# How to Read a Schengen Visa Sticker: Every Field Explained for Indians

> The UNTIL date on a Schengen sticker is not your stay limit — DURATION OF STAY is. Every field decoded from EU law, for Indians. Checked 31 Aug 2026.

- Published: 2026-08-31
- Author: VisaGyan (VisaGyan)
- Canonical: https://visagyan.in/schengen-visa-sticker-how-to-read
- Official sources:
  - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32017R1370
  - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:02009R0810-20200202
  - https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/document/download/1d79f44d-49ba-4847-951e-129f924b1051_en
  - https://www.udiregelverk.no/contentassets/26ae07147d5e4883a212191b3e35fea9/sphbg_annex14_2020.03.10.pdf
  - https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/document/download/93d78385-3bd5-441f-bbf5-a233dceac4ae_en
  - https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen/border-crossing/short-stay-calculator_en
  - https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/news/entryexit-system-ees-fully-operational-2026-04-10_en

---

**The date after UNTIL on a Schengen visa sticker is not how long an Indian passport holder may stay. It is the last day the visa works at all. The number that limits the stay sits further along the same line, after DURATION OF STAY, and it is almost always smaller than the gap between the two dates. That single confusion produces more accidental overstays than any other feature of the document. This page decodes every field on the sticker from the two EU instruments that create it — Council Regulation (EC) No 1683/95, whose Annex was replaced by Regulation (EU) 2017/1370 and which specifies the boxes and the printed captions, and Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 34 final of 14 January 2020, which tells consulates exactly what to type in them — plus the European Commission's 2024 Visa Code Handbook, which contains the Commission's own "How to read the visa sticker" text for travellers. All wording read from EU sources on 31 August 2026.**

## What does each field on a Schengen visa sticker mean for an Indian traveller?

Nine printed captions, and the EU fixes every one of them in law. Council Regulation (EC) No 1683/95, whose Annex was replaced in full by Regulation (EU) 2017/1370, sets out the boxes on the sticker in your passport and requires that "the captions for the boxes shall appear in English and French" — so an Indian collecting a passport from a French, German or Italian mission is reading the same layout in the same order every time. Here is the whole sticker, field by field, with what each one actually controls:

| Field on the sticker | What it tells you | Where the rule comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **VALID FOR** | The territory you may enter — "Schengen States", or a country code if the visa is limited | Reg. 1683/95 box 9; C(2020) 34 point 1 |
| **FROM … UNTIL** | The window in which the visa works. Dates are DD-MM-YY | Reg. 1683/95 box 10; C(2020) 34 point 2 |
| **DURATION OF STAY … DAYS** | How many days you may actually spend inside that window. Maximum 90 | Reg. 1683/95 box 10; C(2020) 34 point 4 |
| **TYPE OF VISA** | A, C or D — transit, short stay or long stay | Reg. 1683/95 box 11; C(2020) 34 point 7 |
| **PASSPORT NO** | The number of the passport the sticker is glued into | Reg. 1683/95 box 11; C(2020) 34 point 6 |
| **NUMBER OF ENTRIES** | 01, 02 or MULT | Reg. 1683/95 box 11; C(2020) 34 point 3 |
| **ISSUED IN … ON** | The mission that decided your case, and the date it did | Reg. 1683/95 box 12; C(2020) 34 point 5 |
| **SURNAME, NAME** | First surname and first given name, as printed in your passport | Reg. 1683/95 box 13; C(2020) 34 point 8 |
| **REMARKS** | National entries — R/ codes, directive references, purpose of travel | Reg. 1683/95 box 14; C(2020) 34 point 9 |

Three further boxes carry no information you fill in but plenty you can check. Box 3 holds the three-letter ICAO country code of the issuing state "in optically variable colouring" — or, unusually, the acronym **BNL** if Belgium, Luxembourg or the Netherlands issued it, which is why a Dutch visa can look like it came from nowhere. Box 4 prints the word "VISA" and the name of the issuing country "in English, French and another official language of the institutions of the Union". Box 15 is the machine-readable zone, and box 16 "shall be reserved for the possible addition of a common 2D barcode".

