I have applied for a long-term visa, but the odds of getting it are somewhat dubious. So, I decided to sit down and start figuring out a method to the Schengen madness.
Before this year is out, I will have made 4 trips into the Schengen zone. Without a lot of long-range planning, I have found myself spending countless hours behind a Schengen calculator. The result is a realization that I’ve been winging the Schengen limits for too long and needed to try and figure out three long trip windiws in a 12-month period that can be repetitive year after year.
The best I have come up with is 43 days (six weeks or 1.4 months) in Schengen and 78 days (11 weeks or 2.6 months) out. A 43-day window the way I am looking at it. This will repeat year after year.
The system, according to the calculator, keeps you 44 days in Schengen on the first trip and 88 days in Schengen thereafter.
Yes, that’s a bit tight but if the schedule says start 1 January, I depart the U.S. on 1 January and the Schengen doesn’t start until the next day when I go through passport control, so each trip, if I used the full window subtracts a day on from the 88 days.
These, for me, are just windows of opportunity. Leave a few days later or return a few days earlier but try and stay in the window and that will pick up days for an emergency or something special. And I often go outside Schengen for some period each trip. Of course, my last trip to Romania was 5 days for which Schengen gives me 3 days of credit. So, it takes a lot of time outside Schengen to put a dent in the math.