Overstayed Visa in the Czech Republic

What is going to happen when I exit from the Czech Republic after a two year visa overstay?

First of all, your overstay is pretty big and obvious, but, luckily, an overstay of 2 days is often punished the same as an overstay of 2 years. Your main problem may come when exiting from the Czech Republic. Generally, Czech immigration is not so keen on hunting down Westerners who overstay their visas, and MANY overstay for a very long time without ever receiving any sort of punishment from the Czech Republic. While this could change at any time, and Czech immigration could crack down on visa violations at any time this does not look too likely for the near future. To answer your questions:

1) It is very possible for the Czech authorities to take you into a little room, make you fill out a little form, and then send you on your way with a 3 (or more) year ban from the Schengen region that they may or may not tell you about. But, as I’ve said before, this is not too likely. Although they could do this, the Czechs don’t yet seem to operate in this manner (they still like their tourists). So as your flight is direct, your point of exit from the Schengen zone is Prague, and, chances are, you will skirt through without further hassle. But if there are any bumps in the road at all — if you get questioned about the overstay, taking into the”back room,” made to fill out any forms, there is a good chance that your details will be entered into the SIS (the Schengen computer system) and you may have difficulty re-entering the Schengen zone in the future.

2) Yes, an overstay on your record is enough to get a future student visa denied. But it is not always an officiously mandated cause and effect scenario, as many people who have been caught overstaying in the Schengen zone are awarded student visas (but, then again, many are denied as well). My recommendation is that if you are caught, still go ahead and apply for a student visa, maybe get a new passport, and hope for the best — it may still be awarded.

In all, I recommend you not to worry too much about this. Although an individual’s experience can be radically different than the norm, it is not too normal for the Czech Republic to prosecute visa overstayers. If you do a search on Vagabond Journey for “Czech Visa overstay” you will get some more stories from travelers who were previously in the same situation you find yourself in now. Most got through unscathed (and an even greater number of those who did get out OK would never have any reason to write to me about it), so just hope for the best.

More information on Czech Republic visas and overstays

Czech Republic visa
Czech Republic travel guide
Schengen visa questions

Czech Republic map

Complete question about exiting the Czech Republic after a visa overstay

hello,

I am an american citizen that has overstayed my student visa by 2 years and am planning on going back to the united states soon. My question is this.

1) Do you think I will have a problem crossing the border from prague. I am flying directly to the US without going through militant countries like germany or switzerland.

2) If I do happen to not run into any problems at the border will I have trouble obtaining a student visa in the future? I don’t know if the czech consulate looks into these things when issuing a student visa. BUt I plan on being gone for over 90days before trying to return for school. I understand that this is all assuming that I dont run into any problems at the border. I feel like I will be royally screwed if I do get caught at the border. Obviously. Thing is that I have done this before and have left czech with no problems but I have not overstayed this long before and I don’t know how strict they are these days in checking these things in Czech republic.

Any one have any advice or comments on this?