Can you clearly explain the post-Brexit ‘90 in 180’ rule?
Q We are struggling to make sense of the “90 in 180” rule for planning future winter stays in Portugal. Do the 180-day periods follow on from each other without a break? Has the full 180 days got to elapse before the next one can start? Any advice would be most welcome.
Donald and Carol W
A Since the end of the Brexit transition phase, UK citizens hoping to travel to the vast majority of European Union countries face strict limits on the length of stay.
The rule is that for trips to the Schengen Area – covering most EU nations plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and a handful of micro-states – you can stay a maximum of 90 days in any 180. That’s roughly three
months in six.
This kind of restriction is fairly common across the world: countries generally don’t want people from foreign nations to be effectively living in their countries without formalising that position, paying appropriate taxes and health insurance, etc. So they restrict the length of stay.
It can look like a daunting system to understand, so I will do my best to explain it in a way which I hope is straightforward.
Just imagine a calendar that stretches back almost six months from today (D). What happened before “D minus 180” is completely irrelevant. What counts is the number of days you were either inside (I) or outside (O) the Schengen Area in the last 180.
You can easily keep count on a calendar yourself, either printed or digital.
If “I” hits 90, you must leave that day. That is exactly what happened to hundreds of Brits who began 2021 in the happy position of being in a Schengen Area country already, without restriction up to the end of 2020 thanks to the Brexit transition phase.
Ninety days in a row took them to the last day of March. Think about a calendar covering the first six months of 2021: they must now stay out for almost three months to the end of June, to accumulate 90 “Os” in a row.
By 28 June, each day one “I” disappears as time marches forward, and can be replaced by a new one for up to 90 days.
Looking ahead to next winter: if you are accustomed to going abroad for a good, long stretch, the best you can hope for is three months.
If you keep clear of the Schengen Area through September, October and November, you can enter on 1 December 2021 and remain there until 28 February 2022. Then you must leave for March, April and most of May.
Of course before Brexit you could spend as long as you wanted without any problem, and if you happen to have access to an EU passport (for example through Irish ancestry) then that confers continued freedom.