- My wife and I have been spending our retirement traveling and so far we have visited more than 43 countries.
- As Americans, I would like to have known how many Schengen rules could affect our trips in Europe.
- Now that we get the rules, we use a strategy to avoid overcoming our welcome in selected places.
My wife and I have been living as full -time nomads since 2019 and we have already visited more than 43 different countries.
Our lifestyle seems dreamy, but we have experienced numerous problems along the way, and many of the greatest have been related to visas.
As Americans, we are lucky to have one of the strongest passports in the world, and many countries have not forced us to present a visa when entering.
However, I would like to have known before starting our trip that there are some especially strict travel limitations in Europe that could complicate our plans.
Schengen rules make it difficult for foreigners to spend months traveling through Europe
We have spent our retirement living in many different countries so far. Bour Norma
As Americans, we knew we couldn’t spend more than 90 consecutive days visiting countries such as Italy or Germany. However, we soon learned that simply jumping from one European country to another in periods of 90 days was not an option or solution for that rule.
This is due, in part, due to Schengen’s rules: non -European citizens can only remain in the Schengen area for up to 90 days within a period of 180 days
The Schengen zone consists of countries mostly from the European Union that share similar criteria for visitors. Citizens within those countries can travel freely through others in the area without being subject to border controls.
The Schengen zone includes 29 European countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands.
For many travelers who stay in Europe for less than 90 days, these rules are quite irrelevant. However, for us, this meant that many European countries were out of the limits for long trips.
We knew that if we wanted to stay in Europe in the long term, we would need a residence permit.
After obtaining a demonstrated visa, we began to plan our trips around the rules of Schengen
Many countries offer multiple variations of residence permits, such as non -digital visas or retirement visas. However, visa requests can be complicated and take months (or even years) to approve.
At one time, we try to obtain retirement visas in Spain. After months of preparing and presenting the paperwork and spending a good amount of money, our application has not yet been approved.
Finally, we decided to stop waiting for a visa. Instead, we would make the “Schengen Shuffle”, a common strategy among the expatriates that implies to enter strategically and leave the Schengen area without overcoming its welcome.
For example, if we have been exploring Spain and Italy for almost 90 days, we would spend months traveling to places outside the Schengen area, such as Malaysia or Bosnia, before returning to any country in it.
Fortunately, like nomads, we are very flexible, and we have become good to make the “shuffle”.
However, it is worth noting that the “deck” comes with risks, and violating Schengen’s rules can have serious legal consequences ranging from jail time and deportation to prohibitions and fines.
Until we obtain a residence permit in Europe, we will continue aware of the visa rules in all the countries we visit, like all travelers should.
After all, the rules can (and make) change often.
