Originally Posted by
jms_uk
The latter! I was departing from Lanzarote back to Stansted last November, and (IIRC) the passport control booths are by the gate(s) for the non-Schengen flights and they were non-staffed. Somehow you only go past them once you start boarding, so at that point it was too late to go back and start looking for some (National) police elsewhere. I asked the gate agent and she just shrugged.
I haven't helped the situation by having two passports
and entering the Schengen area using a different one instead of that I had in my flight booking/APIS (UK). As I've then entered back in the UK on the UK passport I have no stamp there either. Although, I've managed to get an (exit) stamp from Serbia few days later.
Then to make things worse, couple of months later I was going to Spain again, but the first passport didn't have sufficient validity before expiry, so I had to enter using the UK one. I tried speaking to the police on entry and exit (got stamped both times on that occasion), but the language barrier was too great. One of them just said to speak to Lanzarote police...
So, technically, I think I am still "in Schengen" and overstayed by quite a bit... I am going to Finland in couple of weeks time and I might try explaining there and seeing if they have any suggestions how to rectify this. Will bring all the passports and boarding passes.
If concerned about having a hassle because of a lack of exit control/documentation by a Schengen port's border control authorities, you're on the proper track with having evidence both of 1) having left the Schengen zone when you did and of 2) having been outside the Schengen zone for a lot of the time that would otherwise perhaps have been perceived as having overstayed. Boarding passes, other stamps in passport(s), bank card transactions, and anything else that can be used to paint a picture of having likely been outside the Schengen area as claimed by the attempting border crosser.
This kind of concern of yours should become less common in the period following EES and ETIAS being the implemented order of the day, but their implementation will also mean that the kind of evidence you're considering using to address this concern about being perceived as an overstay and/or irregular exit foreigner may end up not being as easily and quickly accepted when "the computer says ___" kind of things pop up after EES and ETIAS harmonize entry and exit surveillance across the Schengen area.