Schengen visa will expire during trip

[BenS]

Hello,

My wife is a non EU citizen, I am German. We both live in the UK. My wife got a 2 year multi entry visa 18 months ago for the Schengen zone issued by Germany. It expires some time in December this year. Maximum stay is 90 days and she has already used up 80. She has not been in the Schengen zone in the last 180 days. We are planning another trip to the schengen zone soon, but this should be longer than 10 days. So I guess my wife could cover the first 10 days of the stay with her old visa and would need a new visa for the remaining time. So for example lets assume our trip starts august 1. Then during our stay her old visa would be used up on august 10th, so a new one would have to start august 11th. My question is if this is possible. My understanding is that you cannot hold two schengen visa for the same time horizon in parallel, but if they gave us a new visa starting 10 days after our intended start of the trip, this would be the case. If they give us a visa starting august 11 and for whatever reason we are not able to depart august 1 then in theory we would have two intersecting visa.
Also What would we need to put as the intended starting date of the trip on the application form? August 1 or 11? Obviously flight documents would be for august 1, but the new visa would start august 11

[Angel99]

Hi,

The 90/180 days limit does not apply to your spouse if she is in Schengen zone but outside Germany.

She has unlimited stay in Schengen zone except Germany. Even with expired visa she can stay 3 months with you in "each" Schengen country without applying for EU-Residence card.

[BenS]

Thanks but we will travel to Germany. So this is not relevant here

[BenS]

Also, to be clear, the issue is not at all the 90/180 rule since my wife has not been in the schengen zone for 180 days. The issue is that she has a multi entry schengen visa expiring in December, which only has 10 days of stay in the schengen zone left, but we would like to stay longer than 10 days.

[Angel99]

Also, to be clear, the issue is not at all the 90/180 rule since my wife has not been in the schengen zone for 180 days. The issue is that she has a multi entry schengen visa expiring in December, which only has 10 days of stay in the schengen zone left, but we would like to stay longer than 10 days.

If your spouse travel to schengen area she is a family member of an EU citizen. Which means she can travel freely in schengen area unlimited except Germany.

You can stay longer in Germany but don't do Anmeldung. No one will check how many days left. During random checks inland, they mostly check the validity of visa. Incase there is any immigration checks, you can say you are just passing through to another EU country.

****Just do not exit from an airport in Germany else national rules will apply. If you exit from another EU country it will be considered as exercising EU directive Freemovement

[BenS]

Thanks I appreciate the advice, but would really like to go for the formally correct route here to avoid any problems in the future. We will travel a lot to Germany in the future, so i really don't want to risk any visa problems. Travelling back from a non German airport would be quite complicated for various reasons anyway

[Angel99]

Thanks I appreciate the advice, but would really like to go for the formally correct route here to avoid any problems in the future. We will travel a lot to Germany in the future, so i really don't want to risk any visa problems. Travelling back from a non German airport would be quite complicated for various reasons anyway

It's your choice if you don't want to enjoy your privileges.
(EU family members don't need a visa if already in Schengen).

You are free to apply for schengen visa at the German embassy.