Two facts about that layout matter before you read another line. First, the captions are in English no matter which consulate in India issued the visa — a sticker from the Italian mission in Mumbai is not in Italian. Second, everything on it is printed: the 2024 Visa Code Handbook states that "all entries on the visa sticker shall be printed, and no manual changes shall be made to a printed visa sticker", with handwriting permitted only for a one-entry visa "in case of technical force majeure". Handwritten amendments on a Schengen sticker are not a consular shortcut. If you are still at the application stage, our walkthrough of the [Schengen visa from India](/schengen-visa-from-india) covers what produces each of these values.

## Where is the visa sticker number on a Schengen visa, and how many digits is it?

**Twelve characters: a three-letter country code plus nine digits** — and the nine digits are printed twice on your sticker, in two different colours. Regulation (EC) No 1683/95, as replaced by Regulation (EU) 2017/1370, is precise about both:

- **Box 5** "shall contain the nine-digit national number of the visa sticker in horizontal orientation, which shall be pre-printed in black. A special font type shall be used."
- **Box 6** "shall contain the nine-digit national number of the visa sticker in vertical orientation, which shall be pre-printed in red. A special font type shall be used, different from that used in box 5."

Then comes the definition almost nobody quotes, in the same paragraph: **"The 'number of the visa sticker' is the three-letter country code as set out in ICAO Document 9303 and the national number as referred to in boxes 5 and 6."**

So the red digits running up the right-hand edge of your sticker are the *national number*, not the visa number. A visa issued by France with national number 123456789 has a visa sticker number of **FRA123456789**. Germany's is DEU, Italy's ITA, Spain's ESP, the Netherlands' NLD, Switzerland's CHE. Where a form, an insurer or an appeal reference asks for "visa number" and rejects nine digits, the missing three letters are usually the reason — and the code to use is the one for the country that issued the visa, which is not always the country you are flying to.

Two practical notes for Indian holders. The number is **pre-printed**, meaning it belongs to the blank sticker stock and existed before your application was decided; it is not derived from your passport or your case. And it is the identifier the issuing authority writes into the Visa Information System when the visa is granted, which is why it, and not your name, is the thing to quote when a mission asks you to identify a specific visa.

## What does VALID FOR mean on a Schengen visa issued in India?

It names the territory you are allowed to enter, and for most Indian tourists it says **"Schengen States"** — in the language of the country that issued it. Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 34 final of 14 January 2020 gives consulates three ways to fill it in and only three:

1. **A uniform visa** — "this heading is filled in using the words 'Schengen States' in the language of the issuing Member State". A German sticker says *Schengener Staaten*; a French one *États Schengen*. Same meaning, all 29 countries.
2. **A visa with limited territorial validity under Article 25(1)** — "the name(s) of the Member State(s) to which the visa holder's stay is limited shall be entered using the codes". The codes are two letters: BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, GR, ES, FR, IT, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, SI, SK, FI, SE, IS, NO, CH, LI.
3. **A visa limited under Article 25(3)** — because a Schengen state does not recognise your travel document. Here the consulate must pick the shortest of "entry of the codes for the Member States concerned" or "entry of the words 'Schengen States', followed in brackets by the minus sign and the codes of the Member States for whose territory the visa is not valid", reducing the font if the codes do not fit.

That third form is the one that catches people out. A sticker reading **"Schengen States (–CH, –NO)"** is a full Schengen visa minus two countries, not a two-country visa — the minus sign is doing all the work, and it is small. If instead your VALID FOR field reads only **FR**, you hold a French-only visa: flying home via Frankfurt would mean entering German territory on a visa that does not cover it.

Whatever this field says, it is not a promise. Article 30 of the Visa Code states that "mere possession of a uniform visa or a visa with limited territorial validity shall not confer an automatic right of entry", and the Commission's own advice to visa holders repeats that border checks "may result in a refusal for the visa holder to enter". Carry the documents you applied with.

