Schengen Visa

In any look back of 180 days you cannot have been in Schengen for more than 90

So on 6/24 you look back 180 days -- if your total time in Schengen was 90 then you have to wait to return until you are below that for the preceding 180 days. There is no new time period that can be joined to the old one e.g. If I am in Schengen for 90 days. I cannot say -- well it was 90 of the past 180 and so I am starting a NEW 180. It gets tricky to calculate because it is a rolling number.

If you did 90 in and then 90 out, then you would be able to do 90 in

A Schengen calculator might help:
https://ec.europa.eu/assets/home/visa-calculator/calculator.htm?lang=en

There are two key things to know:

• Exiting the Schengen Zone doesn't reset the clock. As the earlier responses indicated, you have to look back 180 days on every day you're in the Zone, to be sure you're not about to go over the limit.

• Your arrival day and departure day count, so if you've spent 90 days in the Schengen Zone and want to return as soon as you can, you cannot do so until 91 days after you leave.

If you know what day in April you plan to return, we can be somewhat more specific in our comments.

It is a "rolling" calendar, not fixed. So you do not start a new forward-looking 180-day period on June 25. You look back, and count the number of days you have spent in Schengen in the 180 previous days. ON June 24, you will have spent 90 days there already, or close to it.*. After 90 days, you must exit for a full 90 consecutive days before you can return to Schengen.

*. Say you come on Dec. 27 and spend 15 days, then leave. You return April 10 and stay until June 24. That is another 75 days, making 90 in all. You MUST depart that day, or sooner (waiting till day 90 is cutting it pretty close).

https://eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/files/visa_waiver_faqs_en.pdf

Try this Schengen calculator: https://www.visa-calculator.com/
Plug in your dates for the first visit, then press "Calculate". It will show the # of days in that trip and how many days you have left for the 6 month time period that started on 12/27/21. Then add the dates of your next trip that starts in April 2022 and you'll see how long you can stay for the 6 month time period that started on 12/27/21.
It will also tell you the next date you're eligible to enter the Schengen area again once you've stayed the 90 days. Hope this helps.

A Schengen calculator. Fascinating! Next thing you know, someone will get around to inventing a pencil that never wears down. Or a donkey that can really tell time!

You say you are going to enter Schengen on Dec. 27, '21 and stay a couple of week (until 1/10/22?), then come back in April. A lot will depend on how long you are out of Schengen between when you leave in January and when you come back in April. If you are out for less than 90 days, then before you get to June 24 (180 day by my calc, incl arrival and departure day), you will have been in for 90 out of the last 180 days, and you will have to leave. But if you stay out for more than 90 days, then when you get to June 24, you will not have been in for 90 days, and then each day you are in will subtract a day from Dec/Jan to make up for the new day after June 24. Then you can stay in until sometime in July, when you will have been in 180 days since April, and you will have to leave.

The trouble with the calculations is that they use partial days, not 24 hour periods. If you arrive in the afternoon one day and depart the next morning, that counts as two day, not one.

Best just use the calculator?

Got it!

Thanks everyone for your help. Happy travels!

Most, if not all, spreadsheet programs can calculate the days between dates. In OpenOfficeCalc, which I use, you just subtract the first date, in mm/dd/yyyy format, from the last date, in the same format, to get an integer number of days. Then add one because the program only counts the number of 24 hr period from any time on the first day until the same time on the end day, so the first and last day together count as one day. But Schengen counts the first and last day as separate days. In the example, 6/24/22 minus 12/27/21 gives you 179 days between dates, but by Schengen counting, it's 180 days.

In Lola's example above, assuming you leave on the 10th of Jan, that's 15 days (14 days between dates plus 1). However, if you return on April 10 of 2022, June 24 will be your 76th day (including April 10), so you will be over by a day (76+15=91). If you return on the 11th of April, then June 24 will be your 90th days, but on the June 25, December 27 will be more than 180 days in the past, so it will no longer count towards the 90 days. You will still only have been in Schengen for 90 of the last 180 days. This situation, each new day replacing one from the beginning of the 180 day period, will continue until July 9, when all of the Dec/Jan days will be more than 180 days in the past, but it will have been 90 days, since and including April 11. Then you have to leave.

Thanks for the correction, Lee. I did err by one day, forgetting to count the day of departure in the mix. (a good reason to jot cut it so close). And I failed to recognize that the December days would be "rolling off the back," allowing her to stay a bit longer.

Thanks for your advise Lee.

I used the link that Kathy H shared and it works great. Super easy.
https://www.visa-calculator.com

a good reason to not cut it so close

Amen!

FWIW. it used to be easy to cheat but it isn't anymore with heightened border security and computerization. We were leaving on day 89 but didn't have an entry stamp and were detained until we could prove when we entered and have our passports back stamped. The guy pulled out with us missed the plane -- we had added an hour to our arrival time anticipating problems and so were okay. We had read about the problem when we were already in Europe and so were prepared with documentation.

I was in Europe in 2013, and did the travel math several times, and flew from Malaga to the UK at day 88. I didn't want to risk anything. As it turns out, it was a nonevent. I'm glad I have the calculator now...