French long stay visa question

[ceejayt]

I understand that I can get one if these to extend a stay in France up to 180 days.

My question is:
If I enter France at Calais and exit France from Calais how do ‘the authorities’ know that you haven’t swabbed round the rest of the Schengen zone for all that time given there are no border checks?

I guess one might get caught out but how?

 

[Northernraider]

They don't which is why most get them . No one wants to spend 6 months in France. I was contemplating doing this myself. 2 weeks in France the rest in Spain and Portugal lol

 

[Sue and Rick]

That will work until they get the boarder system thats proposed underway

 

[DandJ]

That will work until they get the boarder system thats proposed underway

Only provided they bring in border control between countries....otherwise, as it is now, you have free travel between most european countries with no checks once beyond Calais.

 

[dunnah01]

You can bend the rules but can't bleat if you get caught out by some minor infringement of some sort outside of France.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[AGT]

It is a Schengen visa and so there is no restriction on travelling into other Schengen countries. There is no issue about being “caught” in another Schengen country. This year we spent a month in Italy and Croatia during our 180 day visa period and that is fine. Last year we spent a couple of weeks in Sardinia. We have also come in and out of Schengen during our 180 day visa period through Geneva, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Frankfurt without comment. Most recently in Frankfurt they were happy to stamp out our visa as we were close to its end date.

However, if a visa applicant’s intention is to use the French visa to spend most of the 180 days covered by the visa in other Schengen countries then they may trip up on truthfully answering a couple of questions in the application form. It is intended as a tourist visa for France.