Traveling around Schengen using EU and non-EU passport

June 15, 2018 12:31 PM

My EU passport has expired. Can I travel to a Schengen country on my non-EU passport, renew my EU passport while I'm there, and then enter another Schengen country on my EU passport, thereby evading the 90-day limit?

I plan to spend 6 months in Europe, in the Schengen area, starting next month. I hold an expired UK passport and a valid Other passport from a "third country”. This third country passport entitles holders to an automatic 90 day visa for the Schengen area every 180 days. Until yesterday, I planned to spend 3 months in country A, entering on the Other passport, then fly to country B, also entering on the Other passport. Then I found out this transgresses against the 90/180 rule for tourist stays in the Schengen area (it can be taken as read that it was dumb of me not to think of this; there's a lot going on in my life at the moment). My UK passport, in these happy pre-Brexit days, allows free movement in Schengen. I am now applying to renew my UK passport but it may not arrive before I leave for Country A.

My question: if I enter country A on the Other passport, get my new U.K. passport mailed to my address there, leave country A on the Other passport and enter country B on the brand new U.K. passport, will I be regarded as overstaying the 90 day limit, or otherwise doing something nefarious that will get me in trouble at the border? All the countries involved are of the thorough border checking variety, and I’m not planning to try anything illegal or even questionably legal, as I need to be able to travel freely in Europe on future trips. I’ve tried calling the consulate to no avail, so I’m looking either for reports from personal experience, or input from professionals in this field. Gut feelings about what is probably ok are less helpful - I already have those. Thanks!

posted by ogorki to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

It's only the document that's expired. Your right to stay in Schengen is independent of the status of the document.
posted by humboldt32 at 12:50 PM on June 15, 2018

I am not professionally qualified to answer this question, but I am a dual citizen. I think your Other passport will be flagged as overstaying, given that it sounds like you're going from A to B without leaving the Schengen Zone (i.e. you won't ever get an exit stamp in Other passport and there won't be a record). My gut says A -> non-Schengen (preferably UK, probably) -> B should be fine, but that's only my gut. I would err on the side of caution because you don't want to have to sort this out.

If you live in the US, you should be able to pay an arm and a leg to get a UK passport within a month and enter A on your UK passport.
posted by hoyland at 2:23 PM on June 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

This page does not actually say you cannot use the UK passport to enter if it's not valid. What I wonder is if you'll be able get on a plane to Europe with an expired UK passport as your legal entitlement to be there. And yet surely EU nationals enter Schengen overland - say in a car - and some of them must have misread their documents and found their passports out of date. Do you want to be this test case?

Also now that a renewal application is in, is your old passport even still going to be recognized by whatever computer systems Schengen uses? Is this a case for an emergency passport?

Good luck!
posted by mdonley at 2:20 AM on June 16, 2018

Best answer: In order not to risk getting your 3rd country passport flagged as overstaying, you'll need to leave Schengen at some time within the 90 days, and re-enter Schengen on your UK passport. Flying from A to B within Schengen won't flag you as leaving, because there will be ID checks but if they use your passport for that^†, they won't record the details.

You're OK using one passport to leave Schengen and another one to enter the non-Schengen country, and you're fine exiting Schengen to go to one of the 6 non-Schengen EU countries (Romania, Cyprus, Bulgaria, UK, Croatia and Ireland), so it shouldn't be cumbersome to get this done, and it should save a lot of bother. Assuming you're near an airport, you should be able to make a 24 hour visa stamping, getting brunch and seeing the most famous sights trip to any of these places for not much over €100 all in.

mdonley, I've crossed 5 Schengen borders overland, including Greece-Bulgaria (i.e. an intra-EU one other than Eurostar), and it's been a thorough ID check each time, including a near refusal (demanded to see my driving licence, too) from the Italian border control in Montenegro because my UK passport had a tiny tear.

^†Or even, glares at Austrian police on the Munich to Vienna train in 2012, if they demand your passport after crossing a border.
posted by ambrosen at 6:06 AM on June 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Of course, you're also fine flying from A to B via non-Schengen country, but no, if you fly from e.g. Keflavík to Chania (at 4,447 km, I think that's the longest direct intra-Schengen flight), the only people who'll look at your passport will be security people from the airline.
posted by ambrosen at 6:15 AM on June 16, 2018

Response by poster: My UK passport was renewed super fast and solved the problem! Thanks to all for your helpful answers.
posted by ogorki at 10:13 PM on June 30, 2018 [3 favorites]