The Schengen Zone. As an American traveler without a European passport, this can be quite a problem when it involves extended stays abroad. I don't know how other travelers have handled this situation or how aware others are that it exists. (According to most of the Europeans I have talked to, they don't even know about it.) It being "The Schengen Zone." Below, a list of the countries under the Schengen Agreement, and thus a part of the Schengen Zone, are as follows:
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
So, what does this mean as a traveler? This means that a person without a European passport is only able to stay a total of 90 days between any of the countries adhering to this agreement. For example, if I spent 15 days in Iceland, 20 days in France, and 5 days in Greece, totaling 40 days, I would only have 50 more days to spend in another country that is a part of the agreement. In short, without a visa, there is a 90-day limit, in total, to spend in any of the countries listed above. So living in Sweden for 90 days, then realizing your limit is up, moving to Spain is not an option, because these 90 days are totaled for all of the countries under the Schengen Agreement. (This is also why, when traveling between Schengen-Area countries, I never received a stamp for my passport. Europeans are free to travel between any of the countries, so they do not require a stamp when entering and exiting those under the agreement. So, to my dismay, I don't get a fancy stamp. I guess that's the price you pay for having a "border-free agreement".)
To expand on this bit, when a person enters the Schengen Zone for the first time, two clocks start. One, being the 90 days you are allotted. The second being the 180 days until your 90 days start over. (So, for every 90 days you spend in the zone, you must spend 90 days out.)
In any scenario in which a person may be traveling for extended periods of time (aka Euro-trip, aka backpacking through Europe...) this is CRUCIAL information to know. I recently made a mistake when purchasing the tickets for my upcoming summer abroad--I bought the tickets, round-trip, for a total of 93 days. Is this a big deal? Who knows. It could turn out to be disastrous (banned from country, stamp on passport, never the possibility of obtaining citizenship in any EU country...) OR I could go out totally unscathed. But is this a risk worth taking? I decided it wasn't. So, I spent about one week weighing my options and being more frustrated at myself than ever before. After asking around, my boss at work suggested a simple, obvious solution: travel to the UK. I had spent one week in panic about having to spend $400 at the least to change the date of my flight by a mere 3 days, realizing that I would never be able to qualify for a visa, student, work, or otherwise, and here was this totally easy solution, which ultimately resulted in another vacation--a vacation within a vacation. In the end, the cost is more or less the same, but instead of an airline getting my $400, I'll be making a 6-day trip to Edinburgh! The only thing I have to make sure of is that when I leave the Schengen Zone, I must get a passport stamp stating that I left the zone on "this date" at "this time" and when I re-enter, I must also be sure to get a stamp. This will clearly show that I spent just at 90 days in the zone.
If I had known what I know now, I could have saved myself from oceans, cats, and trinkets worth of stress. So the next time I plan a big Euro-trip, I have a plan... (and you should too.) There is a smart way to travel that lets you stay as long as possible without a visa. So here is the idea:
Enter the Schengen Zone - here starts your 90-day countdown, as well as the 180 days. So if I enter Italy, for example, and stay for the allotted 90 days,when that is over, I then make a trip to the UK the next day. I then can stay up to 180 days in the UK without a visa (because they have their own rules), and then return to Italy on the 180th day, entering Italy on my second round of 90 days, because my 180-day clock has restarted (from spending 90 days out of the zone, but still in Europe.) So the key is to vary your location... spending three months in the UK while waiting for the clock to reset.
Just something to keep in mind for next time. Because honestly, visas are such a hassle.
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