Question about Schengen area travel

If she is spending 90 days in the Schengen area, she has to wait 180 days from her arrival date or 90 days from here departure before she can reenter the area. So basically if she arrives 1/1 and spends 90 days she can reenter on 28/6 if I'm not mistaken. Note that arrival and depatures days count as well, even if you arrive 23:45.

If this is confusing, you might find this tool helpful: https://ec.europa.eu/assets/home/visa-calculator/calculator.htm

Your daughter may not need to worry about all this 90/180 days business, since she is studying abroad in Europe for a good period of time, maybe you should just look into getting a student visa for one of the EU countries she is visiting, that way you don't have to worry about the 90 day limit. Here's the long-stay Student Visa portal for Spain, for example: http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Consulados/LOSANGELES/en/InformacionParaExtranjeros/Pages/Study-Visa-for-more-than-180-days.aspx

The State Department website is incorrect in any reference to months. The Schengen rules specify days.

Without knowing exactly how many days your daughter will spend in the Schengen Zone during her study-abroad program, you cannot calculate the safe starting date for your family trip. It's not just a matter of her arrival date or her departure date; it's the elapsed days.

Both the arrival day and the departure day count.

I urge you to allow a bit of padding, because there is always a slight possibility of a delayed departure due to a flight cancellation, illness, etc. You don't want your daughter denied entry into Europe for the family trip because her departure following the study-abroad program didn't happen exactly on schedule.

If your daughter lands in Europe on January 1 and spends all of her time (i.e., part of every single day) in the Schengen Zone, she will have to leave no later than March 30. (February has 29 days next year.) Assuming a March 30 departure date after 90 days in the Zone, she would have to remain outside the Zone until June 29. One day in March, 30 days in April, 31 days in May, 28 days in June = 90 days. If her study program lasts less than 90 days, you could leave earlier for your family vacation, but I think planning for July 2 is an excellent idea.

Note: I am not a Schengen-Zone expert, but I go through the calculation for myself every summer to be sure I'm legal. I became ill on Day 84 or 85 a few years ago and barely got out of the Zone on time; that's why I urge caution in selecting the family's travel date.

Here's a Schengen calculator online that may help - https://schengen-calculator.com/
You don't count months, you count days.

Students can get visas, and your daughter won't have to count days.
She just needs to check with the college program to see what hoops to jump through to get the visa.

Great! I knew I could get some more clear answers here :) You've all been extremely helpful! I was hoping to leave here the end of June but that doesn't look like it'll work so I guess we wait until after at least July 2nd (since I now realize she actually arrives on 1/2 but leaves here 1/1).

Thanks again! RS forums always pull through!!

CatherineK,

Your kind of scaring me as you throw about days and months. The latest being 1/2/20 to 7/2/20 which I’m guessing you came up with based upon 6 months. Hopefully I’m mistaken but if not then erase months from your thoughts. It is ALL about days and you have to count exact days, including arrival and departure. Thus 1/2/20 and 180 days goes to 6/29/19 meaning she could go back in on 6/30/19, not 7/2/19. But yeah, cutting everything close as can be which can lead to an opps.

But you are still leaving us without a critical piece of information- initial departure date from the Schengen zone. The 90/180 day rule is rolling. The shorter the initial stay the sooner she can return.

You posted the flight is on 1/1/20 with arrival on 1/2/20. What time is arrival? Seriously this could maybe have an impact. If her flight is scheduled to arrive at 12:30 am it could arrive early and she loses a day.. 11:59 pm and 12:01 am are a full day apart as far as the Schengen rules apply, not 2 minutes (yes they are that strict).

The next and MAIN key is what date is she departing the EU (Schengen zone country) and coming home (or off to a non-schengen country)?
You said she was going to be close to the limit? Sorry but “close” only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades.

Is she pushing it all the way to day 90? Again, there is no excuse for a cancelled flight, missed flight, broken leg etc. Many people do push the limit right to the edge but if there is an oops, it can become a big opps.

With an arrival date of 1/2/20 she MUST leave no later then 11:59pm on 3/31/20- her 90th day. If she is leaving well before that then a late June reentry maybe possible but we need that date.

Travel safe,

One Fast Bob

If your daughter is studying abroad, she would surely have a student visa for that period. If that is the case, then her study abroad days would not be counted as visa free Schengen travel. Contact her study abroad program.

As it is unclear, that is why the OP should contact the study abroad office.

Catherine, when your daughter or you contacted the study abroad office and gave the specific information of her travels within Schengen countries, what did the school advise about the student visa?

Tom_MN,

You are directly on point. It is quite clear this is a non-student Visa situation (multiple locations and the short time frame clearly designed to be close to but not over the 90 day limit.

If a student visa was appropriate her university would have advised her as it would be part of their overseas program enrollment process - they are given a fairly lengthy packet of materials (this also could be a a high school senior, church, or junior college program).

The OP came here with a very specific request- how to count Schengen Days. Period. Why does this forum have such troubles with actually addressing and answering the specific questions asked by OP’s? The student visa angle was noted early on in the 2nd or 3rd reply and totally ignored by the OP- catch a clue.......

Edit: overly snide remarks replaced with less snide.

Thanks for all the replies. Yes, the student visa is not an issue, and this isn't a tour (college class for credit in a major). I did get the answer regarding the Schengen time frame and the importance of it being in days vs months (which is how the gov page has it listed).

I really do appreciate all of you input. Thanks again!

I did get the answer regarding the Schengen time frame and the importance of it being in days vs months (which is how the gov page has it listed).

The point is you were looking at the wrong government website. This is an EU law and it is correct on the EU website: https://eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/files/visa_waiver_faqs_en.pdf

This is nothing to do with the US government. The US government website has as much standing in this area as does the Mexican government has in deciding if its citizens are allowed to enter the US without a visa.

.....forum have such troubles with actually addressing and answering the specific questions asked by OP.... I get so tired of this comment since it is completely irrelevant to anything. This board does an excellent job of answering all questions. Often there are a variety of responses because the question itself is not clear or subject to different interpretations depending on the experiences and knowledge of the reader. Very typical of this question. It was critical to determine if this was a formal study abroad program or simply a study tour. Second and equally important, this a public forum and the various discussions and shades of responses benefit other readers just as much as the original poster. So I think it is entirely appropriate for the responses to seek clarification and to broad the responses to cover area the OP might not have thought about or could be of interest to other readers. This not an ask one question get one answer board.

...If her flight is scheduled to arrive at 12:30 am it could arrive early and she loses a day.. 11:59 pm and 12:01 am are a full day apart as far as the Schengen rules apply, not 2 minutes (yes they are that strict)...... That is BS. That makes no sense. It is strictly the date of the entry stamp on the passport. And it is a date - not an hour. You haven't entered the country until you hear the clip of the stamp. The time your plane arrives has no bearing on a Schengen entry. But if you think you going to hit passport control at 11.45pm, go to the bathroom.