This article first appeared in My Travelogue by Bhushavali

Like my, once-in-a-while, unusual articles, about absolute personal experiences (like giving birth in Belgium or losing a passport in train in Europe), this is my story of how the movie Terminal happened to me!

TL DR: Always check the 'number of days' on your visa and if you go on multiple trips, keep a track of it!

Schengen Visa for Indians residing in India

Story time! So, I had planned 2 trips to the Schengen Area in Jan 2025 and Feb 2025. Now that I have moved back to India and submitted the Belgian Residence Permit, that means, I have to apply for a visa for every trip I plan to Europe (unless one gets a 3-5yr visa)! 

Visa application to many countries that happen in India, happens via VFS and every time, to process a visa, it takes about ₹2000+ as VFS fee and then another ₹8000+ as Visa fee. This ₹10,000+ has to be spent with absolutely no guarantee that a visa will be issued. ₹10,000 is approximately $110 or €100. 

Plus the visa application requires a confirmed, return-flight ticket without any guarantee that a visa will be issued. Which means, again, a fully-refundable flight ticket needs to be purchased, which costs easily about ₹10,000 (approximately $110 or €100) extra than a non-refundable ticket, for a Europe trip. 

So, these, by itself, makes the whole process quite an expensive affair!

Overlapping travel dates on Visa with limited number of days:

For my trip in Jan 2025, I had the visa from Jan 08 to Feb 08. For my trip in Feb, I had a visa from Feb 08 to Feb 28. Now comes, the tricky thing... More important than these dates is the spot which says the 'Total Number of Days'. While my first visa said 17, my 2nd visa said just 6 days! This means, with the first visa, which has 30 days in the validity period, I am actually allowed to stay for only 17 days. Likewise, I'm allowed to stay for just 6 days in the 20 days validity of the 2nd visa! 

While I understand this for long-term visas, like limiting per stay to 45-90 days in a 3-5 year visa, limiting the number of days to such short period in a super short validity visa is quite amusing! I understand that they've given this to allow slight flexibility in case of any flight delay or so, but still, 6 days in 20 days in just annoying! 

This is also important, because in the last several years, with a Belgian Resident Permit, traveling between the 2 countries had been super easy as long as the expiry date in my passport and RP were valid. 

My 2nd trip was planned from 6th Jan to 11th Jan and my point of entry was Frankfurt airport.....

What happened when I showed up at the immigration?

I reached the Schengen area on Jan 6th around 6:45PM. When I came to the immigration, it was pretty clear - I enter with my first visa (which was valid till 8th) and I continue my stay & exit with my 2nd visa (which was valid from 8th) - it was crystal clear. But...... I had unfortunately spent all the 17 days that I was granted with my first visa, during my first trip. So now, even though the visa is valid till 8th Feb, I didn't have any days left! So....... without knowing........ I had tried to illegally immigrate into the Schengen area!!! It is a criminal offence! 

What I had in my hand were - either get deported back or stay in the Terminal till my next visa is valid, i.e, the midnight between Feb 7th & 8th, that's in another 30 hours! Obviously, I chose the 2nd option and that's how I became another Tom Hanks of Terminal Movie!!!

Legal series of steps - What to do when you're taken to the Border Police room?

Now, that I had tried to enter the country illegally, I was taken into the Border Police room. There I was told that they will have to write-up all the documents and since the official language of the country is only German, I was offered a legal translator, even though all the police official could speak English. He arrived in a couple of hours. They were all kind and soft spoken and truly understood that it was an honest mistake. The police told me that it's not a big deal since I have all the documents and my visa stamps were real and there's no malice intent. 

Then the police came back with a bunch of documents which were also translated by the official translator. In a nutshell, this was basically 2 cases!!! - 1. I criminal case that tried to cross the border without legal documents and 2. 1 administrative case that I was staying in a German airport without legal documents (instead of going back)! This has a fine of €200. This was the fine for me to stay at the airport for the temporary time period. (This administrative case was closed and this €200 was refunded at the end of this fiasco!). 

It was at this point that I broke down. Well, I've not gotten a traffic ticket in India. My most favourite route in Chennai was the ECR and I've ridden by bike several times between Thiruvanmiyur and Mahabalipuram or Pondicherry just to make my mood better. I was stopped by the traffic police many times for a regular check, but always had my papers & helmet on and everything on-point, legally. 'That' me, is now, sitting in the border police room in Frankfurt with a criminal cases on my head! The gravity of the issue slowly dawned on me and so yeah, I broke down. The policewoman there, was concerned and asked me why I suddenly broke down and I said that I reached my breaking point. They asked me if I needed water and gave me some. I had to sign all these documents accepting all these!!! They questioned me all the basic set of questionnaire and asked if I needed to say anything. I pleaded that it was a honest mistake. 

