Stay in Europe all year long without breaking the law

If you can get a 6 month visa for England, why not get one also/instead for Schengen? Otherwise, yes 90 - 180 - 90 should work. Just be careful with your travel dates so you don't accidentally leave a day too late or return a day too early.

If you can't get any visas, I believe you will have to make it a 6 month trip--90 days in Schengen and 90 days in England.

This is assuming you have U.S. citizenship.

I think someone a couple weeks ago said that this is not legal. Why not try getting a Visa? Maybe get into a college program/course and get a student Visa. There is no harm in applying for a Visa.

Thanks,

But I really don´t need work or to go to school. I am writing a book and have enough money to live by, just don´t want the hassle to go back to México every 90 days, I hate flying.

That is why I thought of this.

By the way in another forum two people that it was perfectly legal to do this. So I guess I am still in the dark here.

Thanks again

Thanks. I don´t need US Citizenship to do this as I understand. Mexican do not need special visas to enter Europe or England. What I understand is that in England everyone gets a 6 month tourist stay, I mean everyone from countries like the US, Canada or México.

I guess my point was, not to have to fly back to America ( being anywhere in the continent ) and just get away by staying in Europe all year round. I don´t mind spending half my year in the UK and the rest in Europe, as long as I can do it back and forth.

Thanks all for the input.

You can stay in Schengen countries a total of 90 days in any 180-day period. Day 1 would be the first day you enter a Schengen country. I think this means that everything starts over again on day 181 and you could go back to staying in Schengen countries for another 90 days out of the next 180. (But don't take my word for it.)

Here's the language from the Schengen regulation: "a maximum period of three months during the six months following the date of first entry." (emphasis added by me)Example (this is my example, not from the regulation): You enter any of the 25 Schengen zone countries on Jan. 1; from Jan. 1 to June 30, you can stay in the Schengen zone a maximum of 3 months. You can't reset the 6-month period, once you've entered on Jan. 1, or whenever, the 6-month period is set; to get a different 6-month period, you have to wait until July 1 and then re-enter on July 1, and then you can stay a maximum of another 90 days from July 1 to December 31. Any way you do it, you can't legally be there more than 6 months in a year.Here's the full text of the regulation, above language from Article 20, section 1 text of Schengen regulationIf and when UK and Ireland get around to signing the Schengen Agreement, then you'll have to go back to the US, Africa, Asia--or, European locations like Monaco may become popular (for those that can afford to stay in Monaco for 90 days).All of these technical details just obscure the most important issue, which is why the Schengen regulations were enacted, the policy reason behind it all. And I just happen to know the reason:So that the rest of us don't have to be jealous of people who can afford to spend more than 90 days in Europe!

Thanks for the last two postings.

I guess that my real doubt is more gear towards the UK being part of the EU and that may be becoming an issue.

Meaning, that is clear to me that I can only stay 90 days at a time in Schengen territory adding to a total of 180 days per year or 90 days for every six months.

Where I want to be sure is, that if going to the UK for the other 180 days, basically alternating, 90 days Schengen and 90 days UK and so forth, that I will not be breaking any laws.

Because technically I will still be in Europe or not going back to my home country. If this is possible I can keep a flat in the UK and a flat in Spain for instance and then just live three months at a time on each of them.

To be more direct, does the UK or the rest of Europe care if I spend the 90 days after my first 90 days in England or Ireland waiting to re entered Schengen on day 181.

Thanks again for the input.

Thanks again for the input.

Roberto: Your last question is exactly the one I've been wondering about myself, and I don't know the answer. But you're exactly right to be asking that question, I would be if I were planning to do what you're planning. So I don't know the answer. Maybe someone out there has this nailed down, I mean, not speculation or opinion but actually knows--the answer to the last question asked by Roberto, which is really the key question for him.Roberto, a suggestion: How about contacting the UK consulate in your area and just point-blank ask them this question. If they say no problem, you ask them for a reference to the regulation (often provided these days via internet site), or even a written OK (you should be so lucky, right?). Because in the end I guess it's going to be between you and the passport control person you're looking at upon your entry or exit.

Kent....why would the Schengen countries even care? If they cared, then the regulations would say "90 days within 180 days, except if you go to the UK or Ireland."

Norm: I don't know the answer to the question you asked in your last post. But I think Roberto is (now) asking a different question than the point you mentioned in your last post. I think he needs to find out from someone at a UK consulate: if they will let him stay there 90 days, after he's been in the Schengen zone 90 days, etc.In prior discussions here that involved the Schengen zone rules and not any inter-relationship between the UK and Schengen entry rules, we've been making an assumption about the UK rules. What he's now asking is if any of us know for a fact that the UK lets him in for 90 days (or 180 days, whatever the UK rule is), after he's been in the Schengen zone for 90 days. I don't know the answer to that question. It's an assumption that has yet to be proven by someone coming up with something in writing that can give someone in Roberto's situation some assurance about the legality of what he wants to do. I'm saying I don't know the answer to his question about the UK rules, but I understand why he's down to that question and why he needs it answered. I think he should ask someone at a UK consulate--unless someone here is claiming they've got the answer nailed down.

