I have a Schengen visa valid from October 1st to October 30th 2014. First country of visit is Belgium and after I want to go for Germany. It is possible to go back to Belgium after Germany?
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1 Answer
It's not a problem. As long as you don't exceed your visa's maximum stay or period of validity, you can stay in the Schengen area and crossing internal borders (borders between Schengen countries) does not make any difference. In all likelihood, you won't even see a border guard when traveling between Belgium and Germany.
Your visa will also have a specific number of allowed entries (1, 2 or ‘MULT’ for “multiple entries”, which means no limit) but that's only relevant when crossing external borders (borders between a Schengen country and some other country that is not part of the Schengen area).
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3Should you still be worried, this is the border crossing: google.com/maps/place/Germany/… Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 18:25
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@AndreasBonini/Relaxed: I don't know what it's like now, but I took the train into Germany several times between 1999 and 2005, entering from NL, France, and Austria (maybe from Switzerland, too). There were generally several German border officers walking through the train between the last non-German station and the first German station. They typically interviewed certain people with varying degrees of intensity; the targets of this scrutiny were easily predicted by physical appearance. By contrast, the first train I took from DE to NL was swept by a single Dutch guard who spoke to nobody.– phoogCommented Sep 30, 2014 at 3:13
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@phoog That's why I wrote “in all likelihood”. I have been on trains between NL and DE without seeing anyone but, like yourself, I did occasionally see German or Dutch border guards going through the train (although perhaps less frequently now than in the years immediately after the implementation of the Schengen agreement). I also witnessed cars from the customs (Zoll/Douane) watching the motorway (like parked on a service entrance, ready to chase someone…) Other borders (France/Italy) seem to be even more intensively patrolled and I have often heard about racial profiling there.– RelaxedCommented Sep 30, 2014 at 7:23
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I can tell you that in august I did italy => switzerland => germany => belgium => netherlands => belgium => germany => france => italy, and never seen a single border guard. Except for switzerland of course, where there are still regular borders. Commented Sep 30, 2014 at 15:08
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@AndreasBonini Not quite, Switzerland is part of the Schengen area (and hasn't performed systematic checks in quite some time, even before that) but you're right, it's quite common to see no checks at all.– RelaxedCommented Sep 30, 2014 at 15:35