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I was issued a Schengen visa from the German embassy. I gave all the right documents and dates, and while the date validity matches my trip, the duration of stay is 1 day less than it should be based on my tickets. (I have a 8 day duration of stay, and my flight out is on the 9th day after I land. My visa is valid until the 10th day after I land)

Is there any way I can get away with not changing my tickets? (It is super expensive to change). For example, can I get to the airport and get out of the Schengen area a day before my flight and stay "airside" for ~14 hours?

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    @MikaelDúiBolinder not really what they're asking. They're wondering about staying airside for 14+ hours...
    – Mark Mayo
    Oct 9, 2019 at 1:22
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    To clarify, how is your visa 8 days duration, but is valid until the 10th day? Could you clarify? Also what airport would you be flying out of?
    – Mark Mayo
    Oct 9, 2019 at 1:23
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    Can you ask the German embassy to change the duration of stay on your visa?
    – Patricia Shanahan
    Oct 9, 2019 at 7:21
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    @user104485 How many days’ duration of stay did you ask for when you applied? Did you count both your arrival and exit days as 2 days out of the total you asked for? Possible duplicate of Can I take a flight that departs after midnight of the day my Schengen visa expires?
    – Traveller
    Oct 9, 2019 at 8:49
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    If your flight out is on the 9th day after your first day in, you are staying 10 days total, not 9 (both the day you arrive and the day you leave count as full days). To lift any ambiguity, can you let us know the day you arrive and the day you leave? Also, I suppose spending a few days outside the Schengen Area on such a short stay is not a possibility? If it were, we would need to know your nationality, and whether your visa is single, dual or multiple-entry.
    – jcaron
    Oct 9, 2019 at 11:31

3 Answers 3

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To get "Airside," you have to pass through the country's Immigration exit check. To get to the Immigration exit check, you must first show your boarding pass and go through security. To get a boarding pass, you must check in to the flight, and be issued a boarding pass by the airline or print it out before you get to the airport. (Some airports switch this, and make one pass Immigration before showing your boarding pass and going through security.)

Both the boarding pass/security check and the Immigration exit check must be open for business and receptive of your entry when you approach them; not all these functions may be available 24/7. Boarding pass/security may refuse your entry if you present yourself the day before the flight's departure.

So the answer to your question depends upon:

  • being able to get a boarding pass for your flight the day before it departs; and

  • having the airport's security line and boarding pass inspection and exit passport control functions open and operating when you want to pass, and willing to process you long before flight time; and

  • having the airside terminal remain open during the time you wish to wait. You might, for example, pass into airside in the evening, hoping to stay overnight and take your flight the next day...but find the airport closes the terminal at midnight, and requires everyone to leave until the next morning.

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    Exit passport control is not always after security, though even then there are often boarding pass checks before that.
    – jcaron
    Oct 9, 2019 at 18:59
  • @jcaron I've never seen it that way, but it certainly could be so, and I've amended the Answer.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Oct 9, 2019 at 22:05
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    @jcaron I've never been to a Schengen airport where security wasn't before passport control for an exiting passenger, and certainly the 3 Schengen area airports I was in today weren't setup like that.
    – Doc
    Oct 9, 2019 at 22:12
  • In CDG 1 and CDG 2E at least it's that way, passport control first, security next (passport control is centralised while security is spread in the various satellites). In Orly Sud as well (or at least that was the case at some point, I'm not so sure it was the case last time I went through there). On the other hand in Toulouse, Basel, Geneva it's security first, then passport control. Trying to remember the situation in other Schengen airports where I boarded non-Schengen flights, but I draw a blank.
    – jcaron
    Oct 9, 2019 at 22:13
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    It's the same in Frankfurt Terminal 2. There you also pass the passport check first, and security is located at the gates.
    – dunni
    Oct 9, 2019 at 23:06
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It seems it could be possible for you to apply for a Schengen Visa Extension.

After applying for the extension you are allowed to stay in the schengen area until you have received any decision. If the application is rejected you'd have to leave within 1 or 2 days.

Applying for the visa extension could be free or cost 30 euro.

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    Where and how does OP apply for the extension?
    – Willeke ♦
    Oct 10, 2019 at 3:51
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I think of this question as "can I stay at an airport without a visa?".

You don't need a visa if you don't pass the immigrations. If you book a flight with a return the next day and you land at the same terminal you are going home from then I guess it should be just fine.

This way you leave at the last date of your visa, which is fine, and you just come back for transit, which is also fine.

  • 8th day: you take a plane from Berlin to somewhere
  • 9th day: you come back to Berlin from somewhere and then you go to your plane.

This however requires that you only have handluggage.

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    This would only work if "somewhere" is a location outside the Schengen area, and the OP has a double-entry Schengen visa (with one entry unused) or a multiple-entry Schengen visa.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Oct 10, 2019 at 0:13
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    This is not a transit issue. The OP's problem is a too-short visa term. To catch his currently-scheduled flight, he must absent himself from the Schengen area so the visa clock stops for a day. By doing so, he can thereby return to the Schengen area to catch his flight, and not violate the visa time limit. The OP can only do this if he has an available entry remaining on the visa. Without a remaining entry, he can leave the Schengen area but won't be able to reenter to catch his flight.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Oct 10, 2019 at 0:40
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    @David why can't he just stay airside like everyone else?
    – Mikael Dúi Bolinder
    Oct 10, 2019 at 1:42
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    Maybe he can. See the bulleted points in my answer. The answer (as the Magic 8-Ball says) is not clear, and depends on how the specific airport from which he's scheduled to depart and his airline operates.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Oct 10, 2019 at 3:10
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    One more thought: the Schengen rules count any partial day as a full day. Thus, to gain one day of visa time, the OP must stay out of the Schengen area for two nights. If the OP needs to gain two days of visa time, the OP must stay out of the Schengen area for three nights.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Oct 10, 2019 at 4:19

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