Europe’s 90/180 Day Visa Rule Explained (2024)

FAQs

Europe’s 90/180 Day Visa Rule Explained? ›

The Schengen Visa 90-180 Rule Explained

With a valid U.S. passport book, you can stay up to 90 days in the Schengen area for tourism or business during any 180-day period. You must wait an additional 90 days before applying to re-enter the Schengen area.

What is the Schengen 90/180 rule? Under the terms of Schengen, non-EEA nationals cannot spend more than a total of 90 days within a total period of 180 days without a visa. Furthermore, once you've used up your quota of 90 days, you cannot return to Schengen until 90 more days have passed.

The 180 days are calculated as a rolling period which you can count backward from your entry or exit date in the Schengen. Basically, count back 180 days and see how many of those days you've spent in the Schengen zone; if you're over 90 days, you've broken the 90/180-day rule.

The Schengen law states that you can't stay in the Schengen Area for more than 90 days. If you do, you're subject to a fine and possibly deportation and being banned from re-entering the Schengen Area. How that rule is enforced, though, varies greatly from one country to another.

Your total stay in the Schengen area must be no more than 90 days in every 180 days. It does not matter how many countries you visit. The 180-day period keeps 'rolling'.

Spain dropped the 90-day rule.

They feel it isn't reasonable for those non-EU citizens who want to spend more time in Spain, whether for leisure or work. However, there is no guarantee that this will happen since the ruling is there to prevent illegal immigration.

A new law which would have allowed British second-home owners an automatic long-stay visa has been rejected by a French court for being “unconstitutional”. The amendment to an immigration bill would have let British expats with a second home or holiday home in France stay for more than 90 days without needing a visa.

Portugal further solidified its presence in the EU when it joined the Eurozone in 1999, becoming an active participant in the European landscape. Thus, as a Schengen state, the 90-day rule applies to Portugal.

How do you count 90 days for visa? ›

An applicant can figure this out easily by taking the most recent entry date from their I-94 travel record (officially called the “Form I-94 Arrival/Departure Record”) and adding 90 days. For example, if the entry date on a “single-intent” visa-holder's I-94 is April 1, 2019, then 90 days later would be June 30, 2020.

180 days equals roughly 6 months. A month contains 30 or 31 days, except for February. To convert a number of days to months, you can say 30 days is equivalent to one month.

Yes, you can. However you must carefully calculate your days of stay as the overall period of stay must not exceed the overall total of 90 (ninety) days of stay within any 180-days period (see above).

Immigration authorities have registered in their databases every person that enters and leaves, and if you overstay, even for just one day, it will be recorded. Authorities will also punish you whether your overstay beyond your Schengen Visa's validity was intentional or unintentional.

If you are married to an EU citizen and are travelling with your spouse to or within the Schengen Area, you may find you're exempt from the 90/180-day rule for any period where you travel together. You should check with the country you are visiting before travel to confirm the paperwork that would be required.

Penalties for Overstaying Your 90 Days in the EU

All of the member states apply at least one of the following types of penalties for overstaying a Schengen visa or a permitted stay. Penalties for overstaying can include fine, deportation or entry bans. These bans range anywhere from a few months to several years.

Apply at the embassy, high commission or consulate of the country where you'll stay the longest. If you're staying for the same length of time in each country, apply at the embassy of the country you'll visit first. You'll need to apply for a visa if: you're planning to stay for more than 90 days.

The entry and exit stamps are then examined by border guards, to verify, by comparing the dates of entry and exit, that the person has not exceeded the maximum duration of authorised stay within the Schengen Zone.

Yes. According to the Schengen rules, the Schengen visa is generally valid for all the countries in the Schengen area. Please note, however, that you always have to apply at the consulate of the country which is your primary destination (see FAQ no 5).

Unfortunately, in what will be seen as a major blow by some, a French court rejected the amendment to its immigration law, ruling it to be unconstitutional.