Is it allowed to spend a night in the first entry country before moving to the main destination?
I have booked to spend a night in the first entry point which is Germany. Then in the second day I'm going to move to the main destination (Switzerland), where my visa has been issued, by car.Is that illegal and I have to have a flight to the main destination at same time?
Best Answer
No problem at all if you explained it in your visa application.
If you want to make changes to your original itinerary, that is also possible, but then you must avoid the appearance that you misrepresented your itinerary. Having hotel reservations, etc., for Switzerland should resolve this.
Pictures about "Is it allowed to spend a night in the first entry country before moving to the main destination?"
Should my first trip be to the country issued by Schengen Visa?
There is no general requirement that you must enter the Schengen Area through the country that issued your visa. Your main destination may be different than your first destination. To prevent complications, stick to your itinerary as best you can.Can I enter and or exit the Schengen Area via a country other than the one for which I have a visa?
As a general rule, you may cross any Schengen border with visa issued by any Schengen country. However, you should try and stick to your itinerary as filed when applying for your Schengen Visa.What is member state of first entry?
26. Member of state of first entry: This is where you are entering the Schengen area for the first time on your visa period. For example, if you receive a Schengen visa and you fly from Egypt to France, and this is the first time you enter the Schengen area on that visa, your state of first entry will be France.Can I travel to other Schengen countries with multiple entry visa?
Schengen visas allow to make one-entry, two-entries or multi-entries. With one-entry visa you can travel the Schengen area only once. It is indicated in your visa as \u201c01\u201d. With two-entries or multi-entries you can respectively travel to the Schengen area twice or several times during the visa validity period.Enur - Calabria 2007 ft. Natasja (Lyrics)
More answers regarding is it allowed to spend a night in the first entry country before moving to the main destination?
Answer 2
You did your job great. Schengen rules require that you apply for the visa by the main destination of your itinerary, not the port of entry. You applied in Switzerland, you are going to visit Switzerland for the main of your journey. Check ?
Now, Schengen rules allow you to visit every Schengen country in any order. No one forbids you to stay in Germany even for one night, even for the first night. You can request visa to Switzerland as soon as you can justify it's the main destination.
At the border in Germany, if immigration ask for documentation, you can easily show both of your hotel reservations and they will have nothing to say against letting you in.
When you will be driving to Swiss, you will cross customs but since you are still in Schengen area there are odds that no one will bother you. It is very unlikely that in the event of a police check they will ask for documentation about your visit, since you already cleared immigration to the Schengen space by the German immigration.
A final word about misrepresenting the itinerary. In theory, you could request visa in country A, book a very cheap lodging (e.g. hostel, Couchsurfing...) in country A and at the same time book a proper lodging in country B; then you can get your bogus reservation ready for show-off and hide reservation for country B, by simply not printing/showing it when asked. At the current time, no one is capable of discovering this unlawful behaviour.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Khaled Akacha, Erik Mclean, Francesco Ungaro, Ave Calvar Martinez