By Gülay Tasli, specialist lawyer for migration law and social law (Fachanwältin für Migrationsrecht und Sozialrecht) (Rechtsanwaltskammer Düsseldorf)
As a rule, an alert in the SIS takes effect in all Schengen States. Many of those affected only learn of it at the border. Only the Member State that made the entry may delete it.
At a glance
The Schengen Information System is the common database in which the Schengen States keep their alerts. For third-country nationals, one category is above all relevant: the alert for refusal of entry and stay under Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1861. In addition, the SIS holds return alerts, which are based on a return decision and follow a separate regulation with its own rules on deletion. Once the return has been confirmed, the return alert is deleted, and where applicable an alert for refusal of entry and stay is entered. You should therefore first have it clarified which of the two alerts has been issued against you.
Anyone seeking to enter Germany without authorization is turned back at the border. In further cases provided for by law, entry may be refused, for example where an interest in expulsion (Ausweisungsinteresse) exists. Anyone who has filed an asylum application, by contrast, may not be turned back as long as their stay is permitted under the Asylum Act (Asylgesetz).
If an alert has been issued against you in one Member State, you will as a rule also be refused entry at the border of another Member State, and you often learn of this only there. If you hold a residence title or a long-stay visa issued by another Member State, you are allowed to enter for the purpose of transit to the Member State which issued the residence title or visa. This does not apply where you are the subject of an alert on the national alert list of the Member State at whose external borders you seek to enter, with an instruction to refuse you entry or transit. Special provisions on the right of asylum and on international protection remain unaffected by this. Seek advice before you travel if you are aware of an alert or suspect one.
Under Article 24, an alert for refusal of entry and stay is entered if one of two requirements is met. The first ground is a judicial or administrative decision by a Member State on the refusal of entry and stay under national law, together with a national alert, based on an individual assessment that your presence in the territory of that Member State poses a threat to public policy, public security or national security. As a second ground, an entry ban imposed in procedures in accordance with the Return Directive is sufficient. Alerts are not issued against criminal offenders alone. Under the first ground, the Regulation also covers the case where you have circumvented or attempted to circumvent Union or national legislation on entry into and stay in the territory of the Member States. We are glad to advise you on this.
For the first ground, the individual assessment must cover your personal circumstances and the effects of the refusal of entry and stay for you. Before entering any alert, the Member State must also determine whether the case sufficiently justifies an alert. Often the personal circumstances are mentioned, but the consequences of the refusal are not assessed. Maintaining the alert beyond the review period likewise requires a comprehensive individual assessment. We examine separately whether the assessment holds in your case.
Article 53 of the Regulation secures for you the right to access to information, to rectification of inaccurate data and to deletion of unlawfully stored data. In Germany, you receive the information from the controller upon application. For data processed in the police information network, the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) provides the information in agreement with the body that bears responsibility under data protection law. If you submit the application in a Member State that did not enter the alert, that Member State may transmit the information to you only after the issuing Member State has been given the opportunity to state its position. Access to information may be refused in whole or in part under national law on the grounds set out in the Regulation, among them the protection of ongoing investigations or of public security, but only to the extent and for as long as the refusal is necessary and proportionate and due account is taken of your fundamental rights and legitimate interests.
Before you apply for a visa or set out on a journey, you should request the information rather than learning of the alert only at the border. You are to be informed in writing without delay of any refusal or restriction of access to information and of the reasons for it. This notification may be omitted if the notification itself would run counter to one of the purposes named. A reply that does not mention an alert is therefore not in every case an all-clear. We are glad to advise you in this context as well.
The alert depends on the decision on which it is based. You have a right of appeal against that decision, which is determined by Union law and national law. Union law and national law must also provide for an effective remedy before a court. If the competent authority has withdrawn the decision or declared it void, the alert is deleted. A serious legal error is the assumption that an application for deletion of the data also challenges the decision.
In respect of the alert itself, you may seek a remedy for access to information, rectification or deletion before any competent authority, including a court, that has jurisdiction under the law of a Member State. Only the issuing Member State may amend or delete the data, however. If another Member State has indications that data is inaccurate or has been stored unlawfully, that Member State informs the issuing Member State, and the issuing Member State checks the information and, where necessary, rectifies or deletes the data without delay. Proceedings in Germany against an alert issued by another Member State therefore do not lead to deletion by a German body. Which route is to be taken first in your case is something we examine separately in each individual case.
If another Member State has issued an alert against you and Germany is considering granting or extending a residence title, Germany consults the issuing Member State beforehand. The reasons given by the issuing Member State must be taken into account, but the final decision on the residence title lies with the granting Member State.
The position is different in the case of a German entry and residence ban, for example after an expulsion or a deportation. As a result of the ban, no residence title may be granted to you even where you have an entitlement under the Residence Act (Aufenthaltsgesetz). Under § 11 Abs. 4 AufenthG, the ban may be lifted or its time limit shortened in order to safeguard your interests meriting protection, or in so far as the purpose of the ban no longer requires its continuation. If the requirements for a residence title on grounds of international law, humanitarian or political grounds are met, the ban is, as a general rule, to be lifted. Often the residence title is applied for without the lifting or shortening of the ban being raised at all, and we therefore examine the alert and the residence title together.
You are to be informed of the alert in writing, together with a copy of the underlying national decision or a reference to that decision. This information is not provided if national law provides for a restriction of the right to information, in particular to protect national or public security or for the prosecution of criminal offenses. In practice, many of those affected only learn of it when they are refused entry or when a visa application is rejected.
There is no fixed duration. Within three years of the alert being entered, the issuing Member State reviews whether further storage is necessary. Where the underlying national decision has a validity period of more than three years, the review takes place within five years. Following a comprehensive individual assessment, the issuing Member State may maintain the alert beyond the review period if this is necessary and proportionate for the purpose of the alert. Without such an extension, the alert is deleted automatically once the review period expires.
Last updated: September 8, 2026. Professionally responsible: Gülay Tasli, lawyer and, specialist lawyer for migration law and social law (Fachanwältin für Migrationsrecht und Sozialrecht).
