Hahah!

More than just a bit... Bureaucracy tends to go a lot crazy a lot of the time.

However, the stated principles are what we have to go with, at least as a starting point. And whether one likes them or not, and whatever one might think of them, one must more or less follow them in order to go to Europe.

I would wager though that there are few things dumber than the "no return within 6 months" our own government has come up with.