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I (U.S.A. citizen) currently have a Dutch residence permit for purpose of family reunion. When my sponsoring family member will leave the Netherlands later this year, I will also have to turn in my residence permit.

At that point my goal is to switch over to a Schengen tourist for up to 90 more days. The Dutch immigration office told me this is ok but I'll need to exit then re-enter the Schengen Area, and she gave the example of taking a one-day trip to the U.K.

Instead of the U.K. I've wanted to go to either Andorra or the Faroe Islands. Neither of these are Schengen, but my understanding is that due to their locations they do not have border controls with the Schengen zone. Is this true?

Would that further imply a weekend trip to the Faroe Islands or to Andorra might not work to switch my status from long-stay resident to short-stay tourist (i.e. no place to get a new passport stamp)?

Edit:

To comments about using the expiry date on the residence permit as proof: My long-term residence permit is not a dated visa stamp in my passport. It's a plastic card that I'll need to relinquish when I leave the Netherlands. (I intend to keep a photocopy for records though.) Also, because I must leave when my sponsor leaves, I'll be relinquishing it and re-entering as a tourist many months before the expiry date printed on the card.

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    OTOH, I still don't understand the advice you were given by the IND. I agree with @GayotFow that getting an entry stamp is not required but I also don't see how it would solve your problem. To be able to enter the Schengen are, you first need to leave it. In principle, the length of your stay should be checked at this moment. People contemplating a round-trip out of the Schengen area to get an entry stamp usually plan on leaving while they still have a valid long-stay visa to prove they have been staying legally until now.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jun 6, 2016 at 11:13
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    But if you have to relinquish the residence permit when leaving the country, you would present yourself to the exit check with nothing and no recent entry stamp. It would only work if you could count on sneaking out of the Schengen area without a proper check (which might actually be possible in Andorra) or if you would do the whole thing before handing the permit over to the Dutch authorities.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jun 6, 2016 at 11:17
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    I called the Dutch IND again and a second representative confirmed that I need to leave and re-enter the Schengen area for a day to switch over to tourist status. He also suggested that border control will have access to the information that I'd been staying under a residence permit.
    – Jeff G
    Commented Jun 8, 2016 at 14:37
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    @Relaxed I found it; it's from 2011: ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/…. France, Germany, and the Netherlands, among others, require exit; Czech Republic, Estonia, and Finland, among others, do not.
    – phoog
    Commented Sep 30, 2016 at 22:14
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    I entered Andorra by bus today. There were both immigration and customs checkpoints at the border. However, they did not stop the bus nor look at anyone's documents or baggage. So I do not have proof of entry in my passport. I do have a receipt from burger king, but since it does not have my name on it, nor the "last four digits" of a credit card number, it also doesn't prove I was here. But finally, I can get documentation from the hostel that I slept there two nights. If that's not enough, the headers of two e-mails might prove that they were sent from inside Andorra.
    – WGroleau
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 19:26

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I am not sure why your ask Will I get a Schengen entry stamp when leaving Andorra or Faroe Islands? because as I understand your plans it seem what you need is an exit stamp from Schengen, or an entry stamp for somewhere outside the Schengen agreement.

Obtaining such a stamp from Andorra would seem to be easy. From Wikitravel:

A souvenir passport stamp may be available at the border on request.

and

Border control officers at both sides are generally fine.

Taken together I interpret "may" to mean something like "all you have to do is ask" - rather than, say "may ... or may not".

At least you would appear to have four chances: out/in Schengen and in/out Andorra with any one of those possibly sufficient.

There is some advice about The Faroes here:

you won't get a stamp if you arrive from Denmark (you could probably ask for one at arrival, but that would be atypical I guess)

you can also ask for a stamp at the airport or the very least at the police station in Tórshavn

When I left though, there was an immigration guy who checked passports/ lengths of stay (from entrance into Iceland I guess??). He then stamped my passport with an exit stamp that said DK -- Føroyar.

I've heard they check all documents upon entering by ferry

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  • "I've heard they check all documents upon entering by Ferry" False - the Faroes has an open border with the Schengen Area, and ferries only run from Denmark and Iceland, which are Schengen countries (as well as part of the Nordic passport Union, another open border Agreement)
    – Crazydre
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 9:27
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The Andorrans nowadays don't stamp any passports unless you ask for it, and their stamps are not Schengen stamps, nor do they issue exit stamps

The Faroe Islands, although not itself part of the Schengen Area, is a territory of a Schengen country and has an open border with the Area, so unless you fly to/from Edinburgh, there are no immigration checks. In any case, when there are checks, Danish Schengen stamps are used.

An Andorran entry stamp

enter image description here

And a Faroese exit stamp

enter image description here

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  • Is this from personal or on-the-ground experience -- or is there some source you can share?
    – Jeff G
    Commented Jan 2, 2017 at 18:59
  • @JeffG Attached images
    – Crazydre
    Commented Jan 3, 2017 at 4:53
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I asked two friends who, separately, made the trip from Barcelona Spain to Andorra, and back to Spain. One was traveling on a Canadian passport, the other Turkish. Neither one received a stamp at the Andorra border—but they did not explicitly ask for one either.

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