SCHENGEN Zone Visa CHANGES 2024!! Updates to ETIAS and Schengen Zone Explained

we did a Schengen video a year ago and we are still getting questions asked on that video there are also a couple things that have changed that you need to be aware of and we're going to cover those questions and what's changed in this video so what is the Schengen Zone the Schengen Zone consists of 27 countries that basically have a border in between so when you are traveling and say you are in this area you get to just travel freely through the 27 countries nothing to worry about no stamps no nothing you just can go as you please but you only get 90 days and we're going to explain how that works so like Brian said you get 90 days so that 90 days is 90 out of 180 and it is a rotating calendar so if you basically take a calendar in front of you and you go back 180 days on that calendar and count as many days as you were in the Schengen if it comes up to say 85 days in that last 180 you have five days left this is the number one question we get to this day from that video over a year ago for whatever reason it sounds complicated but it's not it's really nice it's really not you get 90 days of 180. now the easiest way to handle this is to get a calculator online it is very simple just Google Schengen calculator there are multiple websites that you can use none of them are better than the other they just offer something different on these websites what you're going to do it's going to ask you your entry date into the Schengen Zone it's going to ask you your exit date out of the Schengen Zone you can have multiple entries and exits and then it is going to tell you how many days you have left in Schengen making it honestly very seamless very seamless now the calculator I use what keeps me on track personally is Carrie she takes care of all that for me so she's like my app so to speak but get the app if there's any confusion at all one thing that you want to make sure and take into account is that your travel days so say that you have left the Schengen Zone but you are going to be flying for us home to the United States but we're going to land in Rome and even though we are not going to exit that airport it still is going to count as a day in the Schengen even though all you are doing are switching planes because it is going to involve border control stamping your passport so you need to make sure to when you're going to be traveling don't go all the way up to that 90 days allow a couple days for travel days what happens if your plane gets canceled or something personal happens and you're unable to leave when you thought you were going to well leave yourself some time okay so if you're able to just to move freely to these 27 countries at your leisure how do they know where you've been where you're going and where you're at how do they know well they scan you when you come in and they scan you when you leave if you're over that a lot of period of time they're gonna know yeah so don't take the chance there are things that can happen if you do overstay your welcome and we'll get into that yeah yeah we'll get into all that too yeah now you may be saying to yourself like can you skirt around this and are they really going to get you on this right we've been scrutinized at the border crossings and it all comes down to the agent that you have and we've had them look especially because at some points you know you're talking for us I think it was when we were going home and so we've been gone for say five and a half months and they're looking at our passport and they're like where have you been and you're having to account for all the places you've visited here we've been here so it opens up a can of worms for us uh this one particular agent started going through our book she was looking for that stamp they didn't have a scanner where we were at at the time at the airport she called somebody else over they both went through our passports together now we knew we were compliant because we saved ourselves some time so we were okay they came with the same conclusion and we're on our way but if we had been over we would have been deported probably right and who knows what happens at that point honestly but is it really worth the risk so we just always well who knows what can happen but what could happen is you can get banned from the Schengen area so you can't go into those 27 countries for a period of time I've heard it's up to three to five years so we're not taking that chance for sure you can get fined which we don't have any money so we don't want to get fined and you know there's other things you can get deported they can send you back to your home country right all things that we don't want to happen to us just for simply overstanding our welcome now I've overstayed my welcome before a few times people's houses or parties what not you really don't get punished for that this should get punished for I don't know Were you invited back I don't think guys have been invited back so he was punished I was punished just don't get punished no what has changed since we did this video over a year ago well there's been two changes two big changes one of them is it used to be 26 countries now it's 27 countries Croatia has been added there are other countries Romania Bulgaria a couple others Cyprus I believe are in the process of joining so things can always change moving forward yeah so keep track keep track of that if you're planning on going to any of those uh Balkan State countries now the e-t-i-a-s edius I think for sure anyway that is a Visa that you're going to have to fill out online they want you to do it to 14 days before you enter all that is a security check they just want to know who you are why you're coming from what we understand it's just like getting any other visa to any other country that requires it simple you can get denied and if so there is an opportunity to appeal so that's why you want to do the process early yeah now this was in play when we did our video a year ago but it got delayed and so now they're saying 20 25 is going to be the date there's not a set date they're just saying 2024. so that may change once again just kind of keep track of that we will put the website down below so you can keep watch uh for that when it does go in when that date does come into effect yeah now you know people look at something like this is like it's a really big deal it's not it's a simple application online it is seven Euro to apply for like Ryan said they say to do it 14 days ahead of time um but your approval process is minutes to a Max of 96 hours so it's not like you have to do it a long time ahead because you're waiting for your approval well in a sense it's waiting for approval right in case they need more information from you now the other question is is how long is this good for do I