What the hell is the Schengen zone you might ask? Well you're in the right place because I'm going to tell you.
Hi everyone! Welcome to another episode of Digital Nomad TV.
I'm your host, Kristin Wilson.
And today, we are in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, one of my favorite Digital Nomad destinations.
Make sure to check out my videos on coworking and Amsterdam, as well as
Amsterdam as a Digital Nomad Destination,. I will link them.
So raise your hand if you've ever wanted to travel to Europe
But we're super confused about which countries you could go to, how long you could stay there and how all that works. Me, too
So as I was saying, I'm an American here in the Netherlands,
which is an EU country in the Schengen zone and that's what this video is all about
What the hell is the Schengen Zone? Who's in it? Who's not in it?
And how does it affect you. Just to sum it up, you have your EU Member States , your
European Member States that are in the Schengen
Your Schengen zone countries that are not in the EU
and your non-schengen EU countries, your EU non-schengen countries, your micro states, and
countries that are in the EU not in the Schengen but might be in the Schengen someday, sound confusing?
Exactly. And many a digital nomad has been stuck at the border or with an immigration agent because they overstayed their welcome.
But that's not going to happen to you because I'm gonna sum it up for you really quick.
So here are the only things you need to know, what the Schengen Zone is,
which countries are included, how long you can travel there, and a couple other fun facts I'll throw in at the end
Coincidentally, the first time I was in Amsterdam was in 2013
and I thought that I was going to stay a month or so in every European country
But then I realized what the Schengen Zone was.
The Schengen area was established by the EU in 1995 and it was just basically a way to
open up the borders and allow the free flow of goods and people to of course boost
economic growth. On the pro side, the Schengen Zone allows free travel through 22 of the 28 European Union member states.
But it doesn't just include European Member States. So there are actually 26 total member states in the Schengen area
22 of them are from Europe. These are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland,
Portugal, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. Then there are 4 countries that are not EU Member States
But they're still in the Schengen and those are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway
and Switzerland
Then there are a few microstates and these are the smaller states like San Marino, the Vatican City, Monaco
Andorra. And these are not officially Schengen countries, but they're still basically generally considered part of the Schengen.
Three of them,
San Marino, Monaco and the Vatican are considered de-facto
Schengen States. And then who are those four other strugglers who are entering the Schengen sometime soon?
Well, I'm glad you asked because it's Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia and Romania
So what about other EU countries that are not part of the Schengen
but are in the EU who are these people making everything so difficult? Well, that's the UK, Ireland Northern Ireland and
the three British Crown Dependencies. So this is Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man.
Gibraltar which is also part of Europe is actually an overseas territory. It's not part of the EU or the Schengen.
So it's its own category. So what does it mean for you? Basically if you're from the US,
Canada, Australia
New Zealand and other generally considered states countries like Japan, South Korea, and even throughout Latin America,
Mexico, Costa Rica. And I'll link all of the countries below then you probably don't need a visa to travel for up to 90 days
every 180 days in the Schengen zone. Anyone from many parts of Eastern Europe Africa the Middle East and
the South Pacific
probably need a visa. So to travel within the EU you need a passport and
you can break up the ninety days over a hundred and eighty days or you can have them all consecutively back-to-back and
It just means that you can only remain within
Schengen zone countries
not Europe, not the EU but specifically Schengen countries for 90 days total cumulatively
180 day period.
So,
there are actually some apps that I'll link below
that you can put in all of your travel dates and track the days and that's the easiest way to do it. Now,
there's a lot of talk on the internet over who enforces this rule and who doesn't
but in my opinion it's better to be safe than sorry.
There are rumors that some of the Latin countries like Malta and Italy aren't as strict as
Germany or the Netherlands or the UK for that matter, which is a separate thing. But
you know,
you should still abide by the rules because you don't want to get deported and you don't want to get banned from the EU either,
or the Schengen zone. So the general rule of thumb is that you can stay in all of those countries that I listed
for up to 90 days
per 180 days and then if you want to remain on the continent
but you have run out of time in those Schengen zone countries, then what you could theoretically do is
travel to a
EU non-schengen country like the UK or Ireland or
another EU Member State that is pending Schengen like Romania, Cyprus,
Croatia, Bulgaria, or
an Eastern European
country that's not in the EU and not in the Schengen. And you can still remain in the general vicinity of Europe.
So that's my short explanation of the Schengen zone,
what it means, who's included, who's in , who's out?
I hope that you guys found this helpful and make sure that you follow the rules or your next euro trip.
That's all for today's episode of Digital Nomad TV. Make sure to come back next week. We're here every Wednesday at 12 p.m. eastern.