Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky,

I’m going to Europe next week and visiting Germany via Dublin on Aer Lingus and flying back home via Madrid on Iberia. I will be there for 5 days. I also have a July trip planned for 14 days, also in the Schengen region. I understand the rules of 90 days within any 6 month period but in practice do you think I’ll have any trouble getting them to stamp my US passport on the way out so that I can prove that I left the Schengen region before I return in July? Also, if they do not stamp my passport outbound, is there a procedure for my return trip in July to prove to the immigration folks that I actually left the region in April? Wife would be extremely mad at me if I was denied entry for our summer vacation…

Sorry if this is the first dumb question on your new “ask lucky” page 🙂

[QUOTE=”Seth, post: 3756, member: 38″]do you think I’ll have any trouble getting them to stamp my US passport on the way out so that I can prove that I left the Schengen region before I return in July? Also, if they do not stamp my passport outbound, is there a procedure for my return trip in July to prove to the immigration folks that I actually left the region in April? Wife would be extremely mad at me if I was denied entry for our summer vacation…[/QUOTE]

The default requirement is that any non-EU passport must be stamped in and out of Schengen every single time. Sometimes there are omissions, but you are unlikely to have any issues on re-entry as Spain maintains inbound/outbound APIS which is supposed to link with the SIS systems to show you exited anyway whether your passport was stamped or not. I wouldn’t even worry about it. If you are not stamped, just retain your boarding pass stub and that will solve the matter immediately.

[QUOTE=”Sean M., post: 3758, member: 28″]The default requirement is that any non-EU passport must be stamped in and out of Schengen every single time. Sometimes there are omissions, but you are unlikely to have any issues on re-entry as Spain maintains inbound/outbound APIS which is supposed to link with the SIS systems to show you exited anyway whether your passport was stamped or not. I wouldn’t even worry about it. If you are not stamped, just retain your boarding pass stub and that will solve the matter immediately.[/QUOTE]

That’s good to know. Guess I won’t worry too much about it then. Thanks, Sean!