So you want to stay in the Schengen Area for over 90 days? You have a couple of options, some requiring pre-planning and others relatively effortless. For anyone planning to backpack Europe for any longer than 3 months, I highly recommend getting a working holiday visa. These visas will allowed you unrestricted travel within Schengen for a year. The only catch is that you have to apply for the vis from your home country. Other options include study visas and long-stay visas.
Whatever you heard, read online, or have been told, do NOT be attempt to overstay your visa free days, not even by a day. You could find yourself fined, deported, and banned from Europe. Even after you ban has ended, you could be denied entry on furture trips.
The most exciting of all the ways to stay in Schengen for over 90 days, are bilateral agreements which pre-date Schengen. You could theoretically stay in Schengen indefinitely, as long as you kept to the correct countries. No paperwork, visas, applications, or messing around involved.
To read more about Schengen, overstaying, the Entry/Exit System (EES), and ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System) visit here.
Working Holiday Visa
A handful of countries (including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) have bilateral working holiday visa agreements with Schengen states. A working holiday visa will allow you to stay in Schengen for up to a year. The only draw back is that you have to apply for this visa from your home country. My advice is, even if you don’t plan to work, get one of these visas before you go and it will most definitely come in use down the track if you plan on staying in Schengen over 90 days.
working holiday visas for Australians
Australia has bilateral working holiday visa agreements with the following countries:
Belgium
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Australia does NOT have working holiday agreements with the following countries:
Greece
Latvia
Lithuania
Student Visa
A number of Schengen states grant Student Visas if you are enrolled in an approved course. These visas are granted where study will exceed 90 days. As well as paying for the visa, you also need to pay for your course, and some countries will require information on where you will live while you study.
Long-Stay Visa + Residence Permit
A long-stay ‘D’ visa / residence permit entitles the holder to enter the Schengen Area and remain in the issuing state for a period longer than 90 days but no more than one year. The holder of a long-stay visa is entitled to move freely within the Schengen Area for a period of up to three months in any half-year. Most Schengen states offer national long-stay ‘D’ visas / residence permits, however these usually need to be obtained in advance through the embassy/consulate of that state. There are only two countries which provide long-stay visas useful to travellers; France and Sweden.
Exceptions for Australian Citizens
Austria: Apply for a temporary residence permit or a ‘Red-White-Red Card’ (issued to permanent immigrants) after arrival, rather than in advance through an Austrian embassy/consulate.
Germany: Apply for a residence permit after arrival.
Estonia: Apply for a category ‘D’ long-stay visa (which also allows you to work) for €80. You must apply for the visa in advance at an Estonian foreign mission after your employer has completed a ‘registration of short-term employment’. For stays over 6 months, you can apply for a temporary residence permit for employment after arrival in the country.
Hungary: Apply for a residence card from the regional directorate of the Office of Immigration and Nationality within 90 days of arrival.
Latvia: Apply for a residence permit after arrival as a self-employed or business person.
Netherlands: Australians are are not required to obtain a long stay visa for stays up to 90 days.
Norway: Australians who have qualifications as a skilled worker are permitted to stay in the country without a visa for up to 6 months to seek employment as a skilled worker or a specialist, as long as they register with the police within 3 months of arriving in Norway.
France
France offers a one year Long Stay Visa for tourists. You can only apply for this visa from your home country. There are a lot of documents you need to send in with your application which can be painful. While you are entitled to stay in France for a year, you cannot work, you need proof of accommodation in France, and technically you’re not allowed to cross over into any other Schengen country.
Sweden
Sweden has a Visitor’s Permit for stays over 90 days and up to 365 days.
To get a permit you must:
- Have received an invitation from the person you intend to visit.
- Be able to provide for yourself for the duration of your stay in Sweden.
- Have a passport that is valid for at least three months after the last date of your visit.
- Have a return ticket or the money to buy one.
