Travel Europe for a Year

An extended stay visa is country specific and not for all of Schengen. As an example, let's say you got a six month work/study visa from France. You could stay up to 6 months in France but would still, technically, only be allowed 90 days during that time in the rest of Schengen. It gets very complicated and your best bet is to talk to the consulate of the country you plan to request the visa. This is usually the one you plan to spend the most time in or your first entry point.

The legal limit (without a special visa) for staying in the Schengen countries (which is most of Europe except the UK) is a maximum of 90 days out of the 180-day period that begins upon your first entry into any of the Schengen countries. This is not 90 days per country, and the clock is not reset by leaving the Schengen zone for a short time.

Lorrie, I'd start the process by planning where to live. Pick some likely areas and then inform yourself about them. You mention you could create a base stay for three months and I think that's a terrific idea - have a place to come home to and explore the area or country from there. I'd arrange my sojourn according to the weather, too. Once you're over there, you can take advantage of some really terrific travel deals. too. Of course, vagabonding from place to place can also be exciting. Only you can determine what you'd prefer. Kent is right, the Schengen agreement limits your stay in member countries. However, it is possible to obtain visas for longer periods. Most often you have to prove that you can support yourself during your residence and possibly meet other requirements. I don't know this for a fact but I can imagine that it would take a while to put it all together if you need visas. However, I believe with sufficient planning time and money, it can be done.

What you plan is doable but requires moving about every so often. The posters talking about Schengenare correct. You have 90 out of every 180 days there. Non-Scheng countries are: UK, Ireland,Croatia,Romania,Bulgaria,Macedonia,Serbia, Montenegro,Bosnia,Albania and Moldova. What is efficient depends on you and how you choose to live there.You are likely best off staying in one place for several weeks at a time, doing day trips from there. Consider that England and Scaninavia are VERY expensive, while the eastern Eastern Euro countries are much cheaper.

The Schengen agreement gives you 90 days without a visa, but you can certainly apply for a visa and stay for a year. Depending on your situation (Canadian citizen? age?) there are different ways of getting a visa, a tourist visa or maybe if you're young (under 25 I think) a work-and-travel visa. Details are available from the consulate of the country you're flying into and will spend the first good chunk of time. . . . . . . . . . Personally, I would pick a series of bases where I'd stay maybe a few weeks/a month and explore from there.

Since the visa issue has been addressed, I'll answer to the main question. Your best bet will be to create several "bases" with long term rentals. Choose cities that interest you and have easy transit links for short trips. Being away for so long means you will need some stability. Believe me, living out of hotels and eating in restaurants every day does get old after few months.

Lorrie: Were either o your parents or any of your grandparents born in the UK? If so, you could claim UK citizenship, without jeapordizing your Canadian Citizenship (Which I assume you have). You can then get a UK/EU Passport which will allow you to move - and stay - freely in any of the EU countries for as lonmg as you wish.

Frank, so if student has a visa to study for a year in Germany, does this mean he or she can't freely travel around Europe during that year, but must count days spent in each Schengen Country? Yikes. Would students really do that? If that's true what a shame. The beauty of my study program was that we were strongly encourage to travel every weekend to different city or country. If today's students don't have that freedom, I think that they are missing out. Again, what a shame. Pam

I'm guessing, Pamela, that when you studied, there was no Schengen. Each country set its own rules. However, there is one thing to think about....no more borders between Schengen countries. So, while the rule states no more than 90 days in Schengen out of 180, it would be very difficult to prove this if someone had a student visa for one of the Schengen countries.....What the 90 day rule is really trying to do is prevent people from moving to one of the countries and then trying to obtain work.They didn't want to make it so difficult that everyone had to apply for visas, but they didn't want to make is so easy that anyone could move there and get a job.

Might want to check out this site: http://www.ayearineurope.com/

There's also this, just from the NY Times: http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/travel/17Prac.html?ref=travel

Lorrie, the OP from Alberta, Canada, has asked for the Board's thoughts on her plan to spend a year in Europe. She has received some excellent ideas and important information about the Schengen Treaty, which she may or may not have already known about. Time for Lorrie to come back to the board and tell us all what she thinks and if the advice given has been useful or not.

I want to thank everyone for their very insightful comments. I never knew Schengen countries agreement and that has changed my original plans of when and where I will visit. I had originally planned to spend all my time in UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain but now I am considering New Zealand and Australia for a couple of months in January and February.

My grandmother is from the UK so I send off an email to the UK consolute and have check out their website, awaiting for an answer regarding dual citizenship.

This is all very exciting and I am very thankful for all the additional information. I have been to europe only once before with my family, the kids loved it and where very happy they could drink beer and wine.... legally. I was amazed at everything from art, to architecture, to food to all the wonderful helpful people. Except for the snutty french waitress in Arles, France who couldn't speak any english and didn't understand our canadian/french until we left her a very good tip and her english was just fine. Funny!

I will probably have more questions in the future when I learn more and have a general idea of what countries I will be going to.

Happy travels.

Lorrie

Lorrie,

You might also have a look at * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workingholidayvisa * for another option (cut & paste the link inside the asterisks). That would allow you to stay in the U.K. for a longer period.

With a WHV and stops in non-Schengen countries, you should be able to work out a reasonable Itinerary.

Regarding obtaining citizenship rights from your Grandmother, you might want to have a look at * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britishnationalitylaw * for some pertinent information. AFAIK, this can only be obtained if your parents were born in the U.K. (I'm in the same situation, but don't believe I'm eligible to obtain a U.K. Passport).

Cheers!

Good luck!

Ken:

Looking at that site, it looks as though UK citizenship lasts only one generation. When I left in 1971 I understood it was two generations - my son was born just before we left and we understood his grandchildren would qualify, but for our daughter who was born in Jamaica, only her children would qaulify. Laws change - and this site mentions two dates since we left, so it looks as though Lorrie might be out of luck.

Iain,

That's what I thought, so it appears I'm "out of luck" as well (although both of my Grandfathers were born in the U.K.).

Having a British Passport could make travelling in Europe a bit easier, but with my present situation I'm not sure if I'd be able to take advantage of that anyway.

Cheers!

Thanks Ken and Iain for the additional information, it looks like it might not be so straight forward for the UK dual citizenship. I might still have a hope as there seems to be statement about fathers side and born between February 7, 1961 and January 1 1983.

So here's a question if you were to travel europe for a year, what three countries would you spend the most time in?

I am thinking the Uk/ireland (sept/oct/nov) and italy/greece (jan/feb/mar)? I wanted to stay away from the UK in jan/feb/mar, I can get crappy cold weather at home.

Thoughts?

Also, never been to croatia? Safe for lone woman traveller in mid 40's?

Thoughts?

Lorrie, I think you're right about the father's side issue. My female superviser's father was born in England (she was born in the US) but her son is unable to get dual citizenship because it's only possible through the male line. Seems pretty antiquated to me!