Originally Posted by
amandaax14
One of my good friends is taking a gap year between high school and college and has signed up for a course in italy for about 115 days. She applied for a student visa but was denied multiple times because she is only taking language courses and those aren't deemed a good enough reason for a student visa. She has two different passports with two different last names on the passports, is it possible for her to enter the schengen area with one passport, leave before the 90 days are up then come back in with the other passport for the last 25 days of the course? Is this a legal thing to do, and do people do it? if not, do people get caught for it?
If the passports from each of the (non-EU/non-EEA) countries may be used for entry into the Schengen country without a visa, then it is technically possible to do as you inquired; but it is still not generally lawful to stay for more than 90 days in any 180 day period. If one of the passports has a short-duration Schengen visa and the other passport has no visa, with both passports good for use to enter into the Schengen country/countries of relevance, then it's still possible but not generally lawful to do so.
Some people (say dual-citizens of the US and Canada) have done it and still do it, with most not being caught doing it. However, some have been caught doing it -- sometimes at passport control or when really unlucky and getting a rather extensive customs check after the baggage claim area. There is also some potential for problems elsewhere, but those are problems that are also rather rare to hit if both passports are good for entry into the Schengen area.