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Immagration/visa/residency question
Hello,
I am an American citizen living in Belgium. I just successfully finished the process of attaining a Belgian residency/Cohabitation. At the final meeting the woman said 'technically I shouldn't leave Belgium for six months, though within the Schengen I wouldn't get checked so it should be okay'. So, I have a train ticket and weekend planned in London and I was wondering, since its outside the Schengen zone is it going to be a risk to try to get back into Belgium. Can I just use my US passport to get back into Belgium? Would the information that I have a conditional residency in Belgium and technically shouldn't leave come up when they do a basic passport check in the control?
Thank you for your help...
You'll get checked by Immigration going into the UK. US passport => OK.
You may get checked by the Eurostar coming back. Belgian residence permit => OK.
The Belgians won't check your passport returning on Eurostar, the French will (at St. Pancras before you board). The issue is the status under which you are present within the Schengen zone - if you are out of tourist validity (90 days stay within the last 180) and have no other valid permission (which you obviously don't from what you have been told by the commune) expect problems.
I should have added that you might experience difficulties at Midi outbound to the UK if the UK Border Force officer is particularly vigilant because although you would have tourist visa-waiver rights for the UK (assuming that you haven't exhausted those too), you intend to return to the Schengen zone after visiting the UK rather than returning to the US and you don't, strictly speaking, have rights to do so, which would leave you stuck in the UK.
I suspect that the UKBF officer wouldn't put two and two together, but the checking process, even for UK or EU citizens isn't the simple one that it was even five years ago - and I don't know how much information comes up on the computer screen. If your passport does bring up the information that you are in the course of obtaining provisional residential rights in Belgium, and that fact should be logged in the system somewhere, that should be enough to start the alarm bells ringing.
US citizen refused permission to leave the UK? Really? Alarm bells ringing in the UK because the American is getting residency in Belgium? Please, what a load of paranoid nonsense. Next thing you know is you will be telling us that we need permission to take our furniture out of the country and there is a department t the airport that has the sole aim of making debtors miss their flight.
Of course, the US citizen in question would be allowed to leave the UK if he were returning to the USA - and he should have no problems going to the UK if he intends to travel on the US. The problem arises because he may not (probably would not) be allowed to re-enter the Schengen zone, and in the case of Eurostar the Schengen zone starts at St.Pancras (or Ebbsfleet or Ashford) - so in this case he would be refused permission to leave the UK because the only international destinations served from these stations are within the Schengen zone.
Technically, you should be fine.
Potentially? I wouldn't risk it.
Is a trip to the UK worth ruining what you've achieved regarding your cohabitation?
I would think twice.