I was allowed to call anyone I needed and be on phone for my emotional support and I was on call with my family through & through. I didn't ask them if I could film there, but I'm kind-of sure that would not have been allowed. I was given a copy of the documents that I had signed. 

Finally, I was let out of the border police room, but be inside the airport premises for the next 24 hours after which my 2nd visa would become valid! They had collected my luggage and brought those here. I asked them if I could just let it be there while I was in the airport premises and they agreed. In general, they were kind & friendly.

To remind you, I had reached the airport at around 7:00 PM and the ordeal came to an end at 1:00AM! They asked if I had any food on me and I said I'll pick something up at the airport food-court or lounge. They said that the shops would be closed and offered to get me something from outside. They got me a McD veggie burger and fries that I had asked them and paid for. 

I found myself a nice little corner of the airport with a lounge chair to lay down & rest. I laid down my bags and walked around a bit. Everything was closed! 

Here's the thing - I've travelled a bit and I've spent midnights at Chennai airport, Delhi airport, Abu Dhabi airport, Dubai Airport which operate 24x7! Of course, I've also spent nights at tiny airports like Milan Bergamo & London Stanstead which almost close-off at nights, since they operate purely for 1 or 2 low-cost airlines like Ryan or Wizz and the airports operate only when those airlines work. Spending nights in such small airports was when I was much younger. Except for a back-packers like me then, there wouldn't be anyone else there, no lounges, no check-ins, no staff, nothing & no-one except security.

But the larger airports in India or UAE never close and there are flights throughout the night! Even at 11:00PM, 2:00AM, 4:00AM and people are there always and there are stores & lounges open all night, if not all, quite a few, to cater to the needs of people. I've eaten great food both in Chennai & Abu Dhabi lounges from 12:00 midnight to 2:00AM! I kind-of assumed all large airports operate 24x7, but boy was I wrong! Frankfurt Airport was shut down for all practical purposes by 10:00PM! Apart from border police & cleaners, the airport was desolate! Now I know, that most European Airports do not have any night flights as a part of noise management & reduction of noise pollution!!! Apart from coffee from an automatic vending machine, there was nothing to eat since all the shops close, because there are no passengers to cater to! Well, apart from border police & cleaners, there was I, at the airport, curled up on a lounge chair, in a nice corner!!!!! 

I spent the entire 2nd day at the airport just chilling! There was wi-fi at the airport and there were power-sockets for my laptop. I worked, and of course, I had to reschedule some meetings since I was held up here! 

At the end of the 2nd day, at 11:45 PM I went back to the border police office for paper work and by 12:00 midnight I entered Frankfurt. I was given a copy of those papers as well and I was told to contact the 2 lawyers with whom I had to follow-up regarding the status of the criminal case which was still open. I called them almost immediately and they informed that the case would automatically be closed in 3 months since this was very straight forward.

They gave me the papers indicating that the administrative case was closed and they refunded the €200.

My friend had come to pick me up and drop me at my hotel. He also got me some good food, which I much needed after eating in-flight food & airport sandwiches for 2 days straight... After 3 days, I went back to the same airport for my return flight and it was easy with no issues. 

Ofcourse, if I had known that I had exhausted the number of days on my first visa, I wouldn't have travelled. That said, if at all, I had figured this out enroute and if I had known that the 2nd visa wasn't valid yet, I could have gone directly to the border police, instead of immigration and if I had explained the situation, then, I wouldn't have "tried to cross the border without a valid visa"! In such a case, there wouldn't have been a criminal case, but just an administrative case to let me stay in the airport till the visa became valid! If you're doubtful if you have exhausted the number of days, this is probably the better way to go. 

Here's the thing, a few years ago, pre-covid, I knew the importance of the 'number of days', when I processed the visa for my parents & in-laws when they visited Belgium. Post-covid, now, years after the last time I processed a Schengen Visa (thanks to the residence permit, I never needed a Schengen Visa), I honestly forgot about it! 

Frankfurt Terminal at midnight

Thankfully, I got this visa! This time it was valid from mid-Apr to July-end! I looked into the number of days and it said '90'!!!!! I think, probably, maybe, the visa officer had actually read through my ordeal with the meagre number of days in the earlier visas and perhaps that's why, went generous this time, or maybe it was just because it was the Netherlands!!! 

As mentioned, my flight was till Brussels and I landed there. Obviously, the case would have shown up on the screen of the immigration officer at Brussels. He paused a moment, but then continued to ask when my return flight was. I showed him my return ticket and that was it. I was allowed to enter Brussels and after the stay I exited as well...