I have a question for you. How serious is the 90 day thing? I came to Spain on February 3rd from the States and my return flight isn´t until May 10th. How serious of a problem is this, do you know? does anyone know?

If you have any family living there you might have a chance at waiveing it. I’ve heard you can avoid being checked by entering a schengen area by some means other than airports, but I think thats mostly a Eastern thing. (Hint: not through the tunnel and not by boat from Africa, lol) I’m sure you could get in without being checked from small border crossing in an eastern country. However, I’ve read a lot of posts from people claiming that they didn’t have much trouble getting back in. Maybe book a cheap ryan air flight and see what happens. The worst that could happen is that you’d have to take another cheap ryan air flight back.

It really depends on the country of entry/exit. I’ve never been stamped in France with a US passport, but in Germany and Greece, I have. In Greece and Germany, they also stamp you on your way out (unless you’re leaving for another Schengen country), so they enforce it more. But if you get caught, it’s only a relatively small fine. Not jail time. In France, at least the times I was there, I remember it more relaxed for US passport holders.

Was your passport stamped on entry? If not, there’s no way they can prove that you’ve already been to the Schengen zone.

We wish to stay in Germany beyond the 90 day period. Is it sufficient for us to take a train trip to Poland to renew the 90 day tourist visa? Will we be stamped at the Polish border now that Poland is part of the EU?

Technically its 90 days in a 180 day period, so you can’t just make a daytrip to Poland and come back.

Hate to tell ya but re-entry into the schegen zone might not be so easy.. you should’ve tried applying for a permit/ extention before leaving. Ppl on here talk about going to a country outside of Schengen and re-entering… which is all fine and good but you have to stay there for 3 months!!! ….. this is how it works…3 months in schengen ..3 months out … no more than 180 days in one calendar year…..you could always try to apply for an extention at the local embassy of the country you want to go to but that process differs from country to country

Only if you applied before your 90 days were up. But it is far from automatic anyway. Being in the UK makes it harder to get back into the Schengen region because they are on the look out for people who have overstayed their (UK) 90 day visas.

If you are from a visa waiver country, as a general rule if you stay inside the Schengen zone longer than 90 days – esp in the high tourist season – you will not be detected. This is particularly true if you have a pass that has many foreign visa stamps and Schengen entry/re-entry stamps. But if you have just one entry stamp in your pass, then it is hard to talk your way out of it. In the extreme case they can refuse you entry for the next 5 years.

I would call your local consulate where you can speak to someone in your own language and find out more. They would know of other possible visas or ways to extend it if one exists but i would not try and stay over the limit. I’ve traveled without a visa for a few months in Greece but left before 90 days so that they wouldn’t make me go to the military since my father was born in greece i’m technically a greek citizen. I took royal caribbean last year from italy to greece then stayed in athens with my family for a while and flew back just in time. Any longer i would need a visa.