## What do the FROM and UNTIL dates mean on a Schengen visa sticker?

They are the opening and closing of your travel window, written **day-month-year with a two-digit year**. Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 34 final spells out the format character by character — two digits for the day with a leading zero, a horizontal dash, two digits for the month with a leading zero, a dash, "the year is written using two digits, which correspond with the last two digits of the year" — and then gives the example in the regulation itself: **"05-12-27 = 5 December 2027."**

FROM is "the first date on which the visa holder may enter the territory for which the visa is valid". Turning up at Charles de Gaulle a day early does not work; the visa is not yet live. UNTIL is "the date of the last day of the authorised stay", and the instruction attaches a hard edge to it: **"The visa holder must have left the territory for which the visa is valid by midnight on that date."**

Two things Indian applicants routinely misread here. First, the window is usually wider than the trip you applied for, on purpose. The Visa Code Handbook tells consulates to add a **"period of grace" of 15 days** to one-entry and two-entry visas — "date of arrival + duration of stay + 15 days of 'period of grace'" — precisely "to allow for a certain room for manoeuvre for the visa holder". That grace is padding on the window, not extra days of stay, and it is not granted on multiple-entry visas with six months' to five years' validity, "as this type of visa already offers flexibility". A Schengen state may also decline to grant it "for reasons of public policy".

Second, on a single-entry visa the window can close early without any date passing. The 2024 Handbook: **"A visa is no longer valid when the total number of exits made by the visa holder equals the number of authorised entries, even if the visa holder has not used up the number of days authorised by the visa."** Its worked example is a single-entry visa valid 1 January to 26 January allowing a 10-day stay, used for six days — "even if all days of the authorised stay were not spent and the dates of overall validity have not passed, this visa is no longer valid". An Indian on a one-entry Schengen visa who steps out to London mid-trip does not get back in.

## What does DURATION OF STAY … DAYS mean on a Schengen visa, and how is it different from the validity dates?

**It is the number of days you may actually be inside the Schengen area, and it is capped at 90.** This is the field that limits your trip, and the European Commission says so in its own words. The 2024 Visa Code Handbook contains a section headed "How to read the visa sticker", written to be handed to visa holders when their passport is returned:

"DURATION OF STAY………DAYS indicates the number of days, you may stay in the Schengen area. The days should be counted from the date you enter the Schengen area … to the date you exit the Schengen area …, i.e. both days included.

The period of time between 'FROM …UNTIL' is usually longer than the number of days printed in the 'DURATION OF STAY' field. The difference in period is meant to give you the flexibility to plan your entry into and exit from the Schengen area, but your stay in the Schengen area must never exceed the exact number of days in the 'DURATION OF STAY …DAYS' field. No matter how many days you have stayed in the Schengen area, you must leave no later than the date printed in the 'UNTIL' field."

Worked through for an Indian traveller: a sticker reading FROM 01-10-26 UNTIL 30-11-26, DURATION OF STAY 30, gives a 61-day window in which at most 30 days may be spent. Staying 45 days is an overstay on a visa that has not expired. Both limits bind, independently, and the smaller one always wins.

The technical rules behind the number are worth knowing because they explain the two values you are most likely to see. C(2020) 34 final says the figure is written "in the form of two digits, the first of which is a zero if the number of days is less than 10", that "the maximum number of days that can be entered under this heading is 90", and that it "cannot exceed the period of validity of the visa". And then the rule that produces the familiar 90: **"A visa valid for more than six months allows for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period. When the total validity of the visa is six months or more … '90' shall be entered."** So a two-year Indian multiple-entry visa shows 90 not because you may spend 90 days per trip or per year, but because 90 is the ceiling of the 90/180 rule. The European Commission's short-stay calculator page states that rule plainly: "you must count back 180 days from each day of your stay and ensure the total number does not exceed 90."

One naming quirk, since both terms circulate and neither is wrong. The printed caption on the sticker is **"duration of stay"** — that is the wording Regulation (EU) 2017/1370 requires in box 10, and the wording the Commission uses in its traveller text. The operational instruction that tells consulates what to type calls the same field **"DURATION OF VISIT … DAYS"**, and the 2024 Handbook uses that phrasing too when it notes that "the 'duration of visit' field on airport transit visas is filled in with '0'". Same box, two EU names for it.

