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I (EU citizen) will be entering Schengen area with my spouse (US citizen). I understand that we can go through the EU passport lane and that he is not subject to the 90 day rule. We plan on traveling through many Schengen countries but not spending more than 30 days in any single country.

When going through border control, will his passport be stamped on arrival?

I am worried that if he has an entry stamp, it will look like he overstayed when we exit Schengen 6 months later.

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    I am an EU citizen but my wife is not. The only time that I tried to bring her through the EU queue, I was told: "we don't do that here". That was in Copenhagen airport. In all subsequent visits, I have used an automated gate where I don't see how I could bring her. I have not pressed the issue yet as we have not had an expectation to stay more than 90 days yet.
    – badjohn
    Commented Mar 1 at 14:10
  • Anecdotally I can say it should be stamped. I (EU citizen) traveled with my wife (not EU citizen) and they forgot to stamp her passport on entry. The exit control guard was very confused when we left and told her she needs to make sure it gets stamped when she enters. Commented Mar 2 at 12:25
  • Another data point contradicting my own previous one. My wife and I just arrived in Amsterdam from the UK. I went through the automated EU gates and she joined the non-EU queue. She was told off because she should have gone to an EU queue with me.
    – badjohn
    Commented Mar 8 at 11:35

1 Answer 1

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The Schengen Border Guards Handbook states:

The travel document of family members of EU, EEA and CH citizens who are third-country nationals must also be stamped, unless they present a residence permit or card with the indication “family member of an EU citizen” or “family member of an EEA or CH citizen”

Unless they hold an Article 10 residence card, they will be stamped

I am worried that if he has an entry stamp, it will look like he overstayed when we exit Schengen 6 months later.

If they're leaving with you, you'll have no issues at all, if they're leaving alone, a marriage certificate and a copy of your EU ID/passport will do the trick.

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    In practice it is likely not to be necessary to show the marriage certificate, but it can't hurt to have it with you. If a copy isn't handy, though, I wouldn't go out of my way to get one.
    – phoog
    Commented Mar 1 at 7:13
  • Isn't an EU family member visa the best option?
    – jcaron
    Commented Mar 1 at 9:39
  • @jcaron I suspect that most consulates would refuse to process such a visa for an Annex II national as in this case. That was certainly my mother's experience when she approached the French consulate in New York. I'm not certain they would have refused to process it had she insisted on applying, but they told her not to apply because there was no need.
    – phoog
    Commented Mar 1 at 14:02
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    @terdon Indeed yes, freedom of movement rights extend to partners and under-21 child. If you go together or are joining the EU national, you benefit from the same rights as the EU national. If the non-EU national leaves/enters alone with the goal of joining the EU national, this must be proven to eliminate overstay issues Commented Mar 1 at 20:02
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    As I mentioned in a comment to the question, I tried once to bring my non-EU wife through the EU queue and failed. I did not a fuss as we were not staying long and the non-EU queue was not long. However, the experience did not reassure me of how easy it would be if we needed to do this.
    – badjohn
    Commented Mar 2 at 8:00

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