have to fill this out every single time that I want to come in no you do not after you've applied and been approved you are good for three years so honestly seven Euro for three years is not bad it's not a big deal I think if you don't have a U.S passport I think you have to do this to get into the United States I believe and there are other countries obviously that do the same thing right I mean we just yesterday did our application to go to Turkey and that was 51 each just to get in and that is only five dollars each yes and that's only for your one visit you know I mean well it's good for 180 days I should say but so three three years for uh seven Euro that's a bargain 51 dollars now we've been told by many based off our video a year ago that they enter and exit all the time they don't worry about Schengen rules they just hop over to Morocco for the day and come back to Spain and it's all good that's not true don't do that you will eventually get caught the people that tell us that are just getting lucky honestly right and we're not willing to take that risk yeah it really 100 comes down to your border agent when they're looking at your passport how well it was scanned at each location or whatever and you know I so it's up to you but it's up to you within the rules follow the rules 90 days is a long time yeah now another option and something that always comes up that people tell us in case we didn't know but we do uh that you can extend your visas in certain countries based on what passport you have we are aware of this one of the places that we do know and know people who have done this is in Portugal you can extend your Visa with a U.S passport and get an additional 90 days the downside or the uh I wouldn't say downside but the one side to that is is you have to stay in Portugal for that other 90 days you cannot then freely travel so with that comes the next question how are they going to know if you've crossed over into Spain or if you have traveled somewhere else in that 90 days because you're not actually doing border crossings well here's a great example for you we went from Austria to Germany and we were on a bus and there was a random stop at a really wasn't a border crossing but it was a border stop or custom control just control everybody had to get off of the bus and thank goodness we had even thought to bring our passports for that trip and they checked I already thought of it I never would have thought of that very thought of that we'd still be there and we'll still be there um but they checked us you know and there's no border crossing there so sure you can risk it but is it worth that risk no no there is another way to extend that 90 days depending on where you're from there are a lot of countries that have bilateral agreements the United States New Zealand Canada there's several countries that have bilateral agreements with say Italy or Portugal or Poland Germany where you can extend your Visa as well just because you're coming from say New Zealand Maine so there are other ways to do it have that paperwork with you don't just assume that the Border agent's gonna know because again it comes down to the Border age well and I think that's the downside of this one a lot of people have said to us do you know you can do this we do know you can do this but we've also talked to people that on both sides of that or we've heard from people on both sides of it there is zero guarantee this is written up in paperwork that there is this bilateral agreement there's nothing that you just go online and fill out paperwork and boom you have it in hand and you get to just enter from an extra amount of time you go in with like Ryan said the paperwork the bilateral agreement and show it to the agent and hope that that agent is going to be like oh that's yep I know all about that sure here you go don't go in and say I'm an American I can stay as long as I want to that probably isn't going to fly so with that bilateral agreement there is I think that's the biggest thing for us there is no guarantee it's not a simple process and that is one of the reasons we have personally not chosen to pursue it if you have say you're already in a location you want to stop at a border crossing and ask them about extending that might be easy but would you plan a trip around it would you get a flight you wouldn't get to the airport and hope with all hopes that they let you do that now if you have done this let us know what process you went through and how it worked out yeah what country yeah in what country you did it and where you were entering at did you go was it at the airport or were you doing a border crossing yeah let us know how it works well I think the viewers would like to know yeah now what about cruise ships and leaving the Schengen on a boat by having ports within the Schengen now we learned this the hard way we're leaving the Schengen earlier than we had anticipated for this very reason we're heading to Turkey about 10 days early because to get home on our five and a half month Journey this time we're doing a relocation cruise from Rome to Florida with 10 stops within Schengen territory so we looked up on the cruise ship we did our research and it turns out those days count yeah so make sure you're aware of them right and those days count even if you choose not to get off the ship or like we will have days at Sea while we're in Schengen Zone but we're still within Schengen so we're going shengen day at Sea and then Schengen that all counts as Schengen times so until you've left your final Port that is leaving Schengen Zone you are considered Schengen and once again how do they track this they are tracking it they're scanning your passport they know that you're on that ship once again do you really want to show up with the ship and have to say sorry you don't have enough shank in time you're done to get on the flight go home so yeah so yeah so that's just something to be aware of because that's a really common thing to come and travel and then hop on a ship and you may think you don't have to count that time but you do now like we mentioned in the beginning since putting out our last video yo there are repeat very common questions we get we don't mind getting these questions but we just want to make sure we're providing you the information the one big question we get is what calculator do you use now we already discussed this and like we said any of the calculators are good uh we will put a link to just one of them down below like I said any of them are good so yeah I use Carrie use the carry calculator you can't use that calculator don't send me your itinerary we've gotten that question yes and and you want me to do your shanking calculations for you I do say it's easy but not easy enough that I want to do everybody's chicken company yeah we don't want to be wrong on