Can I request leeway on Schengen airport transit visa expiry date?

Question

Flying UK > Frankfurt > Holguin in January 2025 with Lufthansa/Condor. The trip will be a single booking with one PNR, and the traveller requires an airport transit visa for Germany.

Bearing in mind the possibility of the airline delaying or cancelling one leg or even both flights due to bad weather at that time of year, do Schengen visa rules allow the Embassy to issue a visa with say a week’s leeway on the return leg date?

For example:

• outbound flight to UK 11th December 2024
• inbound flight to Cuba booked for 26th Jan 2025.

Is wanting some flexibility on the return flight in case of need a credible reason to apply for an airport transit visa valid from 11th Dec 2024 to 2nd Feb 2025?

In case it makes a difference, the traveller has a used 2 year multiple entry UK Visitor visa that expires on 2nd Feb 2025. He has previously had a German airport transit visa, however on that occasion the visa dates we requested matched the booked flight dates.

The intention for his Dec 2024 visit is to stick to the flight dates as booked. There are three further flights UK>FRA>HOG between 27 Jan to 2 Feb 2025 so the leeway would only be to avoid a very stressful scramble to try to get a new transit visa from within the UK in a week (before his UK visa expires) if the worst happens.

Answer 1

A 15 days grace period may be applied unless the travel document validity (3 months after visa expiry) will not make it.

Schengen Visa code § 26 (Issuing of an airport transit visa) states

2. Without prejudice to Article 12(a), the period of validity of the visa shall include an additional ‘period of grace’ of 15 days.

Member States may decide not to grant such a period of grace for reasons of public policy or because of the international relations of any of the Member States.

3. Without prejudice to Article 12(a), multiple airport transit visas may be issued with a period of validity of a maximum six months.

Article 12(a) stating

(a) its validity shall extend at least three months after the intended date of departure from the territory of the Member States or, in the case of several visits, after the last intended date of departure from the territory of the Member States. However, in a justified case of emergency, this obligation may be waived;