Hello, all,

I’m an American planning to work as an au pair in Spain next year. I have two questions, one about whether a particular option is legal and another about the problems I’m likely to have in a particular situation. The au pair agency I’ve chosen has told me I have the followning options, since I am planning to stay in Spain for nine or ten months:

1. Come to Spain on a tourist visa and stay beyond the three month limit and not worry about it. (Most au pairs do this and, in over sixteen years, no one has had any problems.)

2. Come to Spain on a tourist visa and leave and re-enter Spain every three months. To do this, you would need to go and return from your own country.

I asked the agency:

However, to stay legal, it would be necessary to return to my home country or any non-Schengen country for three months before coming back to Spain, correct? (And while working for a family, leaving for three months would of course not be an option.) At least, this is what I’ve gathered from reading forums about visa issues in Spain.

And they wrote back:

To leave Spain and reenter every three months, you can ONLY do this if you return to your home country. You cannot, for example, go to Switzerland, Morocco or Norway.

So my first question is whether this is true--would it be possible for me to return to the US at the end of my three months but stay only a week and then reenter Spain legally? I’d thought that was *not* legally possible, based on what I’d read on this forum.

But even though I’m wondering about whether that option is legal, I really can’t afford to fly back and forth between the US and Spain every three months anyway. So I *AM* planning to overstay my visa (I know I’ll be illegal after ninety days). My family is very upset by the idea of my not being home for Christmas, and I’m wondering whether I’m *likely* to run into problems re-entering Spain if I go back to the US for Christmas after overstaying my tourist visa by a little less than a month. (I’ll have been in Spain since early September.) I know it’s possible that I would have problems with this and no one can tell me for sure, but I just wondered whether any of you know of many people doing this *without* problems or if you know of many people who *have* had problems getting back into Spain.

I hope this post isn’t too confusing. Thanks for your time!

Maria

Hi Maria,

Tricky situation. A year ago my response would have been to not worry. These days it’s getting tougher. Having just passed through, I can tell you that they’re asking a lot more questions and looking a lot more closely at passports and stamps. This isn’t good for us Non-EUers. Best bet would be to fly into and out of Europe through different countries, before disembarking in Spain. Ie. Book your flights to/from Amsterdam Schipol, then hop another flight to Spain, booked separately. Countries like Italy and Portugal should be easier to enter/leave but hey, no guarantees. Remember when you’re talking to customs people - do not speak in Spanish.

Avoid going home until you’re ready to leave Spain for a while too. Don’t go home from Christmas if you can help it.

Thanks, Expatriator!

Is the reason that it is better to go through another country that you wouldn’t get stamped entering Spain? I mean, are Spanish customs less likely to scrutinize dates on my passport if the stamps are from Amsterdam than if the stamps are from Spain?

In general, does Schengen country A care if someone overstayed their 90 days in Schengen country B if there’s no evidence on the passport that the person has been in country A at all?

Or maybe it doesn’t make any difference…

Thanks!

Maria

All it does is add to the complexity of your situation, making it less likely that they’ll pick up on exactly what’s going on. Indeed, they do care though.

I understand. Thanks!

Maria2513 - 30 June 2008 06:59 PM

In general, does Schengen country A care if someone overstayed their 90 days in Schengen country B if there’s no evidence on the passport that the person has been in country A at all?

Yes! Avoid Germany.

Thanks! I’ll keep that in mind.

I’m in the same situation, Maria. I’m an American going to Barcelona as an au pair in early September, and I’d like to stay 4 months to a year. I’m very worried about what will happen when I leave Spain (I don’t plan to take any risks by leaving Spain after my 90 days is up until I’m ready to leave for good). I would apply for a student visa, but I can’t afford to take 20 hours of classes a week, and my nearest Spanish consulate is 9 hours away. I would appreciate any suggestions on avoiding trouble!

Hi, rward! It’s nice to hear from someone in the same situation! I can’t afford the language classes for the student visa, either. We should talk more about au pair agencies, etc. I’ll PM you.

I have another question about the same issue:

If I were to stay in Spain *almost* until my 90 days were up--let’s say I had three days left--and then I went back to the US around Christmas for a couple weeks before going back to Spain, would I have no problems getting back in, since my 90 days weren’t up? Or might they be suspicious of why I was coming back so soon and when I had only three more days? Might they assume I was going to overstay and not let me in?