## What does NUMBER OF ENTRIES mean on a Schengen visa — 01, 02 or MULT?

**It is the number of separate times you may cross into the Schengen area, and the field accepts exactly three values.** Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 34 final: the heading "shows the number of times the visa holder may enter the territory for which the visa is valid, i.e. it refers to the number of stays which may be spread over the entire period of validity", and "this number is written on the right hand-side of the pre-printed part, using **'01', '02'** or the abbreviation **'MULT'**, where more than two entries are authorised."

The 2024 Visa Code Handbook gives the Commission's own examples of what each value buys:

- **One entry** — "a visa is valid from 1 January – 30 March and allows for one entry. During that period the holder is allowed to travel once to the territory of the Member States; once he has left the territory of the Member States, he is not entitled to re-enter even if the total number of authorised days of stay has not been used."
- **Two entries** — "a visa is valid from 1 January – 30 June, and allows for two entries. During that period the holder may be authorised to stay for a total of 90 days divided into two separate trips."
- **Multiple entries** — "a visa is valid from 1 January – 31 December and allows for multiple entries. During this period the holder is allowed to stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period. The stay can be divided into as many separate trips as wished by the visa holder."

For an Indian planning a multi-country itinerary, the trap is internal borders that are not internal. Moving from France to Italy does not consume an entry — both are Schengen. Moving from France to the United Kingdom, or to Ireland, or to Dubai for a stopover, does: you have exited the Schengen area, and on 01 you cannot return. Two entries is the value to request when the itinerary has a non-Schengen leg in the middle. There is a mirror of the same information in the machine-readable zone, where position 30 carries "1, 2, or M" — so a border system reads the same value even if the printed digits are worn.

## Why does my Schengen visa say MULT and two years when I only applied for one trip from India?

**Because since 18 April 2024 the EU applies a separate, more generous multiple-entry rule to Indian nationals.** Commission Implementing Decision C(2024) 2434 final, addressed to 25 Schengen states, applies "to visa applications for short-stay visas lodged by Indian nationals residing in India with Member States' consulates in India" and derogates from the ordinary Visa Code cascade:

"a multiple-entry visa shall be issued for a validity period of two years, provided that the applicant has obtained and lawfully used two visas within the previous three years."

Under the standard Article 24(2) cascade the same traveller would first have received a one-year multiple-entry visa and reached two years only at the next application. The Indian rule skips that step. It does not remove the five-year step: the Decision says it "shall not affect the application of Article 24(2), point (c)", so a two-year multiple-entry visa lawfully used within the previous three years still leads to five years.

The Commission's stated reasoning is worth reading because it explains who gets nothing from this rule. The assessment behind the Decision concluded "that, due to the unequal distribution of wealth and income in India, first-time applicants pose high migratory and security risks", while Indian applicants "that have lawfully used previous visas … pose low migratory and security risks". A first Schengen visa from India is unaffected. The rule is also strictly about nationality and residence: recital 3 records that "nationals of other visa-required countries residing in India" remain under the ordinary Visa Code rules, so an Indian resident of Indian nationality qualifies where a third-country national living in India does not.

One cap explains most short-looking MULT stickers. Article 1(4) of the Decision: "Where the validity of the visa would exceed that of the travel document, a multiple-entry visa shall be issued with a period of validity ending three months before the end of validity of the applicant's travel document." An Indian passport with 20 months left cannot carry a two-year visa — the UNTIL date lands 17 months out, and the shortfall is the passport's, not the consulate's. If a two-year window is what you are after, renew the passport before you apply, and read our note on [how long Schengen decisions take from India](/schengen-visa-processing-time-from-india) before assuming there is time for both.

## What does TYPE OF VISA A, C or D mean on a Schengen visa for Indians?

**C is the ordinary short-stay Schengen visa; A is airport transit; D is a national long-stay visa.** Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 34 final lists the three letters and nothing else:

- **A: airport transit visa.** It permits you to remain in the international transit area of a Schengen airport and does not permit entry into the country. On an A visa the duration field is filled in with "0" — a Schengen sticker showing zero days of stay is not an error. Where a multiple airport transit visa is issued, "the visa's validity is calculated as follows: first date of departure plus six months".
- **C: short stay visa.** This is what an Indian applying at a Schengen consulate in India for tourism, business or family visits receives. The 90/180 rule applies to it, and the maximum period of validity of a short-stay visa is five years.
- **D: long-stay visa.** A national visa issued by one country for stays over 90 days — study, work, family reunification. The European Commission notes that holders of "an EU residence permit or long-stay visa … are not subject to the 90/180-day rule", and its short-stay calculator instructs that stays on a D visa "should not be entered".

