Travel in Schengen Countries with Spanish Visa

As part of your visa process, you need to establish residency in Spain. So if you are talking about trips from Spain to other parts of the Schengen countries, then certainly you can travel freely. Technically, you are still limited in the number of days that you can travel, but I am not sure what method they would use to track you. It is one of those murky areas of the Schengen area that could be a benefit or a problem.

However, if for whatever reason you are questioned, and you no longer can show residency in Spain, that will raise some flags and potentially be a problem.

Your Spanish visa is only valid for Spain. Technically you are still limited to "90 days in any 180" in all other Schengen countries.
I say technically as this is difficult to enforce, there are no border controls between Schengen countries. If you are crossing land borders there is no way officialdom can know how many days you spend in Spain and how many in other Schengen countries. Unless you for example fly to Greece, stay in the same hotel and fly back 100 days later.

• You will need to show your Spanish visa as well as your passport whenever you enter or leave the Schengen Area. This is your "get out of jail free card" to show you are excused the 90 day limit.
  • You still need to do this for entering or leaving via other countries. For example, you enter Spain, stay 120 days, then take a train to Paris, then to London. When exiting France, the French police will see you entered the Schengen Area 125 days ago, but you will be OK because you have your Spanish visa.

Or, will we need to return to Spain or go to a non-Schengen country for 90 days to “reset” the clock, before exploring more Schengen countries for the next 90 days?

That is a common misconception of how the 90 days works. There is no "reset of the clock". It is a rolling 180 days. Exiting the Schengen Area (or in your case returning to Spain) does not reset the clock, it just freezes it; and when you re-enter it starts again from where it was stopped. It is only that days more than 180 days ago no longer count.

I can't emphasize enough to contact your local consulate for clarification of your questions. This isn't the place for any advice on this type of issue.

Your Spanish visa will entitle you to stay in Spain, where you will need to be resident, take out Spanish health insurance etc. The visa is not a solution for travellers looking to spend significant amounts of time in other Schengen countries. You will be limited to 90 in 180 days within other Schengen countries, although how this can be policed isn’t clear. We have looked into this with Brexit looming and potentially limiting our time in the Schengen zone and there isn’t a visa that we are aware of that permits free Schengen travel for more than 90/180 days.

To be very clear there is no visa that will allow you to stay in the Schengen as a tourist beyond 90 days.

A resident's visa for any Schengen country is exactly that, you are expected to establish your residency in that country and that has:
- Tax implications
- Banking implications
- Insurance implications
- Healthcare implications
and so on.

Yes such a visa allows you to take short trips into other Schengen countries but it is your responsibility if checked, to prove you are in full compliance with your residence permit not the other way. If you are considered to be involution of the rules then you can expect to be fined, deported and barred from reentry into the Schengen Area.

This is not something to be entered into lightly and the authorities are well aware of the games people try to play.