Overstaying and leaving From countries with slack passport control
Previously, if you’d overstayed your 90 visa-free days it was still possible to leave the Schengen Area without a problem via countries with slack passport control (namely France, Greece, Italy, and Spain). These countries were well known for their “glimpse, flick, and stamp” border control. There was always a risk of being discovered when overstaying, but Southern Europe was a pretty safe bet as somewhere to leave from if you did.
Times are changing and the European Union is setting up a new Entry/Exit System (ESS). The ESS will log all entries and exits into and from the Schengen Area making it impossible to escape punishment from overstaying. The ESS will begin operation in 2022.
Bilateral Agreements
This is where things get interesting. Prior to the Schengen Agreement, states had their own legislation and bilateral agreements with other nations. After the signing of the Schengen Agreement, many of these former agreements became void, yet some states never rescinded their former agreements. Now here’s the cool part, this is an article from the Schengen Agreement:
CONVENTION: IMPLEMENTING THE SCHENGEN AGREEMENT (14 June 1985)
CHAPTER 4: CONDITIONS GOVERNING THE MOVEMENT OF ALIENS
Article 20: Paragraph 2
“Paragraph 1 shall not affect each Contracting Party’s right to extend beyond three months an alien’s stay in its territory in exceptional circumstances or in accordance with a bilateral agreement concluded before the entry into force of this Convention.”
Basically what that means is that bilateral agreements that predate the signing of the Schengen Agreement are still valid! So what are these bilateral agreements then? I’m glad you asked!
Australian Passport Holders
Australia has bilateral visa waiver agreements with the following states:
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
These agreements allow Australian citizens to spend up to 90 days in EACH state, without reference to time spent in other Schengen states. However, if you visit a Schengen state not included on the above list, the “90 days in a 180 day period for the Schengen area as a whole” rule applies.
BILATERAL AGREEMENTS VS ENTRY/EXIT SYSTEM
The European Union will implement its new Entry/Exit System (ESS) on external borders in 2022. The ESS will be a centralised database logging all entries and exits into and out of the Schengen Area. Therefore it will become impossible to get away with overstaying. The thing is, bilateral agreements that predate the Schengen Agreement would make a royal mess of the new Entry/Exit System. To solve this the Council of the European Union is in the process of changing Article 20:2 with the following:
2. Paragraph 1 shall not affect each Contracting Party’s right to extend beyond 90 days in any 180-day period an alien’s stay in its territory in exceptional circumstances or if in accordance with a bilateral agreement concluded before the entry into force of this Convention and notified to the Commission, provides a right to stay beyond 90 days in any 180-day period.
The stay of an alien in the territory of a Contracting Party may only be extended upon request of the alien and lodged with the competent authorities of that Contracting Party upon entry or during the stay of the alien at the latest [on the last day] [7 days before the last day] of his/her 90-day stay in any 180-day period.
In case where the stay is extended, the competent authorities of that Contracting Party shall enter the data related to the extension in the latest relevant entry/exit record in accordance with Article 17 of the Regulation establishing the Entry/Exit system.
The alien shall exit at the external borders of that Contracting party.
The competent authority that has extended the stay shall inform the alien concerned that the extension of stay is authorised only in the territory of that Contracting party and he/she shall exit at the external border of that Contracting party.
If/when this legislation comes into effect;
- You will be required to lodge a request with authorities for stays over 90 days.
- You can lodge this request upon time of entry or at any other time during your stay.
- The extension will only apply to the state in which you applied.
- The extension will be added to your information on the Entry/Exit System.
- You must exit the Schengen Area from the state where you lodged your extension request.
Hopefully one day the EU will remove the 90/180 rule and allow non-EU citizens unrestricted access (as a tourist) to the continent. Tourists bring an enormous amount of money into Europe, so if a visitor has cash I can’t see what’s the problem. I hope you’ve found something useful on this page. If you think there’s anything missing, or if you find any of the above information has changed, please let us know!