The distinction decides which rulebook governs your stay, so it is worth checking the letter before assuming the rest of the sticker means what you think. A D visa held by an Indian student in Portugal does not spend Schengen days; a C visa held by the same student on a summer trip does.

## What does the REMARKS section on a Schengen visa sticker mean?

**It is the only free-text box on the sticker, and what it contains is national rather than EU-wide.** Regulation (EU) 2017/1370 defines box 14 minimally: it "shall begin with the word 'remarks'", and "the area below the word 'remarks' shall be used by the issuing authority to indicate any further information". Article 27(2) of the Visa Code permits Member States to add national entries there, subject to one limit — "those entries shall not duplicate the mandatory entries", which the 2024 Handbook restates as "the national comments must not duplicate the mandatory entries".

A handful of codes are set or recommended at EU level, and these are the ones an Indian holder is most likely to meet:

- **R/[country code]** — the mandatory entry "when a visa is issued in representation of another Member State", under point 9 of C(2020) 34 final. In India, where several Schengen states have no visa section of their own, this is common: an R/ code means the sticker was printed by one mission on another country's decision.
- **Directive 2004/38/EC** — recommended by the Commission for visas issued to non-EU family members of mobile EU citizens, so that border guards can identify the case instantly.
- **EU-UK WA**, **EU-CH AFMP** — the equivalents for beneficiaries of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement and the EU-Switzerland free movement agreement.
- **Art. 2 Decision (EU) 2022/2512** — recommended where a visa is exceptionally issued in a Russian travel document that is otherwise not accepted, so that "border guards and other authorities" know the visa was not issued in error.

Beyond those, what appears is the issuing country's own practice: many missions print the purpose of travel here — TOURISM, BUSINESS, VISIT — and it is a note, not a restriction. The 2024 Handbook is explicit that "the fact that the purpose for which the visa was applied is indicated on the visa sticker does not prevent the holder from using a valid multiple entry visa to travel for other purposes." An Indian holding a MULT visa endorsed BUSINESS may take a holiday on it.

## How should an Indian check a Schengen visa sticker for mistakes before leaving the consulate?

**Four checks, and the European Commission publishes the list itself.** The 2024 Visa Code Handbook prints, under the heading "INFORMATION TO VISA HOLDERS", the text it recommends missions hand over with the returned passport:

"As soon as you receive your short-stay visa, make sure that all the information it contains is correct. Check the following:

− Your passport has a passport number. This number is also indicated on the visa sticker. Make sure that these numbers are the same.

− You applied for your visa for a specific period or periods. Check that your air ticket corresponds with the entry and exit dates indicated on the visa sticker.

− Check that the number of entries you applied for (one, two, or multiple) corresponds with the number of entries indicated on your visa sticker.

− Check that your name is spelled correctly.

Do this yourself in order to avoid any problems or extra costs arising when using your visa. If you think that the information on the visa is incorrect, tell the consulate or embassy immediately, so that any errors can be corrected."

Two of those four go wrong more often for Indian applicants than for anyone else, and both are rules rather than errors. **Truncation:** C(2020) 34 final instructs that where "the number of characters of the surname and first name exceeds the number of spaces available, the excess characters shall be replaced by a dot (.)". A long Indian surname ending in a full stop is the regulation working as designed. **Repetition:** the same point continues, "if the visa applicant does not have a first name and a surname/family name, the single name shall be entered into the two corresponding fields ('first name' and surname/family name) on the visa sticker so as not to prevent matching of names in VIS … and in SIS." A mononym printed twice — common on passports issued in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh — is correct, and correcting it would break the database match.

