Travelling in Schengen area for a year with visa
My husband and I want to travel throughout Europe for a year. We are looking into getting a Long-stay Visa from the French Consulate. My question is does this allow us to visit the other Schengen area countries for longer than 90 days? We are planning on spending at least a month in France, but we are unsure how to count the days in the Schengen area. Does holding a French Visa mean the days in France do not count towards the 90-day time limit? Or is the 90-day time limit still an issue with a long-stay visa?
Best Answer
A French, national long term visa only allows you to visit other Schengen countries for 90 days within a 180 days period. As US citizens, this does not give you any obvious advantage over the allowed visa free stay.
As you already seem to assume: the French visa will only allow you to stay longer than 90 days in France and the period you are staying in France does not count towards the 90 days you are allowed in other countries. So if you intend to stay in Europe exactly one year with a French national visa, you will have to spend at least 180 days in France and can at most visit other Schengen countries for 185 days.
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Can you get 1 year Schengen visa?
1 year multiple-entry Schengen visa The 1-year MEV visa gives you the right to enter in the Schengen Zone as many times as you want, as long as you do not remain more than 90 days within this period.How long can I travel in the Schengen area?
The Schengen visa is a short stay visa and takes the form of a sticker affixed to the travel document. The definition of \u201cshort stay\u201d is a stay of "90 days in any 180 days period". This means that the total duration of stay is of maximum 90 days, in any period of 180 days.How long can you stay in Europe with Schengen visa?
Most visitors (including Americans) are allowed to spend 90 days in the Schengen Area in every 180-day period.How can I stay in Schengen area longer than 90 days?
What you can do though is to get a Schengen Tourist Visa for 90 days (3 months) and then get another 180 days (6 months) tourist visa for the UK or through other European countries and that would technically enable you to stay in the European area for a long time.THE SCHENGEN ZONE TRAVEL EXPLAINED - DIGITAL NOMAD TV
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