# NL - overstayed a Schengen visa



## zita1040 (Sep 16, 2010)

I am a US citizen married to a Dutch citizen for 12 years. I over stayed the 90 days limit without a resident card. (My husband was out of work and age 63, and did not meet the income requirements for me to live with him.) I was at Schiphol to fly back to the USA (bought my own ticket thinking all would be OK if I stayed out for 3 months or more, but at the passport control area, I was taken to the back area and told that I could not come back because I was there over the 90 days limit. They would not tell me how long I was to stay out before I could return. Who do I contact for an answer? Some have told me 50 months and others due to my age, also 63, it may be just two years. In two years my husband will be 65 and no minimum income is required, and I could have my resident card. 

Any advice would be grateful, as I am in the USA and the NL has separated me from my husband and yet, their queen says every year in her speech, that the NL will always re-unite families. I guess a wife is not a family member in that country.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

zita1040 said:


> I am a US citizen married to a Dutch citizen for 12 years. I over stayed the 90 days limit without a resident card. (My husband was out of work and age 63, and did not meet the income requirements for me to live with him.) I was at Schiphol to fly back to the USA (bought my own ticket thinking all would be OK if I stayed out for 3 months or more, but at the passport control area, I was taken to the back area and told that I could not come back because I was there over the 90 days limit. They would not tell me how long I was to stay out before I could return. Who do I contact for an answer? Some have told me 50 months and others due to my age, also 63, it may be just two years. In two years my husband will be 65 and no minimum income is required, and I could have my resident card.
> 
> Any advice would be grateful, as I am in the USA and the NL has separated me from my husband and yet, their queen says every year in her speech, that the NL will always re-unite families. I guess a wife is not a family member in that country.


If you entered the Netherlands direct from US, then you would almost certainly not have been found out if you had left from another Schengen country (not BE or LUX), such as France or Germany, as entry info isn't shared outside of the Benelux union. Now the Dutch authorities can put your details on Schengen Information System (SIS), an electronic database of those who have broken immigration rules and others banned from entry into Schengen, with the effect that you would be flagged up whenever your passport is scanned at Schengen entry points. I have read somewhere that there is no automatic limit to your exclusion, and your ban will only be removed when the country that puts you on SIS, the Netherlands, decides to rescind it. So ask at your nearest Dutch consulate citing compassionate grounds.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

I've moved your post into a thread of its own, as it might draw more attention from those familiar with the Netherlands.

You say you've been married for 12 years. Where have you been living all this time? I know the Dutch are real sticklers for the Dutch spouse being able to support their foreign spouse and for the foreign spouse to have to learn the Dutch language. 

Seeing as where you are back in the US now, I would contact the Dutch consulate in the US to find out what your precise status is and what you can or can't do at this point.
Cheers,
Bev


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