Originally Posted by
sydunipete
I contacted my case officer and she said I could go "back to back" with another Schengen waiver period immediately following the partner visa 6 months. To be safe I chose to leave Schengen on the last day of my partner visa and re-enter on the first day of my second Schengen visa waiver period.
Just to be clear, you were required to leave and reënter the Schengen zone as you did. Back-to-back means just that, two consecutive stays, and not one long continuous one. There is certainly no doubt that the period spent under a visa are excluded from the 90/180 calculation, so your six-month visa would have reset your allowance under the Schengen waiver.
The anecdotal evidence going around about overstays is you are more likely to get away with it (within reason) in southern Europe, but less likely in the more Germanic states.
One can certainly get away with overstays, in the sense that they’re not going to put you in gaol, but it may create problems later on if you want to return. To give another example, I have now transitioned from a visa to an Italian permesso di soggiorno (residency permit), renewable every other year, which I am suppose to surrender upon leaving Italy permanently. I know guys who did not do so, and there were of course no consequences, until they wanted to return for another stint and had to apply for a new permesso.