What is genuinely worth escalating is a **passport number mismatch**, since the sticker is tied to the document it names, and a wrong number turns a valid visa into a query at the gate. Note also where that number comes from: C(2020) 34 final says that where the sticker is affixed to a separate sheet rather than a passport, "the number to be entered under this heading is not the number of the travel document but the number (six digits) printed on the separate sheet".

## What happens if an Indian overstays the dates on a Schengen visa sticker?

**Expulsion and a future visa ban are the stated consequences, and the EU now detects the overstay automatically.** The Commission's information for visa holders ends with a warning in bold in its own text: "You must keep to the period of stay allowed by your visa. **Misuse and overstay may result in you being expelled and banned from obtaining a new visa for a certain period of time.**"

The detection side changed decisively in the last year. The Entry/Exit System began operating on 12 October 2025 and, in the European Commission's announcement of 10 April 2026, became fully operational: "Passport stamps are being replaced with digital records of entries and exits of non-EU nationals coming for short stays. Travellers' facial images, fingerprints and personal data from the travel document are also recorded." The Commission reported "more than 52 million entries and exits" registered since introduction, and named identifying overstayers as a purpose of the system.

The practical consequence for an Indian traveller is that the arithmetic is no longer yours to reconstruct. Until 2026 an overstay of a few days often turned on whether a border officer could read a smudged ink stamp; now entry and exit are held as records against your biometrics, and the 90-in-180 count runs itself. The rule being counted is unchanged — the Commission's short-stay calculator states it as "a maximum of 90 days within any 180-day period", counting back 180 days from each day of the stay — but the tolerance for a miscount has gone. Where your Schengen days will matter for the next application, our page on [what a Schengen visa actually unlocks](/schengen-visa-what-it-unlocks-for-indians) sets out how the record follows you.

## Can an Indian extend the dates on a Schengen visa sticker after arriving in Europe?

**Yes, but only on narrow grounds, and the answer is a second sticker rather than a change to the first.** Article 33 of the Visa Code, as set out in the 2024 Handbook, splits extensions into two cases:

- **Mandatory and free.** "The period of validity of an issued visa and/or the duration of stay allowed for shall be extended where the competent authority of a Member State considers that the visa holder has provided proof of force majeure or humanitarian reasons preventing him from leaving." The Commission's examples are a "last minute change of flight schedule by airline (e.g. due to weather conditions, strike)", and "sudden serious illness of the person concerned … or sudden serious illness or death of a close relative living in a Member State". In these cases "no fee can be charged".
- **Discretionary, at EUR 30.** An extension "may be extended if the visa holder provides proof of serious personal reasons". The Handbook's qualifying examples involve a hospital relapse and a contract negotiation running long; its non-qualifying example is a traveller who "meets an old friend and would like to prolong his stay for another two weeks". "In the case of an extension of a visa for serious personal reasons, a fee of 30 EUR should be charged."

Four limits decide whether an application is worth making. The extension "should not result in a total stay going beyond 90 days in any 180-day period". It cannot widen the territory: "a visa that originally had a limited territorial validity cannot be extended to allow a stay in the entire territory of the Member States." The authority must verify that the passport "is still valid for 3 months beyond the intended date of departure", that you hold sufficient means for the extra days, and that travel medical insurance covers them. And the outcome is physical: "extension of visas shall take the form of a visa sticker in the uniform format", filled in under the same rules — so you leave with two stickers in the passport, the later one governing.

Nothing here is a route to a longer holiday. It is a mechanism for people who cannot leave, and the fee is charged for the decision, not for the days.

## What is hidden in the machine-readable zone of a Schengen visa sticker?

**A duplicate of the four fields that decide your stay, in a form no border officer has to squint at.** Regulation (EU) 2017/1370 requires box 15 to "contain the relevant machine-readable information to facilitate external border controls", with the words "European Union" printed in the background in all official EU languages. Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 34 final then fixes what sits at specific character positions:

| MRZ position | What it holds | Values |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 29 | Territorial validity | "T" for a limited-validity visa; the filler "<" for a uniform visa |
| 30 | Number of entries | 1, 2 or M |
| 31–32 | Duration of stay | Short stay: the number of days. Long stay: "<<" |
| 33–36 | Start of validity | MMDD, no filler |

Two uses for an Indian holder. First, it is a self-check: if the printed VALID FOR says "Schengen States" but position 29 carries a "T", the sticker is internally inconsistent and the mission should see it before you fly. Second, it explains why border processing does not depend on the visible print — the same values are read from the MRZ, which is also why the affixing rules are so exact. The instructions require the sticker to be placed on "the first page of the travel document that contains no entries or stamps", aligned so that "the machine-readable zone of the sticker shall be aligned with the edge of the page", and any consular stamp placed "without intruding into the MRZ".

