Another Visa Question

[oneslybookworm]

Alright ladies...I need your extensive knowledge for a friend. A friend of mine is doing a study abroad this coming fall semester, in Austria. Then, in the spring semester, she plans on studying abroad in the Netherlands. She's now been told that she has to leave the Schengen zone during the two semesters...that when she leaves Austria, her student visa is invalidated, and she won't have her Dutch student visa until classes start in the Spring.

Has anyone dealt with this? Can you just travel the Schengen zone on a tourist visa in the meantime? I know nothing about this whatsoever, so school me, please!

[allibally]

I always thought that once your visa was up then Schengen Visa would be reset and ready to go.

I have no basis on this. Except that we stayed three weeks after I deregistered from Zurich. DH asked to make sure I was still valid to finish our visits in Germany ect.

I never looked I up and took their word for it.

[clogged]

What's the difference in time between the two? If it's a week or two, she can easily leave Schengen without insane expense and jet lag (like pop over to the uk). Not the nicest weather but off season is cheaper. She might even be able to hole-up in a little cabin in the lake district and veg. Aaaaaahhhhhh.

[Wanderista]

I agree about Croatia, it's a lot quieter during winter. The Coast is pretty much dead then but there are some nice towns near Slovenia that have winter appeal. Places like Zagreb, Opatija and Varazdin. I've visited the region for Christmas. There are some nice Christmas markets and it can be really beautiful.

Post edited for Saturday brain freeze reasons.

[oneslybookworm]

Oh! Totally hadn't thought of Croatia! I told her to go to Turkey and hang out there...cheaper than the UK. We'll see...she's not sure how long she has to be out of Schengen to reset her visa. Her study abroad office was like, "umm? a few weeks should do it." Yeah...if it were me, I'd like something a bit more confident than "a few weeks should do it." But, that's just me.