If my lady friend comes on a 3 month tourist visa and things go well and she then returns to the Philippines, do you know how long one must wait before applying for a family reunification visa?
There is no easy answer to this Geoff since the Directive only covers family Members of EU Citizens living in a host EU Country not prospective family members. It will depend on the specific country (Germany) and you will need to ask the authorities there what the rules are. There are half a dozen here on the forum that have exersized our rights but all Married before our family members arrived
Malta does issue Family Reunification visas to fiancées of EU citizens as I suspect do most/all other Schengen signatories. So I suggest Geoff might look to having his lady apply to Malta (through VFS, Manila). She could then fly Turkish Airlines from Manila to Malta where she would enter the EU and then on to Germany on either Air Malta or Ryanair. Schengen visas should be issued by either the country where you enter the Schengen Zone or by the country where you will spend most time.
I have a colleague who is soon travelling to the Phils. He wants to know if his passport will be stamped that he was in the Phils. I am not sure I want to know why but I said I would ask for him.
When he arrives he will get an entry stamp and when he leaves his passport will be stamped again, it is not like modern travel in Europe. Red stamp in, green stamp out.
I guess stamps are useful to deter some wanna be sex tourists and others and those who claim disability allowance but are really ok to travel and could be concerned about protecting their disability benefits.
Not if you travel to Europe at the moment, I worked in Poland for a short while making many trips each year, never stamped once, Spain most of the time there was no immigration check at all, I just walked into the country off the plane, Switzerland don't remember getting a stamp might have but I don't remember it.
Ah ok , thanks for that info @oss. I haven’t travelled in Europe for years now so have no knowledge of that . Too busy going to and from Philippines now , since first visit there .
Why would passport stamps deter "wannabe sex tourists" and people on disability benefits? More likely that Geoff's friend has a limited number of pages left in his passport, or wants to keep the visit hidden from his wife (or gay lover).
Israel will not stamp your passport if requested due to potential difficulties if the passport holder later travels to a country which does not recognise Israel. Many Muslim countries refuse admission to people with evidence of travel to Israel Hong Kong does not stamp passports any longer but gives you a little stamp sized piece of paper which will probably fall out of your passport by the time you exit Hong Kong. I'd say it's as close to zero chance as possible that Filipino immigration would not stamp your passport. Even if a border agent tried to help you out, I wouldn't fancy my chances when leaving the country as the agent will be very suspicious of a non standard entry procedure.
