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My Schengen visa will be valid on 01 July but I have a flight on 30 June at 22:00. Technically, my visa is not valid when I get on my flight but will be valid when I get to the country. My arrival will be at 00:30. Is that okay or will it be a problem? I'm flying to Poland on WizzAir.

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    @200_success That's not the one. That question is about arriving before the visa is valid and waiting before passing through immigration; in this question, the visa will be valid at the time of landing but not at take-off.
    – David Richerby
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 16:52
  • @200_success I should have looked in the "Related questions" section!
    – David Richerby
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 16:54
  • You may have issues with border guards at departure side, depending on where you are, but definitely not on the arrival side.
    – Putnik
    Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 20:54

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The border guards will only care whether your visa is valid at the time you actually enter the Schengen area. It should not matter how long time you have been traveling by then to get there.

There might be a risk that the airline's check-in/boarding agents at wherever you depart from could be unaware of how the rules work, and therefore try to deny you boarding. This should not happen, but it might be best to ask the airline in advance what their policy in these cases is.

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  • Do you know what happens if his flight gets in 45 minutes early?
    – Iain Galloway
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 15:24
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    @IainGalloway A 2 1/2 hour flight being 45 minutes early? This seems highly unlikely to me. Even more, you might have to pick up your luggage and actually go to the immigration counter, which in many airports needs some time as well. And if even after all that you are still there before midnight I guess simply explaining the issue to the border police people will be a non-issue. The worst they will probably do is let you wait until the clock strikes midnight.
    – dirkk
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 15:40
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    @dirkk I agree that such a short flight is unlikely to be substantially early. But I'm pretty sure that all the airports I've visited (in Europe, north America and Japan) have required me to pass through immigration before collecting my checked luggage.
    – David Richerby
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 16:05
  • Can the airline deny you boarding for this reason? If it happened to me, I would demand compensation with every legal way I can.
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 17:50
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    @FedericoPoloni: If "can" refers to physical ability, then they can deny you boarding for any good or bad reason, or for no reason. If their reason is sufficiently bad, you may be able to win a legal fight afterwards, but the outcome is still that you won't be flying that day. So it makes sense to take some precautions against such a mistake happening, to the extent you have any precautions to take.
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 18:04

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