Visa Issues

Today I had to visit the police in Rome. As procedure, I gave my passport to Filippa to show them as soon as I moved in. At a hotel or hostel they send all the passport numbers everyday. At a private residence, the owner has to bring the physical passport. Only they did not like it and I had to go there in person.

I came to Italy / the EU with a tourism visa. Americans can travel to the EU (and lots of places) with this type of visa very easily. We just get a stamp when we arrive, nothing has to be applied for in advance. In the case of the EU, we can stay for up to three months before we are supposed to return to the US for six months. But keep in mind we only get stamps when we arrive. It is virtually impossible to know when we leave or how long we stayed after the fact. It is extra confusing considering the visa is for the whole EU. Thousands of backpackers travel Europe for years at a time, and no one really knows or cares because they are never in one place very long.

When I came out here I took the cheapest flight possible, a very long flight from SAS that stopped in Stockholm and eventually dropped me in Milan. No, I did not get to see Stockholm. Since I first touched down in Europe in Sweden, that is where my visa is from. I had all but forgotten about this, it seemed so unimportant.

In Italy, if you are staying for more than one week, apparently they want you to have an “Italy” EU visa. I was unaware. I only even ran into this after being in Italy a month. I had never stayed at the same hostel for more than one week. Also, they were hostels, so only my passport number was being sent, the police could not see that my visa was from a country other than Italy.

So at the police station it was not a very big deal, I had not done anything wrong (and I knew it). We went right in, because of course Filippa knew them all. They just needed me to fill out a form, since I am here for more than one week and my EU visa is not from Italy. So why am I so upset? This form that will stay with the Italy police says when I arrived in the EU, and when I plan on leaving, more than my passport says. Now the Italian police know that I have used up my tourism visa until May 23th (six months after I leave). They said I could still go to Spain (for example) or I could come back to Italy with a work or student visa. But I'm bummed that I can't just drop in to Italy for a visit until May 23rd.