Overstaying Schengen 90 days? What should I do?

Question

I've been in France for five months. It was an accident, I thought I didn't need a student visa if I was here for under six months but I'm already here and I want to travel a little bit before I go home. I'm going to travel in Schengen states, but I want to know where there is the least chance of there being passport checks. I'm going to go east of France to Italy or Germany toward Czech Republic and Slovakia. Which countries should I avoid? and also, could I go to Britain and just get through the controls by explaining that I'm an American student and it was an accident? Thanks so much for your help!

Answer 1

If you come to Italy and stay in a hotel or hostel, they are required to make a copy of your passport and report your presence to the authorities. Actually, everyone that enters Italy is required to report their presence within 8 days - this process at the hotels just makes the requirement transparent to most tourists. In addition, your passport will be checked if you use a public internet site here. There are sometimes passport checks on the international trains. If you're in a cuchette on a night train, the conductor will take your passport overnight.

The above won't necessarily cause you a problem, but you're likely to be found out somewhere along the way. If you think about how easy it would be for a foreigner in the US to get away with saying they overstayed their visit by mistake, you might get a feel for how well that might go over here.