Hi - I am wondering if anyone has overstayed their tourist visa while in Portugal? I am looking to go to Lisbon but I don’t meet the digital nomad visa requirements (10k in the bank, plus there’s a huge wait).
Do borders check how long you’ve stayed? Has anyone got a fine? Which countries are strict and which are not?
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When you leave Portugal (or whatever Schengen country) to go back to the UK, the guards will stamp your passport with an exit stamp. Whether or not they actually bother to check when your entry stamp is - and then whether or not you overstayed - is not consistent.
I am a dual UK/EU passport holder who travels frequently between the two so I have some experience with this. A lot of the time, they just flip open a random page and stamp and that’s that. In some cases (for example the border at St Pancras Eurostar), the border guards will forensically analyse your passport for stamps.
If the Portuguese guards notice you overstayed, they have the discretion to fine you and ban you from Schengen for 5 years maybe. Or they might just roll their eyes and wave you through.
If you really don’t want to go back to the UK before your 90 days then just go to a non-Schengen country for a bit. Morocco and Gibraltar are right there.
So you want to be an illegal immigrant then
Just like everyone else on here working on a tourist visa.
Most of us are working on tourist visas yeah, but we’re also not staying that long, so I wouldn’t call it immigrating. Sounds like the OP wants to stay long term but merely doesn’t qualify for the DN visa (which is really just an immigrant or expat visa with a trendier name).
Obviously, but it’s a bit rich for you to criticise someone for being an illegal immigrant when you your self are currently illegally working in Thailand I presume.
u/Emotional_Deal3986 Is the law that you cannot participate in the country’s labour market with a tourist visa or that you cannot earn income while staying in a country with a tourist visa?
You’re grandstanding and I just want to make sure you know the difference?
I don’t know what grandstanding means. I’m simply pointing out hypocrisy.
If it was passive income, it’s not an issue, right? But for some reason earning money actively while doing work for clients outside of the country is an issue. You’re not affecting the job market at all, you’re just changing how long you’re able to stay and put money into their economy.
Working remotely as a software dev or business analyst etc is not passive income. Passive income is having a million quid invested in the s&p and you living off the interest.
Tell the person who stamps your passport that you’re visiting their country with the intention of working remotely for a foreign company and see what happens.
Tell the person who stamps your passport that you’re visiting their country with the intention of working remotely for a foreign company and see what happens.
I know you taking the piss now, but in Canada thats explicitly allowed on a tourist visa.
In the US though, yeah you getting denied entry haha.
Do you want to visit the EU again? Don’t overstay your visa.
It’s not a complex concept, the rules exist, they don’t just ignore them.
Most likely the issue comes on when you try to return to the EU in the future, you could be denied. Spain, Portugal and Italy are notoriously lax in this regard of fining people from the US or UK or other developed countries for overstaying. It may happen it may not. There was a US couple who overstayed six months and left through Italy with no problems (they were advised on Reddit to change their departure point from Germany). It’s your choice to risk it or not
is there a reason you can’t just follow the law? zone hopping is not difficult. i’ve been doing it in europe for the last 10 years. i’ve never overstayed or needed to.
Your entry and leaving is tracked.
Leaving would probably not be a problem.
Coming back (anywhere in Schengen) will be.
Also, you will need to commit perjury on future visa applications for many countries: “have you ever overstayed a visa?”
It’s only tracked manually though - EES is not brought in until next year (at the earliest). I’m not asking if it’s possible in theory I am asking about in practice
In practice it’s possible.
Don’t do it, the risks far outweigh the benefits.
You’ll get denied entry in the future mate, it’s not like SE Asia where a little cash will solve it.
Why is it always us Brits thinking they can bypass foreign laws 😭
But if there is no electronic paper trail, how will they know I have overstayed?
What do you think presenting your passport at the border on entry and exit is? That’s the paper trail.
Idiot
😂
Your passport is electronically tracked so yes, you will get banned from Schengen.
Only if you enter via major ports of entry.
Now if OP were to leave via ferry or a land border from Greece to Turkey then its a different story…
Imagine asking for tips on how to bypass laws and be an illegal immigrant. We dont want you in Portugal. Get a visa or fuck off.
Miserable sod
I would understand overstaying your visa if you’re a destitute migrant whose only hope for a decent life is illegally immigrating.
But doing it just to fuck around in Portugal is frankly really dumb, especially if you plan to work meanwhile. Either you stay for 90 days, save up for the 10k, or pick a destination with laxer visa requirements.
I stayed in Schengen longer than 90 via one of the bilateral treaty countries (USA) and I got the third degree both when leaving and my first time returning. It all worked out because I was in the right and had done my research, but they do not fuck around.
What’s the rule for Americans?
Some EU countries have a 180 day visa free regimes (For US passport holders), and only if you stay within them, though if they check is a different story.
Different countries have different rules. and not just the US have bilateral agreements.
I don’t think you’re going to find anyone who had overstayed because people don’t mess around with Schengen (just as they wouldn’t mess around in the US).
Maybe you can source some horror stories from like r/travel or something, I think most people on this sub know the correct limits when it comes to these things.
And as everyone else has already said I would absolutely not risk this for an extended vacation. This isn’t SEA or Argentina. Lots of other non-Schengen places you can go to.
Bro really thinks the rules and law don’t apply to him
Laws are only to be followed if they are easy and cheap /s
While we’re discussing this — does shengen have an automated calculator?
Pretty sure we still need to manually tally up our visits, but I know there was talk of having everything digitally tracked. An online calculator (SMS alerts) would be dope. (Especially now that a lot of Schengen countries don’t stamp your passport anymore — so it can be very hard to tell how long you were there for various stays.)
you should still be tracking manually. and don’t trust apps.
It is absolutely not worth taking the risk with what you are proposing. You’re suggesting overstaying a few extra days/weeks while risking getting banned from entering the Schengen region for several years? Is the juice really worth the squeeze?
A friend (US passport holder) overstayed in Greece and got locked out of the Schengen zone for five years. Plus, he’s frequently asked to step out of the queue at immigration elsewhere (Indonesia and the Philippines) and asked to explain why he’s been blacklisted from the Schengen region. Each time, he’s been let through, but the experience of being pulled aside for “enhanced questioning” is also stressful every time.
Your details will be recorded on a database when you enter and leave the Schengen region - irrespective of whether you’ve been stamped in physically or not. The system will check if you’ve overstayed and flag your profile if you have. These are automated checks so the immigration officer won’t even have to lift a finger to do them.
My question is this: Why test the system?