We left the United States and arrived in Italy on September 12th of this year. We stayed in Italy for just under 3 months, and the plan was to go to Liverpool afterwards. We booked a train from Turin headed towards England, and since Paris was on the way we decided to stay in Paris for 2 days. We arrived in Paris on December 6 and left yesterday, December 8. So that's a total of 88 days in the Schengen area.
We go to Gare du Nord and go through French border patrol and all was well up until then. Then we go to British border patrol and everything went downhill very quickly. They ask our reason for visiting in the UK and we said sightseeing and a different culture. They ask how long we are staying and we said 4 months (until April 1). They asked where we were going after we left and we said to France. That's when they said "you've already been here, you can't come back." We told them it was our understanding that you could have 90 days in the Schengen area but then needed to be 90 days outside of it. They said "it doesn't work like that." That's where our confusion is, it is our understanding we would be good?
She then went and got her supervisor. He asked why we were traveling so much and when we were planning on going back to the United States. We said not for a few years as we want to travel around the world. He told us that if we aren't going back to the U.S., then we are just living in other countries through loopholes. He then said "those days are over, the world doesn't work like that anymore."
Feeling that this was getting away from us, we told them exactly where we were staying in the UK and showed them our brokerage account on our phone app showing we had enough money to support ourselves while in the UK. They finally stamped our passports and said not to try to come back to the Schengen in April. The supervisor said "maybe France will let you in, maybe they won't." It was a very disheartening experience and shook us a little because we thought we had researched all of this and thought we were good.
Sorry for the long rant, my questions are has anyone had an experience like this before? And has anyone stayed in the Schengen for 3 months, left for about 3, and gone right back in? We're worried now that we won't be able to get into France in April and will be left scrambling.
Submitted December 09, 2022 at 07:55AM by Pretend-Cicada6716 https://ift.tt/BM5tsHz
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