Can I return to the Schengen area without my residency permit?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 19 Jul, 2023
- |
As a citizen of South Korea you are free to visit the Schengen area without a visa, since your country is on the Annex II list. You could therefore exit Germany without any issues. As for the return – while the German border guards might want to see your residency card, it’s not really necessary for entry as they have access to the database of people with German residency. However you might face an issue with the airline as they’re technically supposed to verify you haven’t exhausted the 90/180 days limit in the Schengen area. In this case you would have to either:
- Hope nobody would bother checking and simply show up for the flight, which is usually the case in my experience
- Apply for a temporary visa at the German consulate
- Get a fresh South Korean passport (or a second passport) that doesn’t have any Schengen entry stamps
- Purchase a transit flight via Germany to another country (e.g. the UK) and fly without luggage. In this case you would simply exit in Germany before reaching your final destination.
If you were a citizen of a country whose nationals require a visa to enter the Schengen area, your only option would’ve been to receive a temporary visa before leaving or at the consulate.
Source: being in the very same situation in the Czech Republic.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