Europe comes in many confusing forms and in particular so when it is about its members’ borders. While Europeans enjoy border-free traveling, that is tourist traveling for under 3 months or the paper work starts as well if someone would actually bother about it, the situation changes dramatically for all outsiders – read non-Europeans as in “not passport holder of a country that joined the European Union”.

When it comes to the term “Europe”, a traveler has to deal with 4 different forms:

  • geographical Europe,
  • European Union,
  • Schengen Visa countries,
  • Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Welcome to the Traveler’s Hell of European Borders.

Updated with corrected details.

Some exceptions for non-Europeans exist, such as a number of countries that can travel freely for up to 90 days at a time in the same way as Europeans can visit Hong Kong (and after 90 days just cross the border for a day and theoretically be allowed back in again for another 90 days). The bulk of the non-EU countries however fall into 2 categories:

  • 90 days or less per entry followed by a 180 days blackout within a 180 days period during a 180 days period,
  • visa required.

The combination of several forms of Europe and visa(-free) traveling creates tricky situations which aren’t as obvious to solve as one would expect.

Take this case of a traveler arriving on Europe “Mainland” (the continent, not Ireland or the United Kingdom), for example in Germany, which grants 90 days visa-free stay followed by a 180 days blackout:

  • Does it apply to
    • European Union;
    • and/or Schengen Agreement member states?
  • Does it apply the same to all member states of whatever option above?
    Keep in mind there are theoretically no passport-checking (immigration) borders, even not for flights within the same zone.
  • What if the traveler wants to jump zones?
    For example, the United Kingdom is not member of any travel border arrangement.

    • So if the traveler flies to the United Kingdom, will it mean a “checkout” of the European zone and thus the 1 allowed visit each 180 days is over?

I tried to get exactly those answers and it cost me 2 days on the phone across all Europe with many dead ends in the least expected departments.

Assuming that the Schengen Agreement is the zone the traveler would “check in”, I called the Luxembourg Foreign Ministry as Luxembourg is not only a Schengen member but also a founding member. In fact, the Schengen Agreement was signed on a boat next to the small vineyard village “Schengen”, in Luxembourg. And thus the game was on:

  1. Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs handles passports for foreigners and nationals but runs that through their passport office.
  2. A call to the Luxembourg passport office was met by a lady I am sure was in a deep sleep seconds before and she had no idea either as they only handle passports and immigration papers for those who need them, not however for those who are visa-free.
  3. Given I want to know hoe a non-EU traveler can go from Schengen Zone to the UK and back to the Schengen Zone, I thought it might be smart to call the British embassy in Luxembourg. From some official British web site I know that this particular traveler would be granted 180 days of visa-free stay to the United Kingdom.
    The lady answering at the embassy immediately cut my inquiry by stating that I would have to apply for a visa. On telling her what I read on their own web site she replied “if it says so on the web site, then it must be so”. Case closed; for her.
  4. The next step would be to contact some offices of the traveler’s own country to see how they handle their own people. Luxembourg is often managed from Belgium offices and so it came to no surprise that that country’s embassy is in Brussels.
    A quick call was answered with “no idea about that as we only handle cases requiring a visa such as studies, investment and employment but you could call our High Commission in London”.
  5. Off to London I called. After several internal call forwardings I finally got someone able to tell me that traveling between Schengen and the UK is no problem for the duration of the visa(-free) duration.

By now I spent half the day on the phone and online and all I knew for sure (I hope) was that traveling was possible and apparently unlimited within the allowed period. However, I still was not sure about the passport check-in/out handling, chops and (if) timer resets.

So who better to ask then the airport’s border control office (in other countries called “Immigration Department” but there is no such thing in Luxembourg). The people one always notices at the border here are the Customs officers so why not start there?

  1. A call to the Luxembourg Customs hotline led me to the airport’s office.
  2. The airport office never answered their phone.

By now it was end of the (business hours) day so I had to call it off and try again the next day.

On the next day I picked up the trail where I left:

  1. I called again the Customs airport office and still nobody answered. All morning.
  2. In the afternoon I called the airport hotline and they forwarded me to the Customs, this time someone picked up right away.
  3. Asking why nobody bothered to pick up when the call obviously came from outside, they said they never got my call. As it turned out, the number shown on the official airport web site was wrong. And by the way, I should call the airport police instead as they handle the immigration. The Customs are only responsible for goods and taxes.
  4. The airport police hotline was the wrong one as well, as the officer explained:
    “This is the main number of the airport police, which is next to the Niederanven (village) office listed in the phone book and that’s why people always call us when there’s a dead dog somewhere on the road. Oh yeah, you need to call another department for your question.”
  5. And thus I called that other number and finally got through, to the right people I (still) hope.

The officer at first was surprised at my question: obviously people don’t care much about immigration policies. Explaining my case in detail and that I care (obviously more than they do), I first got a lecture in how all those Russian “dancers” manage to stay in Europe seemingly forever.

I said I am not such a case, this is just for a tourist. I wanted to know if they have an immigration booth at the airport, if they have a line for EU and a line for non-EU visitors, and if they chop passports if we are boarding a direct flight to the UK.

As it turns out, they do have such a setup for flights outside the Schengen area and do chop *but* usually won’t count chops upon immigration. That means, if a visitor has a 90 days free entry and “checks in” for the first time in Germany, then travels to Luxembourg (no border), then leaves Luxembourg for the UK (border), the traveler checks out with a chop in Luxembourg on the way to the UK. The UK then checks in the passport with their own chop valid for 180 days, checks out when returning to Luxembourg, where again a check-in is made. In terms of check-ins and checkouts, it’s nothing different from traveling between Hong Kong and Thailand.

But how does this affect the counter of visa-free days? Now is a good time to take out the calculator. The visa-free period starts with the first check-in and counts down *without* interruption, *no matter* the zone was meanwhile left or not. It doesn’t matter how many counters run at the same time and for as long as the counters of different zones are not expired, traveling between those zones is unlimited.

Below information is wrong and has been corrected by the German border control at Frankfurt/Main international airport (FRA).

An example:

  • Non-EU traveler arrives in Germany, a Schengen Agreement member state.
    Passport is chopped and the 90 days visa-free period starts. It is followed by a 180 days blackout where re-immigration is not allowed without a visa. After those 180 days, visa-free immigration (always for tourist-only purpose) is again allowed.
  • Traveler can freely move around Schengen member states, such as take a plane from Germany to Italy, drive to Luxembourg etc… Passports are checked but not chopped. Road borders are usually *not* manned and even sometimes the airport border is deserted.
  • Traveler takes flight from Luxembourg on day 10 to the UK: checkout chop in Luxembourg.
  • Check-in in the UK, counter for 180 days visit starts.
  • 10 days later, travelers returns to any Shengen member state. UK checks out.
  • Luxembourg checks in: previous entry is less than 180 days ago, thus it must be within 90 days. The counter continued while being in the UK. Given now is the 20th day of the trip overall, 70 days remain on the Schengen counter. 170 days remain on the UK counter.
  • Traveler could now go back and forth between Schengen member countries and the UK for the next 70 days. Then the Schengen counter expires and the traveler would be stuck in the UK for the 90 days thereafter (or leave to any non-Schengen country or apply a Schengen visa).

An option would be to stay 90 days in the Schengen zone, then move to the UK for 180 days, and enter the Schengen zone again for 90 days. That’s an option the international “dancers” do.