Exactly Mr. Kent,

What a relief to hear someone that understand the real underlined question or issue on this matter.

Everyone seems to understand the basic rules. Is pretty cut clear that you get 90 days every 180 days in Schengen.

But it seems to me, I don't know why, but I get this gray area type of feeling, that all these countries being part of the EU, may find it irregular on what I am trying to do.

I guess a lot of people don't do this because of the cost of living in the UK, at least is what I've heard, and the fact that only going for a few days to the UK does not reset the 90 day waiting period in Schengen after you ran out your first 90 days.

But in the other hand, why should I have to go back to México if I really don't have to or want to. The same money I can use to stay in England modestly for 90 days ( considering that I travel business class and that going back to my country is so unsafe at this point in time ) and then go right back to main land Europe, and just keep doing that back and forth. Keep a flat in the UK and one in Spain. Many EU and UK people actually do that. I just spent two weeks in Marbella and 80% of the flats there are owned by people from the UK and Germany.

I am not really working, or breaking any immigration laws by using benefits or tax monies. I pay for my own insurance, my flat, my cost of living.

Doing the 90 Schengen-90UK thing for me with be ideal.

And following your advice, I have contacted the UK Embassy in México, and trust me, they are rude and don't really want to answer this questions.

That is why I have been trying this forums.

Thanks again for understanding my point. Like you said, let's wait to hear from someone that really nailed it.

Roberto

Hi Roberto: First let me say: you have scored points already by caring about trying to comply with the regulations; we get a number of people here who basically want to know only (1) if can they can get around the regulations or (2) what can they do to me if I over-stay the 90 days. It's disappointing to hear that the UK consulate people in Mexico were rude and wouldn't answer your question. One would have hoped they would have an interest in helping people comply with their laws. Oh well....This question is basically a legal question requiring legal research skills, and/or lots of time using Google Advanced Search, to find the underlying regulations or an authoritative interpretation of those. Those of us here are volunteers. However, we do have repliers that live in the UK, maybe one of them will know the answer--it's midnight there now, let's give them time to wake up and have a cup of tea. So, we'll keep working on the issue of the inter-relationship, if any, between the UK and Schengen entry/exit regulations. As they say, stay tuned.

Well, good luck getting an answer from any civil servant on a question that involves rules that don't exist!;) Once again, I think the point is valid....why would UK officials care if you were in Europe for 90 days before you came to the UK....all they ask is that you have a valid passport, a ticket out, and proof you have enough money for your keep while you're there. Same with the Schengen countries....why would they care where a tourist spent his previous 90 days? One of the reasons the UK is NOT part of the Schengen zone is because it wanted to maintain at least a vestige of its own border controls, "independence," as it were, from those hordes on the continent :)

For the UK, check http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/travellingtotheuk/

"But I really don´t need work or to go to school. I am writing a book and have enough money to live by, [...]"

In your place I would go to one (or more) EU member state consulate of my choice and ask about the terms and conditions to get a one year non-employment, non-student national visa.

If you can show them enough funds to live for a year, I think it should be possible to find at least one EU country that will give you a one year national visa.

Thanks Mark,

I will try to do that. The thing is that for every type of VISA of staying over 6 month, what I found out by trying to speak to the Spanish Embassy in México because Spain is the country that I first flew into ( I am already in Spain, I have been here for 3 weeks ) they did not have a category for this type of ¨doing nothing but living VISA ¨. It was even kind of strange to them that some one would want to take a two year sabbatical in Europe. They are so worried these days about illegal immigration and people loosing jobs and other ones abusing benefits of the state that they seem to forget that Europe is also a heaven for people who are seeking peace and culture. They either gave me the choice of a Student VISA which it did not apply to me, or a Business-Investor VISA which required me to invest 60,000 Euros into a business and run a business, which I have interest in doing so.

¨Just moving to Spain on a one year holiday is just not allowed ¨, that is what they told me, that I had to have either a Work Permit, Student Visa or Business-Investor Visa.

I mean, what happened to the romantic notion of spending a year or two in Europe, leaving frugally, absorbing the arts and writing a book?? What would great Latin and North American writers like Hemingway or Octavio Paz and many others done in the past with this 90 day interruptions?

Now, I will be interested to know if this is something that I can approach while I am here. Perhaps in Germany for instance, where would I go to ask about something like that? who are the authorities that I could explain my situation before my first 90 days ran out.

And, is it the same in every country?

My understanding is that long term residency visas are possible to obtain for many European countries . including Spain, Italy and France. I have regularly read on travel sites about people obtaining, some with some difficulty, long term visas for Italy or France. We have long term visas for Spain, applied for and granted in Australia (our home country)and renewable annually in Spain, which we now consider our home, at least for now.

The rules may differ between your home country and the country you are applying to, but the rules are generally available on the embassy website in the home country - in our case the Spanish Embassy in Canberra.