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I am Eritrean living in Canada with a refugee passport and I'm going to Amsterdam from Calgary (no stops). I don't know if I need a Schengen visa, because when I went to the airport they said I need one because I'm stopping in Iceland. I cut my ticket and I'm flying a different airline and I made sure there no stops. I have tried searches but none answer my question. I have a piece of paper which says that there is someone in Amsterdam I will be staying with.

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    Amsterdam is in the Schengen zone. Unless you are eligible to enter the Schengen zone without a visa you will need one to enter the Netherlands.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 1:42
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    Both Iceland and Netherlands are in the Schengen area. Whether you stop in Iceland, or fly direct, will have no bearing on whether you need a Schengen visa. You were either given bad advice, or somebody misunderstood something.
    – Greg Hewgill
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 1:49
  • Is Amsterdam your final destination? What is your nationality?
    – phoog
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 2:04
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    I want to make sure I understand correctly. Are you currently in Canada, and will fly one-way to the Amsterdam with an Eritrean passport? And is Amsterdam your final destination?
    – Astor Florida
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 2:14
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    I live in canada and i have a Refugee passport. I'm visting my brothers in Amsterdam. kinda, Amsterdam is final destination but i will be back in canada after a month.
    – user95069
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 2:32

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As a citizen of Eritrea, yes, you need a Schengen visa to go to Amsterdam. This is true whether you fly there by way of Iceland (or any other Schengen country) or directly.

If you fly through Iceland, you will enter the Schengen area in Iceland, for which you need a Schengen visa, and your flight from there to Amsterdam will be an internal Schengen flight, so you will neither leave nor reenter the Schengen area, legally speaking. The same will be true if you fly through any other Schengen airport.

If you fly directly to Amsterdam, you will enter the Schengen area in Amsterdam, for which you also need a Schengen visa.

So no matter what, you need a Schengen visa.

This analysis assumes that you do not have a residence permit from a Schengen country. If you do, the residence permit authorizes you to enter the Schengen area, and you do not need an additional visa.

You mention in a comment that you are traveling with a refugee travel document, presumably issued by Canada. That changes your situation in the Schengen area somewhat, because you are allowed to enter five Schengen countries without a visa (assuming the linked resource is up to date, which it may not be; I could not confirm). The Netherlands is not one of those countries, however, so it doesn't change the ultimate answer. For more information, see the related question Travelling through the Schengen area with a Refugee Travel Document issued by the USA, but note that the privileges afforded to the bearer of a refugee travel document depend on the country issuing the document, as described in the previous link.

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    You may want to clarify "Without passport controls"; I know you mean immigration/border controls specifically, but many people confuse the stages security, boarding, border/immigration, and customs; on an Iceland-Netherlands flight, three of those may still ask ID, so a flight "Without passport controls" it is not.
    – gerrit
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 7:20
  • @gerrit: Citizens of Schengen is allowed to travel between the countries in Schengen with any national ID, not necessarily a passport (some countries in Schengen doesn't have any other national ID, but that's irrelevant here), so at all those stages you mention (and I agree it's worth remembering, and not confuse them) it's ID control (and it's not a given, I don't think I showed any form of ID the last time I travelled internally in Schengen), not passport control. So technically phoog is right, but it's probably best to be ready to show a passport.
    – Henrik supports the community
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 8:39
  • @Henrik If checked by customs (OP enters EU Customs Union), I don't know if anything else than a passport suffices for non-Schengen citizens. Does it?
    – gerrit
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 8:55
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    @gerrit: I've never heard of customs caring about passports -- except if they need to fine you for smuggling and want to be sure whom they're fining.
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 9:09
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    Something that was buried in comments to the question but has a lot of relevance: OP has a refugee passport ([sic], presumably a refugee travel document) from Canada.
    – Xan
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 10:18

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