90 day waiting period between 180 day periods? [duplicate]

The US state department contains this confusing statement that implies that there is an additional 90-day waiting period before I can restart a 90/180 Schengen visa. This does not match several other posts on this site.

If you spend three months in the Schengen area during any six-month period, you must wait another three months, from the last date of departure from the Schengen area, before you can apply to enter the Schengen area again without a visa. If you do not meet these conditions, or if you plan to stay in the Schengen area longer than three months, contact the embassy of the country where you plan to spend the majority of your time to apply for a visa.

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go/schengen-fact-sheet.html

Could anyone provide any insight? All of the other posts seem to indicate that a second 180 day period could begin immediately after a prior period ends.

Best Answer

Disregard that site. The US Department of State does not make the Schengen rules, does not enforce them, and has shown here once again that they have a particular talent for expressing them confusingly or incorrectly.

As you can see elsewhere on this site, the rule must be considered with respect to every 180-day period. On any day when you enter the Schengen area, you must look at the previous 179 days and count the number of days of presence in the Schengen area, and find that the number is 89 or lower. Similarly, on any day when you are in the Schengen area, if you look at the previous 179 days and find that you were in the Schengen area on 89 of them, then you must leave the Schengen area before midnight.

In practice, thus means that when you have been in the Schengen area for 90 nonconsecutive days in a 180-day period, the first date on which you may reenter the Schengen area will be less than 90 days after your most recent date of departure.

The maximum length of your stay at each entry depends only on how many of your days of presence were in the latter half of the 180-day period that ends on the date of entry, however. If you have been outside the area for at least 90 days, that number will be zero, and you can stay for up to 90 days. If the number is nonzero, then the maximum length of stay iw reduced accordingly.

The EU has created a calculator that will do the math for you.

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What does 90 days in any 180 day period mean?

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.

What is the Brexit 90 day rule?

The 90/180 day rule refers to a waiver that means British citizens do not need to apply for a Schengen visa to visit the area, which comprises 26 European countries, for 90 days in a 180-day period.

What happens if I stay more than 90 days in Schengen?

Under the Schengen Area rules of stay for third-country citizens, non-EU citizens entering the territory under the visa-free regime can stay for a maximum of 90 days, for every 180 days. Those who overstay this period \u2013 intentionally or unintentionally \u2013 may face penalties, including deportation and entry bans.

How is 90 days in Schengen calculated?

You may only visit the Schengen Area for a total of 90 days within 180 days. The 180 days are counted backwards from your latest entry or exit date. This means it's counted from the first day you entered (if you have not left yet) or the final day you visited the Schengen Area (the date of exit).

What is the 90 180 Day Rule? What does it mean to visitors to Spain?

More answers regarding 90 day waiting period between 180 day periods? [duplicate]

Answer 2

The problem arises that this 180 days period does not start the moment you enter the Schengen area. These 90 days maximum stay must be valid for any randomly picked 180 days.

Let's make an example:

You stayed in the EU for 40 days, left, returned after 30 for 5 more days then left again for 60 days and returned for the remaining 45 days. That means you've stayed for 90 days during a 180 days period.

The first thing you'd think about is, "oh today is my last day, I have to leave." This is not the case. Tomorrow the first day of your first 40 day visit is outside the 180 days period. Thus you had 89 days in a 179 day period and may stay another day, filling that up again to 90 days stay in 180 days.
You can continue this for 40 days. Then you will reach a day when 180 days ago you left the Schengen area. Now you will have to leave for at least 30 days, because for 30 days you have been outside the Schengen area. Thus any day you now stay longer would make it 91 days during the last 180 days.

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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