Schengen Visa rule : Determining Your Legal Short Stay in Europe
Once you are granted Schengen Visa you are required to follow the 90/180-day rule or otherwise you may face deportation, penalties, or a possible ban to enter Schengen zone in future for overstaying your visa.
What does it mean to follow 90/180-day rule?
This means foreigners who enter Schengen zone (any country within EU) can stay in Schengen zone for 90 days within any 180 days period. 180-days is not a fixed period but a rolling period calculated backwards from the latest entry or exit date of the Schengen zone.
90/180 – day rule Explained
The first part is easy to understand, 90 days means you are allowed to stay in Schengen zone for 90 days from the date you entered the zone. For example, if you enter Schengen zone on January 1st you can stay in the Schengen zone until 31st March. From 1st January to 31st March, you will have stayed in Schengen zone for 90 days calculated as 31 days in January, 28 days in February and 31 days in March. The logic used in calculating the number of days stayed is same in any part of calendar year.
The second part is the part which confuses most visitors. This is the part which result in most visitors over staying their Visa. This rule is applied to multiple entry visa holders who enter and leave Schengen zone multiple times. 180 days is a rolling time frame that counts time backward from the most recent entry or exit date. For example, if you re-enter Schengen zone in March 1st, you must count 180 days backward to determine how many days you have stayed in Schengen zone. Let us say you had already stayed for 30 days in Schengen zone from your previous visit, then you will have 60 more remaining days to stay in Schengen zone.
What to pay attention to.
• 90 days stay count towards all countries that are part of Schengen zone and the days accumulate cumulatively even if you divide the stay in different countries that are members of Schengen zone.
• 90 days are available within 180-day period frame. If you are over 90 days stay within 180-day period you have broken the rule.
• You must calculate days in Schengen zone correctly. If you enter Schengen zone few minutes before midnight that is calculated as your first day and if you exit Schengen zone few minutes after midnight that is calculated as last day.
If you enter Schengen zone in January 1st and spend 10 days in Germany and 20 days in Poland, you will have spent a total of 30 day
Schengen Countries :
All 26 EU countries accept Schengen visa visitors. This EU countries are,
1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Czech Republic
4. Denmark
5. Estonia
6. Finland
7. France
8. Germany
9. Greece
10. Hungary
11. Iceland
12. Italy
13. Latvia
14. Liechtenstein
15. Lithuania
16. Luxembourg
17. Malta
18. Netherlands
19. Norway
20. Poland
21. Portugal
22. Slovakia
23. Slovenia
24. Spain
25. Sweden
26. Switzerland