Hi All - I'm a UK citizen and I have a Swiss C permit. I travelled back to Switzerland from the UK at the weekend by car, on the Hull - Rotterdam route.
On arrival at Rotterdam, the Dutch border guard looked at my passport and my Swiss C permit and stamped a Schengen entry date into my passport. I didn't think too much about it and drove home to Zurich.
Does anyone know if the stamp is normal post Brexit? I'm concerned that he may have made a mistake, that could cause me problems later as I will likely stay in the Schengen area longer than the visa free 90 days and therefore will not get a corresponding exit stamp.
I guess it is just a stamp that your enter the Schengen Area, I don't think is related to any sort of specific Visa (which of course in your care doesnt apply because you have the C).
Even if you have a C permit you can’t be in another Schengen country for more than 3 months as a tourist. Any longer and you’d have to register as being a resident in that country.
Even EU/EFTA nationals are restricted technically to only 3 months as tourists before they have to register; it’s just not enforced with them so much since their passports aren’t stamped when they enter another EU country.
If you are a legal resident in and present a valid residency permit from any Schengen country there is no need for the immigration officers to stamp your passport.
It appears they made a mistake, but no harm results - unless your passport pages are getting full.
If there is a next time, just tell them you live in a Schengen country.
As a non-EU person living in CH with a L->B->C permit for almost 9 years now and having crossed the Schengen borders at like 50 points in 20+ states I can say that it happens totally arbitrarily.
The only consistent thing is that CH doesn't stamp your passport if you have a permit, period. D and AT used not to but started stamping after the 2015 refugee crisis. The Baltic countries always stamp. NL used to always stamp but hasn't done so the last time I went to the UK which was surprising.
Don't worry, those stamps don't mean anything and cannot be used for anything as long as you have (or have had) a Schengen residence permit covering the dates on the stamps.
It's true you're legally required to not spend more than 90 days in the Schengen space outside the country that gave you the residence permit but nobody ever checks that and those stamps prove nothing since there's no intra-Schengen stamping.
Your C-Permit as a third country national entitles you to make short visits in the EU/EEA but it does not entitle you to over stay. And it is your responsibility to demonstrate this not the other way around.
The stamp does not matter so much as long as you can demonstrate that you spent your time in Switzerland if asked, a Swiss permanent residence card should be sufficient to do this.
rubbish. all non EU passports get stamped entering schengen. including US, russian, UK etc. at least this is 100% the case entering italy. when exiting you need to show swiss permit to show you had the right to stay more than 90 days.
Funnily enough when I travelled from Serbia into the Schengen zone (Switzerland) this summer, my passport was not stamped on entry. Just had to show my residency card.
Has this changed then? It is over 12 years old, so I guess it is possible.
The Commission recalls that third-country nationals, family members of Union citizens, are exempt from stamping on entry and exit when travelling with a residence card issued by Member States under Article 10 of Directive 2004/38/EC,
Anyway, sooner of later, they'll introduce the electronic system and it'll all be fairly moot.
my wife always has issues flying from london city to milan at check in. they always take ages to phone someone to check a swiss permit is valid for travel to italy. another example of generally how disconnected and clueless the uk is....
The Commission is of the opinion that travel documents of third-country nationals who are in possession of a valid residence permit issued by a Schengen Member State should not be stamped
Anyway, it's clear that there's inconsistency in the way stamps are applied, so you might get one or you might not. And it's seldom worth arguing with border officials.
At the end of the day the stamp does not matter.....
The obligation is the same for everyone in Schengen area, if asked by officials to do so:
- Be able to identify yourself using one of the methods set out on the website (residents cards are not a means of identity, but some driving licenses are)
- Be able to justify your presence in the Schengen area: citizen, resident, tourist etc... (residents cards are acceptable)
Are the ‘new’ biometric residents cards not suitable for ID then? I can understand why my old paper one was not, but they have a scan of my face and fingerprints on the chip of my new plastic one.