4

I am travelling to Vienna from New Delhi on a Turkish airline flight and returning from Rome to New Delhi on Air India Flight.

My itinerary is New Delhi-Vienna-Zurich-Rome- New Delhi. I have a Schengen visa valid for my entire stay in Europe

My questions are:

  1. Would there be a problem like denied boarding or restricted boarding considering following points.

    • I do not have a consolidated Passenger Name Record (PNR). My outbound ticket from New Delhi to Vienna and my return ticket from Rome to New Delhi are on two different PNR as they have been booked as one way tickets.

    • I am travelling from Vienna to Zurich through Rail and from Zurich to Rome through Iberia Airlines (also booked as one way ticket)

  2. Do I have to go through any other immigration after entering Vienna for my onward travel to Zurich and Rome. If yes, would they also need proof of entry and exit for that ?

  3. My Turkish airline flight from Delhi to Vienna has a stopover in Istanbul, where I have to change planes. Do I need a transit visa for Istanbul in that case ?

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
9

If you have a valid Schengen Visa, the airlines shouldn't deny you boarding. I will try to answer the two main questions separately

  1. Immigration at Vienna

    Once you land in Vienna from outside Schengen (which you do as your last leg is Istanbul-Vienna), you pass through immigration where your visa is checked and stamped. The immigration officer may ask you to produce return tickets and/or hotel confirmations, which you can easily do. It doesn't matter that your return from Schengen (Rome-Delhi) is booked on a different airline/ticket. What matters is that you have a confirmed flight.

    Once you pass through the immigration, you can travel freely within Schengen (including train to Zurich and Zurich-Rome flight). On the train, Swiss border guards may check your ID and visa (but they won't stamp it). On the flight (Zurich-Rome), you do not pass through immigration as the flight is within Schengen region. However while boarding, your passport will be checked.

  2. Transit at Istanbul

    At Istanbul you do not require a visa for air-side (transit) stay. However, if you need to leave air-side (to collect baggage) you need a Turkish visa. Assuming you are flying with Turkish the whole way (Delhi-IST-Vienna), you can obtain both your boarding passes at Delhi itself and have your luggage checked-through to Vienna (they'll do this by default). In that case, once you disembark at Istanbul, you follow the signs for International transfers and pass through security and reach the departures without any immigration.

    The key-point is that your baggage should be checked all the way to your final destination so that you don't have to leave Istanbul (Ataturk Intl. Airport IST) air-side.

    The usual caveats apply for Istanbul:

    • Your flights at Istanbul should land and originate at same airport (Istanbul has two airports).
    • Layover should be less than 24 hours
Improve this answer
6
  • 1
    (+1) Point 1 describes what generally happens but everything is possible. For flights entirely within the Schengen area, I have had to cross an immigration checkpoint (because a Schengen flight was somehow moved to a non-Schengen terminal, I assume for internal technical reasons) and also took flights without showing my passport to anybody (airlines and sometimes security inspectors typically check for various reasons but it's not a legal requirement AFAIK).
    – Relaxed
    Commented Aug 25, 2016 at 7:46
  • @Relaxed Yes anything is possible. I wonder, if a Schengen flight moves to non-Schengen terminal, and I have a single entry visa, does that mean my Schengen stay is over? I mean do they put an exit stamp for such flights too? I've always had to produce my ID while boarding and once the boarding guy also looked at my visa.
    – RedBaron
    Commented Aug 25, 2016 at 7:51
  • 1
    It's a strange situation. The guard did first ask where I was going and stopped right there (but I am an EU citizen so I typically don't get many questions anyway). OTOH, in the logic of the system, if you are exiting the Schengen area, you really want an exit stamp (to avoid problems further down the line) and there is no point in lying to avoid one (you would have problems to reenter based on the entry stamp) so there is no reason for them not to trust you if you tell them you don't want to leave.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Aug 25, 2016 at 7:59
  • Regarding the other point (no passport check), it has happened to me with KLM (but never with low-cost airlines for example).
    – Relaxed
    Commented Aug 25, 2016 at 8:01
  • 1
    @jcaron I think the technical term is "temporary re-introduction of border controls" which is within Schengen framework. Countries that have done so are here. I don't think visas are stamped or rigorously checked during such controls (I crossed French border quite frequently a couple of months back but was never checked). Neverthelesee, even if such controls are not there, it is recommended that passports and visas should be on your person when crossing any border,
    – RedBaron
    Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 4:28
3

  1. For boarding, I doubt if you will be asked for anything beyond your Schengen visa, and if so, your second reservation should be as good as a return flight on the same record. Of course, the border guards may want to know your itinerary, even with a visa. They are highly unlikely to care about how many tickets you use.

  2. There are no regular immigration checks within Schengen; that's the point. Of course, police or border guards may see something suspicious about you, but your Schengen visa establishes your right to be visiting anywhere in the Schengen zone.

  3. I believe your situation is identical to the one covered by Do I need a Turkey transit visa for a layover?

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .