Hello,
Quick Question from an American visiting France on his passport.
In August, I was in Paris for 9 days. Next week, I’m leaving for Paris again, this time for 81 days.
That’s 90 days in the Schengen Zone, on the dot. 90 out of 180.
In the middle of my upcoming 81-day stay, I’d like to visit friends in London.
If I’m in Paris for 45 days, then visit London for 5 days, then return to Paris for 40 days, that’s only 85 days in the Schengen Zone. Is that correct?
I’m trying to be very respectful of not going over 90 days in the Schengen Zone.
In fact, I’m buying my Eurostar train ticket to London in advance, so I can prove to Passport Control at Orly that I’ll be in Europe for 90 days, but Paris for 85.
So if I’m in Paris for 45 days, then visit London for 5 days, then return to Paris for 40 days, that’s only 85 days in the Schengen Zone. Is that correct?
Thanks for any help you can provide!
As long as you have a return ticket showing your date of travel back to the USA, then I doubt that you’ll have any problems.
Thanks, Robert.
I’m also visiting friends in London during my 90 days in France/Europe. So I believe those won’t count as time in the Schengen Zone.
Well the UK is not in the Schengen Area, so I suppose that it could be argued that when you travel from London back to Paris that your 90 days in Schengen would start all over again. Don’t take my word on that though as I suspect that its a complex matter that only an experienced immigration lawyer could answer definitively.
The main thing is that you’ll have a ticket showing your return date to the USA, and so that will show your intent to return to the US rather than setling unlawfully in Europe, and in the meantime no doubt everyone will be happy for you to be spending your hard earned $ here.
I hope you enjoy your time here and I wish you safe travels.
Mark, your math is correct, you’re allowed a total of 90 days in any 180 period. However, I’m not sure it matters, as we have a non-EU friend who overstays every year, and this has been going on for the past 20 years, all through Schengen… and in spite of all the trouble he’s supposed to get in… he’s yet to have a problem. Flies in April-May, leave Oct-Nov every year.
Go figure.
Hi, Robert.
It’s not that spending 2 days in London would make my 90 days in Schengen "start all over again."
It’s that those two days wouldn’t count towards the 90.
So I went to Paris for 45 days, London for 2 days, then back to Paris for 43 days, that would be 88 days in Schengen.
Nota bene: I’m still a little a new at this, as I will be approaching my own 90/180 deadline in another 5 weeks.
My understanding of it is that it shouldn’t be a problem, largely because of what others have already said:
- You have tickets to document your intent to leave the Schengen area with respect to the 90-day deadline.
- Because of this, you likely would not be penalized if you are day over. Your math is cutting it close, but you’re clearly trying to maximize your stay while following the rules. No foul there.
Of course, giving yourself a few days buffer on the shy side of 90 days is always a good plan. And it will also come down to what kind of day the person checking your papers are having and how you interact with them.
Please, if you can, keep us posted — I, for one, will be interested to know how it goes as I will have a similar situation, but I’m trying to have a buffer. I’ll spend 85 days here in the Schengen, then 5 1/2 months in the UK before returning to Schengen in the summer, as I have a performance planned in late July. Plus, somewhere in that 5 1/2 month period I will be making a trip back to the US to visit the French embassy for a long-term visa, as I AM actively looking at returning to settle long term.
Good luck and safe travels!
Thanks! I’ll show Passport Control my intent to visit friends in London halfway thru the 90 days which won’t count towards the 90.
So: 45 in Paris, 3 in London and 42 in Paris. That adds up to 90 total in Europe.