Application of Schengen rules & 90 days

Hi
Having always reluctantly abided by the Schengen restriction, I know others who have flaunted the rules without any problem or penalty. Does anyone know of any person who has been fined for overstay or is the automated system not 'joined up' yet.
Thanks

Don't you have your passport stamped when you arrive?

Looking at other sites, some Americans have been fined and banned from entering the EU but this was on leaving Germany. One said he overstayed 2 months and was fined 1000 euro and banned for 3 years plus fined by the American authorities.

One said he'd been held back for overstaying 1 day leaving the Netherlands and questioned and missed his flight so had to pay for another flight when leaving. He received a letter a few months later saying no further action would be taken. For one day? Others say, in other countries, they allow you a leeway of 3 days before saying anything.

They also state the best places to overstay (at the moment before the electronic booking comes in) are Spain, Italy and Greece as they don't seem to even check let alone impose sanctions.

As said, though, it may depend on the mood the particular border guard chappy is in that day. Or, even, if they are up to date with the new rules which seems to be a hit and miss affair.

Only Brit that mentions being fined was on a Costa del Sol site (like this one) where "a friend of his" had been fined 500 euro for overstaying over 2 months and not allowed to re-enter for a year.

It gets mentioned quite a lot but haven't seen one first hand comment on being fined or banned by British persons.

shap wrote:Hi
Having always reluctantly abided by the Schengen restriction, I know others who have flaunted the rules without any problem or penalty. Does anyone know of any person who has been fined for overstay or is the automated system not 'joined up' yet.
Thanks

I know of no one fined or sanctioned for overstaying in Spain. I also know of many that overstay on a regular basis.

The automated system, EES, is not "joined up" yet and is unlikely to be implemented until 2025 at the earliest.

It is not really in Spain's interest to monitor the system too closely. However, the border staff will diligently stamped passports as per EU instructions.

Can't you just imagine if they diligently started calculating the dates in every UK passport with their calculator or Excel spreadsheet. I would say we would be lucky to see one flight a day getting out !!!

Bee

I have so many stamps in my passport in no particular order, it would be a nightmare to sort them out.

I should imagine it is the uncertainty of whether or not you would be stopped and fined that makes people stick to the rules in the majority of cases
Otherwise it would be on your mind constantly if you were to overstay
You know what it is like in spain, one minute a rule is lax and the next an announcement is made out of the blue that that rule is to be strengthened
I would also worry that checks would be made on past entries and exits when it is finally sorted out

The border personnel in Spain have neither the time nor the inclination, as Bee has stated, just to go through one passport manually and work out the days is a long job, when the EES system becomes live and joined up, then people can worry.

Donti they scan the passports so it's on computer then? But also flick through the pages to check passports not damaged etc

Adey wrote:The border personnel in Spain have neither the time nor the inclination, as Bee has stated, just to go through one passport manually and work out the days is a long job, when the EES system becomes live and joined up, then people can worry.