I posted a few months ago about getting a 6 month multi entry France Visa to beat the 90/180 Schengen rule (link below)
www.motorhomefun.co.uk
This prompted a lot of debate so I thought I’d update now I’m back in U.K.
We spent 130 days in EU, roughly 50 in France, 50 in Spain, the remainder in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium.
We entered and exited through France- that was the only time our passport was stamped (interestingly not on the visa page either time)
Our Visa allowed 6 months travel in France plus the 90 day Visa free allowance. Technically we could have stayed for 9 months. We spent less than 90 days out of France so even if ‘they’ were aware we’d left France, we were still within the 90 day limit.
Debate on the original post centred around whether ‘they’ would know we’d left France and entered other Schengen countries. It was suggested that this could happen by somehow linking our motorhome to our passports, biometric scanning as we drove through borders (assume somehow scanning our eyes) or tracking credit card transactions.
I can confirm that none of this happens. The border official waved us through at Calais and I made reference to the visa (he didn’t seem to have spotted it and didn’t mention the fact we’d entered Schengen 130 days ago). I asked about our 90 day allowance band he said ‘you still have it, it’s unaffected’. That tells me that ‘the system’ hasn’t recorded our various exits and entries to and from France.
As I said in the original post, it’s a lot of red tape and €99 but in my opinion well worth it. We’ll certainly get a French visa again next time we plan a long trip into the EU.
Beating the 90/180 day Schengen rule
I see a lot of debate on how to stay in the EU Schengen zone for more than the 90/180. Lots of discussion on Morocco and Croatia, not much on getting a 6 mth visa. I got a French one which I believe in allows me to stay in Schengen for that period, then the usual 90 days kicks in. There’s some...
www.motorhomefun.co.uk
This prompted a lot of debate so I thought I’d update now I’m back in U.K.
We spent 130 days in EU, roughly 50 in France, 50 in Spain, the remainder in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium.
We entered and exited through France- that was the only time our passport was stamped (interestingly not on the visa page either time)
Our Visa allowed 6 months travel in France plus the 90 day Visa free allowance. Technically we could have stayed for 9 months. We spent less than 90 days out of France so even if ‘they’ were aware we’d left France, we were still within the 90 day limit.
Debate on the original post centred around whether ‘they’ would know we’d left France and entered other Schengen countries. It was suggested that this could happen by somehow linking our motorhome to our passports, biometric scanning as we drove through borders (assume somehow scanning our eyes) or tracking credit card transactions.
I can confirm that none of this happens. The border official waved us through at Calais and I made reference to the visa (he didn’t seem to have spotted it and didn’t mention the fact we’d entered Schengen 130 days ago). I asked about our 90 day allowance band he said ‘you still have it, it’s unaffected’. That tells me that ‘the system’ hasn’t recorded our various exits and entries to and from France.
As I said in the original post, it’s a lot of red tape and €99 but in my opinion well worth it. We’ll certainly get a French visa again next time we plan a long trip into the EU.
