Can I be sent back home if I don't have documentary evidence to show that I will in fact return to my country?

Question

I am a Peruvian citizen intending to travel to The Netherlands in July to visit my girlfriend, she is a dutch citizen. I intend to stay for 85 days or so, because I would like to visit a few friends in Germany as well. Just to give you a bit more of an insight in the matter, we, Peruvians haven't had the need to apply for a visa for stays shorter than 90 days in any Schengen country since February 2017 I believe. The Schengen community signed a treaty with Peru and Colombia to make this possible.

Peruvians could enter the country free of hassle, as long as we fulfilled certain requirements, which included: having enough funds to cover expenses, return ticket, valid passport, travel insurance, booking for hotels or an invitaton from the person hosting you. I, in fact, travelled to The Netherlands to visit my girlfriend back in September 2017 and had no issues at the immigration counter because I fulfilled all of the requirements.

However, a new requirement has been added to this list in recent times and that is documentary evidence that you have sufficient reasons to return to your country. Unfortunately, I will not have this as the contract with my current employer will finish at the end of June (travelling in July for this reason) and I don't own any property in my country of origin. So with that in mind, I would like to know how detrimental it could be for my admittance into the country not to have this document? Even while fulfilling all the other requirements and having a clear record of not staying illegally anywhere.

Should I instead reduce the length of my desired stay to make the admittance process smoother and then try and extend my permit once I am there? Or could the officer at the immigration counter be more lenient given that I do have all the other requirements covered and my record is clear?

And just to clarify, I do intend to return to Peru as I would not like to jeopardize my chances of visiting my girlfriend again in the near or far future.

Any answers would be highly appreciated!!

Answer 1

However, a new requirement has been added to this list in recent times and that is documentary evidence that you have sufficient reasons to return to your country.

There is no such recent change to the entry conditions in the Schengen Borders Code. The legal requirement is, exactly as it was in 2017, that you "justify the purpose and conditions of the intended stay, and they have sufficient means of subsistence, both for the duration of the intended stay and for the return to their country of origin or transit to a third country into which they are certain to be admitted, or are in a position to acquire such means lawfully".

Annex I to the Borders Code contains a non-exhaustive list of suggested documents that border guards might ask for in order to judge whether you meet the bolded condition above. This annex has not been amended since 2017 either.

Most lists you find on the internet are not direct quotes of the Annex I list -- they have often been "improved" by embassy communications employees or others in an attempt to be more useful for travelers. Among other things, such editing often make particular documents sound more mandatory than they really are. For example, it can often sound like it is mandatory for travelers to have a return ticket bought already when they enter -- but there has never been such a strict requirement in Schengen rules that actually applies at the border.

When such unofficial advice changes, the change is more often than not just an attempt to prepare the reader better for the existing unchanged situation at the border.

So there is no particular reason to suppose your entry experience now will be different from what it was in 2017.

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One caveat: If you had all that laundry list of documents with you when you entered in 2017 and you actually got to show them all to the border guard when entering, you were checked much more thoroughly than visa-free travelers usually are. Most probably that's just the luck of the draw -- but it is also possible that there's something about you that aroused particular suspicion. This might be a reason to be extra careful about having as much documentation about the "purpose and conditions" etc. as you can get ready when you enter again.

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It sounds like a very bad idea to pretend your visit will be shorter than you're actually planning. Lying to border guards at the entry interview is a serious matter -- even when the truth itself is completely innocent. If somehow the lie is found out later, it could create deep trouble for you at border crossings for a long time to come.

There is also no reason to lie in the first place. Your burden of proof does not become any lighter for a short visit than for a long. Remember that the main worry of the border guards is that your real intentions may be to stay in the Schengen area indefinitely, perhaps finding illegal work. It is just as easy for travelers who do intend that to claim they're entering for a short visit, as for a long one, so it would not make sense to make the checks more or less stringent according to which length of stay the traveler claims.