The sticker's security features live in the same neighbourhood and are checkable by hand. Box 2 carries a diffractive optically variable device — a Kinegram — where "depending on the angle of view, the letters 'EU', 'EUE' and kinematic guilloche lines shall become visible in various sizes and colours". Boxes 7 and 8 carry latent images that "appear dark when tilted away from the viewer and light when then turned by 90°". A genuine Schengen sticker changes as you tilt it.

## What could not be confirmed about reading a Schengen visa sticker?

Four things, stated as gaps rather than filled with plausible detail.

- **The country-code list on the sticker is not the current Schengen list.** The code table in Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 34 final, still the operative instruction, runs 26 codes and does not include Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus or Romania. The 2024 Visa Code Handbook, by contrast, lists 29 Schengen States including Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. We could not establish whether the 2020 code table has been formally amended, so we quote it as published rather than extending it.
- **The Commission's own traveller text still assumes passport stamps.** The 2024 Handbook tells visa holders to count their days "from the date you enter the Schengen area (the entry stamp) to the date you exit the Schengen area (the exit stamp)". Since 10 April 2026 those stamps have been replaced by Entry/Exit System records. The counting rule is unaffected — both days included — but the mechanism named in the text no longer exists, and no revised wording has been published.
- **Where each country prints the red sticker number.** Regulation 1683/95 fixes that boxes 5 and 6 exist and what they contain, but the exact physical position varies with the printed layout, and there is no EU source that maps the boxes onto a picture of the sticker. We describe box 6 as running vertically because the regulation says "vertical orientation", not because a specific consulate has confirmed the placement.
- **Which of the two names for the stay field appears on your sticker.** Regulation (EU) 2017/1370 requires the printed caption "duration of stay"; Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 34 final calls the same field "DURATION OF VISIT … DAYS". Both are current EU wording for the same box. We could not establish whether any Schengen state prints the second form, so if your sticker reads DURATION OF VISIT, treat it as the same field described here.

*VisaGyan is not affiliated with the European Union, the European Commission, any Schengen state or its consulates in India, or any visa application centre; we process nothing and book nothing. The field definitions, printed captions, box numbering and security features on this page are quoted from Council Regulation (EC) No 1683/95 as replaced by Regulation (EU) 2017/1370 (EUR-Lex, CELEX 32017R1370). The filling-in rules — VALID FOR, the DD-MM-YY date format, 01/02/MULT, the 90-day cap, A/C/D, name truncation, the R/ comment and the MRZ positions — are quoted from the Annex to Commission Implementing Decision C(2020) 34 final of 14 January 2020, verified on 31 August 2026 against two independent government copies (Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, udiregelverk.no, and the Danish Immigration Service, nyidanmark.dk), which matched word for word. The "How to read the visa sticker" text, the information-to-visa-holders checklist, the period of grace, the entries examples and the Article 33 extension rules are quoted from the Annex to Commission Implementing Decision C(2024) 4319 final of 26 June 2024 (Visa Code Handbook I), downloaded from the European Commission's Migration and Home Affairs site. The India-specific multiple-entry rule is quoted from Commission Implementing Decision C(2024) 2434 final of 18 April 2024, from the same source. The 90/180 rule is quoted from the Commission's short-stay calculator page, and the Entry/Exit System dates from the Commission's news items of 12 October 2025 and 10 April 2026. Rules change without notice — check the live text on EUR-Lex or with the consulate that issued your visa before relying on any figure here.*

*Sources cited only — expert review pending. For individualized advice, consult a licensed professional.*