your time yeah no exactly for sure yeah we will provide you the link to a calculator though now the other common question we get is can you do this or can you do that the answer is probably no you can't leave for Dan come back in and restart the clock you can't go to Morocco or bounce over to Turkey and then come back it does not work that way and we've had plenty of people say I do it all the time yeah yes it does work that way on that note of like leaving for one day and coming back for a day there are countries where that happens uh Thailand that's one of them you know you can leave you can reset and come back to places Europe is not one of them no you can't do it now what do you do then so where do you go well there are other options there's Romania like we did last year high to suggest getting to Romania whether you're trying to get out of the Schengen or not Romania is a very cool country you can go to um turkey there are plenty of options last year we did Romania Serbia Bosnia and Croatia can't do Croatia anymore we were maybe we left Croatia and they joined the Schengen a month after we left so we timed that perfectly because we were there for two months we also left about two weeks before they're in the World Cup uh semifinals so we missed that as well that was kind of that would have been awesome yeah that would have been fun to be there another really common question that we get often is do you need a round-trip ticket when you're flying into the Schengen Zone do you need to show when you're leaving within that 90 days no you do not that is where kind of that whole trust system comes in and the stamping you in and out of places so if you were safe flying into Krakow like we did and then you want to just travel by car train bus whatever you're doing no flights involved and then you have a ticket to fly home from Paris that's completely fine you don't have to show any level of proof of you when you're leaving Schengen right because they're getting a stamp you when you come in they're going to stamp you when you leave right the one thing that I would note is is that say you're coming into Schengen Zone you're then leaving Schengen Zone and you're just going to be traveling around for out of say you went to Romania for a little bit but you got there by bus or train or whatever make sure you're getting those stamps because we've gone to a lot of places and you don't get your stamp and say then you go and you drive and you're now back in Schengen Zone and you fly out of Schengen they're like wait a minute we show that you've been here for all this time have some kind of paperwork if it isn't a stamp at least have some documentation showing your time I would think even being able to show a hotel reservation or something something just showing that you did actually exit the zone um because it is becoming more and more common where they do not stamp you all the time they look at it they scan it they hand it back ask for a stamp they'll give you one is there a cap on how many times you can enter and exit Schengen no there is not you can do it as many times as you want just have that calculator out and ready to go because that's going to be a lot of calculating it's a lot of calculating to do within that especially yeah the rolling the rolling thing yeah we tend to stay for about 87 88 days and then we exit this time we're staying for even less because of our cruise home but yeah you can enter and exit as many times as you'd like probably the biggest question that we have or the biggest comment we get is they don't really know and like I know we have mentioned this before through here but this is just a comment people like to make they don't know maybe because you arrived at a border crossing and they looked at your passport and then they handed it back to you you didn't see them stamp it that doesn't mean you didn't see them scan it so they are being scanned if they're not stamped there is tracking that's going on once again not worth the risk just follow the rules just follow the rules what about visas work visa um you know retirement visas things like that that is a whole different video that I don't think we're prepared to do right now no but there are ways you can stay longer if you're working and that's just something you're going to have to do some research on you will because that's all is going to vary on what country you're from what country you're going to what kind of Visa you're looking for so honestly that is a video that we have done in the past a little bit of uh but it's going to be so country specific being slow Travelers we've been asked multiple times why we have not taken advantage of the bilateral agreement that the United States has with multiple countries especially over here in Europe uh like we explained there is not a whole lot of guarantee to these agreements um as far as getting it all the application or getting the agent to agree to it and we just haven't take we just haven't done it yet and we may at some point we may at some point we do know people that have applied for a visa extension in Portugal we do plan on doing something like that in the future but right now we like moving around a little more where 90 days is plenty we want to go to some of those other countries that are still in Europe but not in the Schengen it kind of opens up that opportunity to go see those places Romania was really not on our radar when we ended up going there and all of a sudden we're like okay we need to exit Schengen and it pushed us into areas that we might not have gone otherwise and so there's kind of a cool part of that so if you have any other questions go ahead and ask we love answering your questions we read them all we answer as many of them as we can hopefully this clarified some of the misconceptions of the etiis or or Schengen in general because it's really not that complicated and honestly 90 days is a long time so thank you for watching this video and we'll see you in the next one all right cheers want to drive from Italy to Spain you can do that easy no checks nothing's going on that no is Italy right next to space no you have to go through France I was like wait a minute and then you go you go it's easy drive onto a ferry

Channel: Brian and Carrie

Views: 33,890

Keywords: Brian and Carrie, schengen zone, schengen zone etias, etias 2023, the 90 day rule, schengen visa update 2023, schengen zone explained, europe travel 2024, schengen travel, what is the schengen zone, schengen visa, schengen area, etias 2024, etias application, etias for us citizens, etias visa, etias system, etias news, schengen visa from usa, how to travel in schengen countries, schengen visas, schengen visa travel, #schengen, european visa, croatia schengen

Id: 2nKL8Uf95UE

Length: 20min 7sec (1207 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 05 2023