Can I get an extension on my Schengen visa if I have a medical reason? Can I break my trip to Europe into multiple parts to avoid overstaying? Yes, you can break up the Schengen tourist visa into multiple trips. It is good for 180 days, but you only get 90 within the region. You [...]
Published on November 22, 2010
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Can I get an extension on my Schengen visa if I have a medical reason? Can I break my trip to Europe into multiple parts to avoid overstaying?
Yes, you can break up the Schengen tourist visa into multiple trips. It is good for 180 days, but you only get 90 within the region. You can enter and leave as many times as you want, just so your time within the region doesn’t add up to more than 90 days per 180 day visa.
About potentially having a high risk pregnancy, it is not my impression that this is a good excuse to overstay your visa in and of itself — unless, maybe, you were so far along or so unstable that you could not get on a plane. If you want to take the route of getting a doctor’s note saying that you need to stay in Europe, I would take them to the nearest immigration office and see what they could do for you (i.e. temporary residency permit). It could be possible if a medical professional says that you cannot fly and that, by doing so, the well being of a little French fetus would be put at risk.
It could work, but I can’t say that I have ever received a report of this happening before.
Please let me know what happens. Thanks!
Walk Slow,
Wade
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Original question about overstaying Schengen visa do to pregnancy
Hello,
I am in France and I’m a little worried because I got pregnant by my fiancee and I’m on a 90 day tourist visa exemption. (I hold US citizenship and he is French.) I go in for my first prenatal appointment next week and I’m 99% sure that it will be labeled a high risk pregnancy. I know people rarely get tourist visas extended, but with a very thorough doctor’s note to explain the situation, could that be possible? (Of course, if it’s not high risk, I will leave before my visa is up.)
Also, I was wondering if you could split the 90 days you can spend in Europe up on multiple trips (ex. stay in Europe for 80, fly back home for a month and go back to Europe for 9 days, then spend the rest of the remaining 60 days outside of Europe?) The US border patrol officer in the Minneapolis airport thought that was allowed but I just wanted to double check with you.
Thanks for the help
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About the Author: VBJ
I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. VBJ has written 3723 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.
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2 comments… add one
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December 11, 2010, 7:40 am
LinkAs it turns out, if you are pregnant in France you can stay if the baby is of French parentage on one side. If you’re in France and have thorough documentation (and I mean piles of paperwork) that you have a high risk pregnancy and cannot, under any circumstances, board a plane, you can have your visa extended. Thankfully, my pregnancy wasn’t high risk like I thought.
But I do have another question…
I left France yesterday after staying just over 2 months. I was in a rush in Ohare security and my passport wasn’t stamped because it got left in the bin with the rest of my stuff, so security let me through and it was scanned at the airline desk. Then I took the flight to Heathrow into France and the cop didn’t stamp my passport even though all of us passengers asked him to. It caused some confusion at French border patrol on departure when the new cop was paging through my passport. She never said anything to me, and she stamped with the departure stamp and with something that is almost completely illegible. She was on the phone when she started stamp it, then stopped and scanned my passport and boldly stamped the passport with the regular departure stamp. If I emailed a picture of it, could you possibly decipher it? US customs didn’t make a fuss. Since no one said anything and it’s barely visible, what are the odds this is a mistake?
I’m coming back very briefly on Jan 21st for my wedding and don’t want hassles.
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December 11, 2010, 7:42 am
LinkIt sounds as if you just got a regular departure stamp. I would not worry too much about it.
That is good to know that you can stay in France if you are pregnant from a citizen. What do you have to do to show proof of this? Do you just get a visa extension or can you get a temp residency permit? Did they mention how long you can stay for?
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