A friend of mine has overstayed her tourist visa by about 3 months. She is going to return to the US and then say she lost her passport, get a new one, and then return to Spain on the new passport. Does anyone know if this will work or if the EU has an electronic database or anything like that that would catch her?

Hi Roe.

My wife has the same problem and has to leave EU every now and then. We are never here long enough to get the permanent visa.
I travel a lot in and out of EU and have never seen any registration of passports (Like in the US). They give you the stamp and let you in.
So my guess it that is should work.
But for how long?
EU will surely change this within long.

Kind regards

Carvajal

I've overstayed mine several times in the last 3 years and never had a problem...they don't even look twice!! They really don't seem to care, hardly even glance at it!