Yesterday, we drove the rest of the way to Salamanca. When we arrived, we got sidetracked by a big Walmart style store, and Ruth needed some new walking shoes and a few other things. So we went and did some shopping.
Then we drove to the motorhome aire, and by the time we got there it was mid afternoon and I felt more like having a nap than exploring. So we just had a relax afternoon.
Scenery along the way.
So, it's a good time to update you on our Schengen visa situation and the Bilateral Visa Waiver Agreement that we have been trying to apply here in Spain. It may not be of interest to many of you, but I post it for the sake of anybody wanting to try it for themselves.
To give you some background, there is a list of European countries that have agreements with third party countries many of which predate the Schengen visa. Most of these agreements were made in the late 1940's to early 1960's and are still in effect today.
The terms of the agreements are such that once your 90 days of Schengen time is up, you can apply to stay in one of the European countries that has a Bilateral Visa Waiver Agreement with your home country. The complete list of these countries and agreements is available here...
In our particular situation, as Canadian citizens, we are trying to enforce the terms of the agreement that Canada has with Spain.
So I contacted the Spanish embassy in Canada, and they confirmed to me that the agreement does exist.
They sent me a PDF copy of the original agreement, as well as the EU Entry Exit System document (all 63 pages in both English and Spanish!) that details the procedures the member states have to follow.
They also said...
The stay of a Canadian national in Spain may be extended an additional 3 months in Spain in accordance with a 25/1/1960 bilateral agreement between Spain and Canada, which was concluded before entry into force of the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement. In such cases, an application must be lodged with a provincial Foreigner’s Office or Police Station on entry or during the stay at the latest on the last working day of his or her 90-day stay in any 180-day period.
They also gave me a link to a list of the different Foreigners Offices and Police Stations that I could go to to get this done.
So, when we arrived in Spain from Morocco, we still had more than a couple of weeks of Schengen time remaining. In fact, it expired April 15th. So before that time, we tried in Seville, Cordoba, and Toledo to get this done.
The problem is that hardly anybody uses these agreements so very few people working in the system know about them. We tried at the Foreigners office, but they wanted us to go to a tribunal where we plead for an emergency stay, which is not what this is about. We tried at three different National Police offices, one of which directed us back to the Foreigners office and the other two directed to other offices that process visa invitation letters which also has nothing to do with what we want. And of course the language issue didn't help us to try and explain things.
So we let our Schengen time expire without getting ourselves registered in the Entry Exit system.
However...
That big 63 page document they sent me has a very important paragraph. Article 60, paragraph 2...
‘2a. The stay of an alien on the territory of a Contracting Party may be extended in accordance with a bilateral agreement pursuant to point (b) of paragraph 2, upon request of the alien, and lodged with the competent authorities of that Contracting Party on entry or during the stay of the alien at the latest on the last working day of his or her 90-day stay in any 180-day period.
Where the alien has not lodged a request during the 90-day stay in any 180-day period, his or her stay may be extended pursuant to a bilateral agreement concluded by a Contracting Party and his or her stay beyond the 90-day stay in any 180-day period preceding that extension may be presumed lawful by the competent authorities of that Contracting Party, provided that that alien presents credible evidence which proves that during that time he or she stayed only on the territory of that Contracting Party.
In other words, we were required to lodge our request with the competent authorities (which we tried to do), however if we didn't, then our overstay is considered lawful if we can prove that we didn't leave Spain and go into any other Schengen countries during this time.
So, we feel we are totally within the law. The problem will be when we try to exit. The border guard may or may not question anything. We might be passed right through without an issue.
Or, they may not accept our version of events or the documents that we provide to prove our case. They may issue a fine, or they may even ban future entry into the Schengen zone. This would be worst case scenarios, but we are aware they could happen. It will all be up to the border guard that we see when we leave for Ireland on May 7th.
So, that's where it stands. Obviously we'll update you again on May 8th!
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Decent price drop on these Bushnell Binoculars.
And in Canada...
I bet the average border guard will take one look at y'all, smile and say his version of have a nice day!! Seemed like a bureaucratic rule at best.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about that but let's hope that is the case. This whole Schengen Zone deal is pretty messed up but we aren't the ones making the rules/laws and when the government is involved then that just explains everything, lol.
DeleteHow did it go?
ReplyDeleteKevin is just writing about our experience at this very moment as we only just went through border control yesterday boarding the ferry from Spain to Ireland.
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