My daughter went to Rome to work as an au pair without a visa. She has overstayed and will be returning after spending 130 days in Rome. Could someone please tell me what will be the consequences? She travels on a US passport.
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I am surprised that she was not advised of the proper procedures when making her arrangements (it is quite easy to check visa requirements from http://www.esteri.it/visti/home_eng.asp ), but what is done is done.
Working without a visa is a serious offense in any country. Overstaying in any country is also a serious offense. As you can imagine, entering a country with the intent to work without a visa, and then overstaying not by 40 hours, but by 40 days, will be treated very seriously.
When she goes to exit control at the airport, her passport will be scanned. Entries into and out of the Schengen area are recorded in the Schengen Information System, and if the overstay is flagged, she will be taken aside for an interrogation as to her activities in Italy.
The immigration officer has great deal of discretion concerning penalties for the overstay, and may
- let her go with a stern warning (but given the circumstances, and the recent alarm over illegal immigration to Italy, I find this unlikely)
- impose a fine of several hundred euros
- flag her passport, making it difficult to obtain visas in the future
- ban her altogether for a period of years— not just from Italy, but from all the countries in the entire Schengen area
Being an illegal worker may carry additional criminal penalties.
Even if she manages to get through exit control, the overstay may cause problems on any subsequent trips, at least until the expiration of the passport.
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