Does an Erasmus visa still exist?

[Fordian]

... as my son was told he had one by a government registration office in Germany (he's on a semester in a German Uni), but they gave him no physical proof as 'it's on the system'. However, he's just been told by passport control at Stuttgart airport that he's illegal, by 11 days. He's awaiting the police to charge him right now.

He's been to-ing and fro-ing to this registration office since mid-Sept.

Do we need an immigration lawyer?

This has wrecked Christmas. He can't return to his uni to collect his things.

Or not funded, Leeds University has told my son there's no Turing funding available this year.

Or not funded, Leeds University has told my son there's no Turing funding available this year.

Well yes, unis had to apply for a number of funded places and not all (most?) got what they asked for.

@HassallGreen the Turing funding was set last year, and is released annually to 2024. So sounds like a misunderstanding, or your son didn't make the cut for Leeds' requirements?

It's not a misunderstanding, I've seen the email. He got some for the last term of last year, nothing this year and no prospect of it. They initially said he'd get it then emailed again last month saying they hadn't received what they'd asked for so had nothing to give.

You need a legal representative- becasue this mess is a totally impenetrable jungle, and the important thing is not "What is the right way to do this?" because there is no consensus on what is required, but "WHo is responsible if this all goes wrong" and you need to show you have paid for this to be done legally and in good faith.

I know of a few students with time abroad in their courses, it seems really that anyone who's paperwork is examined closely gets arrested and deported. Others with the same paperwork get left in peace- the only difference is how closely the paperwork is looked at. I have not yet found a single example of a set of paperwork that actually withstands scrutiny - and have come to the conclusion that there isn't any.

Same issue with friends who export and import - there seems to be no legal way to do it, if you get inspected, you fail the inspection.

Its an unholy mess.

Yup. My DS's fellow traveller (same circumstances) got let through, no issue.

I liken it to slices of Swiss cheese. If you rotate them about, the holes might align and you slide through. His fellow student got alignment, my DS didn't. Although the salient point is readmittance in Jan...