. So your time in Ireland, an EU country, does not count against your 90 day limit for time in the Schengen zone. Your time in Switzerland will count against your 90 Schengen limit even though Switzerland is not an EU member.

And as far as I know, Sailorboy1 is correct. I have not heard of any cruisers that suffered serious penalties for overstaying the 90 limit. I have read about people that had their passports stamped prohibiting them from entering a Schengen country for a year or similar.