Belgium visa question

September 10, 2013 8:26 AM

Can I leave and re-enter Belgium on this visa?

I'm currently living in Belgium, awaiting my residency card, which will allow me to leave and re-enter the country freely. My visa is valid from May 15, 2013 to November 15, 2013 with multiple entries. However, I have been in Belgium past the 90 day duration. Is it possible to leave (and come back) using this visa sometime around the end of September? It would also be useful to know who to contact in order to get this information.

posted by logicpunk to Travel & Transportation around Belgium (9 answers total)

Is that a multiple-entry Schengen visa? If so, the maximum amount you can stay during that entire period (May to November) is 90 days. Since you have exceeded that, the visa is no longer valid.

That's my quick take anyways. I am not an immigration official or attorney. What happens next depends on how enforcement works which is inconsistent. Here's a Lonely Planet thread with Schengen visa info, including info on overstaying.
posted by vacapinta at 9:03 AM on September 10, 2013

Best answer: You want to contact the Belgian immigration service here:

World Trade Center, Tour II
Antwerpsesteenweg, 59 B / Chaussée d’Anvers 59b
1000 Brussels

INFODESK
Tel. : [phone]
E-mail : [e-mail]
posted by mdonley at 9:17 AM on September 10, 2013

In practical terms there's big difference whether you are planning overland trip to neighboring Schengen countries. For those you are unlikely be caught, especially if you look like you belong.

Most likely totally different story if you leave and return Schengen by air and have used your 90 days.
posted by zeikka at 9:42 AM on September 10, 2013

Best answer: You are the bearer of a multiple-entry long-stay Schengen D-type visa, which allows you to enter and exit the Schengen area more than once and stay in the Schengen area for a maximum of 90 days over a period of 6 months. So if you had not applied for the residency card, you would be living in Belgium illegally right now.

But--yay!--you did exactly what you were supposed to do and applied for your residency card which allows you to stay for longer than 90 days. They probably gave you a receipt when you deposited all your documents to apply for the residency card. Since it takes some time to get your residency card from the day you apply for it, in my experience the receipt stands in place of the residency card until you get the actual card. Take a look at the forms and see if you find anything to that effect. If so, you can probably safely travel outside of the Schengen area and get back in.

If not, I wouldn't risk travel outside of the Schengen area. Contact the people that mdonley provides to make sure.

(not an immigration officer, just a person with lots of experience in advising folks who need student visas)
posted by Liesl at 9:42 AM on September 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

Leaving the Schengen area would be a bad idea but having applied for your residency card you have a reason to be in the Schengen area while it is processed. You should have gotten proof of that on fancy paper when you did it and you should hold onto that, particularly if you want to wander around Europe. Leaving the Schengen area would be a bad idea though and you shouldn't do that except under the advice of an actual Belgian immigration lawyer.
posted by Blasdelb at 10:46 AM on September 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all for the information. I stopped by the Migration Office for the city, and they confirmed that I am unable to travel out of the country on my visa. Although I started the process for the residency card back in June, I haven't actually submitted the application for the card; basically there's this whole. . . thing where you have to go a few rounds with the bureaucracy before they send a letter inviting you to apply for a card. Currently my appointment to apply is near the end of October, although it is a possibility to get the process expedited if one is traveling for work (as in my case) and also if one is willing to pay the additional fees. Although the trip was to be in the Schengen area, it's not something that needs to happen, and the risk of being caught, even if low, makes it not really worth it. Some other time, Paris.
posted by logicpunk at 3:08 AM on September 11, 2013

I can't square what you report the Migration Office to have said with what I know to be true. Are you perhaps confusing the borders of Belgium with the borders of the Schengen area?

There are NO border crossing checks between Schengen countries. They don't exist. It's like traveling between states in the US. No one will stop you or ask for documentation. Take the Thalys and be done with it.
posted by Liesl at 8:23 AM on September 11, 2013

The problem would come in while trying to explain why exactly everything appears as if you have totally overstayed your visa to French police should they happen stop you for whatever reason. Indeed, you would have no Verblijfstitel or processing papers to show them and the visa along with the stamps in your passport would show overstaying should they look closely at it. It is an unlikely scenario but a good reason for the Migration Office to give what is the right advice to avoid a situation that would be awkward at best. So long as you have no plans to get yourself in trouble or lose yourself in drunken frivolity or whatever it is a very small risk, no one will look at your passport twice without some reason to, but it is there.
posted by Blasdelb at 9:42 AM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

There are NO border crossing checks between Schengen countries. They don't exist. It's like traveling between states in the US. No one will stop you or ask for documentation. Take the Thalys and be done with it.

I have found this to be true of travel by air and by road - but I've had my passport checked on trains crossing the Belgian/Dutch and Dutch/German borders. It's by no means a given, but it does sometimes happen.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 11:50 PM on September 12, 2013