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My question is slightly different from Entry and exit from different Schengen countries

I have to attend a conference in Sweden and my wife will accompany me. We applied together and both of us have got a single-entry Schengen visa (business visa for me and tourist visa for her).

Now, we also want to visit a friend of mine in Denmark after attending the conference. This was not mentioned in the itinerary we submitted while applying for the visa.

Question: It is possible / recommended to modify the itinerary so that we leave Schengen area from Denmark instead of Sweden? Can it have any bad effect on the future visa applications?

One option could be to travel to and back from Denmark via train and then exit Schengen area as mentioned in the itinerary. I believe this is perfectly fine. However, it will cost more.

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    Obviously it is possible. Is it recommended, IMO no. If you got a single entry visa I will think you probably do not have too much international travel experience. Why mess up your history with a possible violation? Not worth it especially when it will only save you total less than $200 for both of you
    – Augustine of Hippo
    May 7, 2018 at 15:58
  • Thanks for the suggestion @TheZealot. I should go for the train option!
    – a_fan
    May 7, 2018 at 16:05
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    I think that keeping more-or-less to the exit date in the original itinerary is more important than the place of exit, even if your visas are for a longer period of time.
    – Andrew Lazarus
    May 7, 2018 at 18:43

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Once you have been issued a visa, it is valid for the entire Schengen area (within the validity and duration of stay it is issued with). There's no problem with tacking a short visit to Denmark on to your conference trip, if it can be done within the allowed duration of stay.

You could get into trouble if it turns out you lied about the purpose of your visit when you applied for the visa. But given that you are actually attending the conference you said you would attend, you did not in fact lie about your purpose and main destination, and changes to minor side quests do not affect the validity of the visa at all.

Note well that even if you didn't have a Danish friend to visit, it would be quite unremarkable for you to leave the Schengen area in Copenhagen. Copenhagen is a major hub for SAS, and if you bought a ticket from Stockholm to somewhere else you might easily end up with a Schengen-internal flight to Copenhagen and an intercontinental connection from there. This would have you pass through the very same passport control lines in Copenhagen as travelers who start their journey from Denmark.

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Even with a single-entry visa, you are allowed to make adjustments to your itinerary after the visa was granted. Of course you are not allowed to misrepresent your itinerary to get a visa in the first place, and it is a very good idea to avoid any false impressions in this regard.

  • Your visa has both a duration of stay and a validity period. They might have given you an extra day or two in duration and a few extra weeks of validity to give you some flexibility in your travel arrangements.
  • Can you make the trip to Denmark without using those extra days, if any? That would look better than using extra days.
  • It won't help at all if you return to Sweden from Denmark. Much better to transit Denmark on the way home.

If you cross from Sweden to Denmark with days left on your visa and tickets from Denmark to home in your pocket, it seems unlikely that you will be challenged on exit. Your overall credibility for the next application may be diminished.

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    If OP goes back to Sweden to fly back no one would even know he went there.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    May 7, 2018 at 21:14
  • @JonathanReez, the risk of "random spot checks" going northwards from Denmark is higher than the other way around. ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/…
    – o.m.
    May 8, 2018 at 3:58
  • Those checks are focused on illegal immigrants, not on folks with ever so slight visa issues.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    May 8, 2018 at 5:25
  • @JonathanReez, almost certainly there will be no immediate problems. But we had postings here on Finland states questioning subsequent applications. travel.stackexchange.com/questions/107033/…
    – o.m.
    May 8, 2018 at 18:46
  • But again, the random spot checks would not record OPs entry into Sweden from Denmark as long as his visa is valid. No one would ever know that he even was there unless there's an exit stamp from the Copenhagen airport.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    May 8, 2018 at 18:59

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