# Due to COVID Overstayed Visa - Facing Fine?



## Kanvis1 (Feb 17, 2021)

Hi community,

I am an American citizen who is currently in Spain with my wife who is a Spanish citizen (we were married in Peru).

Because my wife was not able to travel back to the US (she is not a Spanish citizen),and we were not able to travel to Peru (borders closed), and I was not able to leave my wife in Spain and travel by myself to the US as the only place I could go is stay with my parents who are high risk / health risk individual, I have overstayed my Schengen visa in Spain by a year.

I did empadronarme first in Sevilla then in Madrid in an effort to start the residency process, but were prevented from advancing from there as I needed to get my birth certificate apostillado in California and the state office were closed often and my parents were not able to risk the trip to the state capital. So, we got stuck on this step. I have not been working in Spain, mostlyjust waiting for my wife to finish her doctoral research so we can move back to the US together.

Now my wife and I are both leaving Spain in the coming months, and I am trying to get an idea for what sort of fine or issues I might expect at the airport. I have seen reports of minimal issues, and other scenarios that seem a bit scary. 

Any insights or experience of what type of fine or punishment I might have to deal with, given the situation with COVID and the details I explained would be So much appreciated!

Thanks!!


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## proud.to.be.EUROPEAN (Feb 14, 2020)

If you have started your residency application before 90 days expired and your application is still pending, you have not broken any rules. Therefore, there will be no sanctions, but you must have proof.

Otherwise, you could be fined or banned from Schengen for 5 years. You would not have valid excuse as you could have left Schengen to Dublin for example.

If overstay is few day, only verbal warning is given. Longer overstay, bigger penalties.
Just think of it how US immigration would react if your wife overstayed in US by 1y.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

proud.to.be.EUROPEAN said:


> If you have started your residency application before 90 days expired and your application is still pending, you have not broken any rules. Therefore, there will be no sanctions, but you must have proof.
> 
> Otherwise, you could be fined or banned from Schengen for 5 years. You would not have valid excuse as you could have left Schengen to Dublin for example.
> 
> ...


I'm pretty sure that just being on the padrón won't count, but @Kanvis1 might be lucky. 

If not, yes, there will have to be an extremely good reason for him not returning home to the US, and I'm not convinced that those given here will be sufficient.


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## Kanvis1 (Feb 17, 2021)

proud.to.be.EUROPEAN said:


> If you have started your residency application before 90 days expired and your application is still pending, you have not broken any rules. Therefore, there will be no sanctions, but you must have proof.
> 
> Otherwise, you could be fined or banned from Schengen for 5 years. You would not have valid excuse as you could have left Schengen to Dublin for example.
> 
> ...


Thanks! Yes, completely reasonable perspective - thanks for taking the time to consider my situation!


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## Kanvis1 (Feb 17, 2021)

xabiaxica said:


> I'm pretty sure that just being on the padrón won't count, but @Kanvis1 might be lucky.
> 
> If not, yes, there will have to be an extremely good reason for him not returning home to the US, and I'm not convinced that those given here will be sufficient.


Thanks so much for the share and time in considering my situation. Did want to add that after the second visa extension my wife’s mom came to Spain to seek cancer treatment and part of the reason we ( I ) stayed was to help my wife care for her during treatment / surgery. I was thinking of getting something from Clinica Navarro to substantiate this. Do you think this additional aspect would classify as a good reason for overstaying? (Indeed, I should have mentioned that in the initial post but didn’t want to convolute my first message too much)
Thanks again!


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Kanvis1 said:


> Thanks so much for the share and time in considering my situation. Did want to add that after the second visa extension my wife’s mom came to Spain to seek cancer treatment and part of the reason we ( I ) stayed was to help my wife care for her during treatment / surgery. I was thinking of getting something from Clinica Navarro to substantiate this. Do you think this additional aspect would classify as a good reason for overstaying? (Indeed, I should have mentioned that in the initial post but didn’t want to convolute my first message too much)
> Thanks again!


I really don't know, but the border guards aren't known for listening...

A lot of people were sent back to the UK a few weeks ago from Barcelona airport, because the border guards didn't accept their perfectly valid residence cards.


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## MataMata (Nov 30, 2008)

The potential penalties for overstaying are laid out here:

What are the consequences of overstaying in Schengen Area? - SchengenVisaInfo.com

I'm slightly confused though because if you've overstayed by a year that means your visa expired about a month before any border closures or travel restrictions came in, Peru closed theirs on March 15th, so there must have been other reasons for not leaving when you should have.


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