Schengen Strategies
Image: Artist unknown - multiple sites
On June 14, 1985, five European countries (France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands) signed an agreement in Schengen, Luxembourg to open borders with the goal of easing commerce and travel between the member nations. The rules under this agreement ultimately led to the creation of the Schengen Area on March 26, 1995.
Additional countries soon recognized benefits associated with the open border agreement and sought inclusion. Today, there are 26 member countries in the Schengen Area, the largest free travel zone in the world. The map above references the status of member countries in relation to Schengen and a list of countries that currently comprise the Schengen Area is depicted below.
So, how does the Schengen Area affect us and why must we create “Schengen Strategies” as we’re traveling? As US citizens, we can enjoy short stays in the Schengen Area for up to 90 days of every rolling 180-day period. Once we get close to our 90-day limit, we are required to exit the Schengen Area for a minimum of 90 days prior to returning.
Our entry date and exit date are both included in the 90-day calculation, even if we’re only present in a Schengen member country a few minutes before midnight, or during a layover. For example, if we spend 30 days in Portugal, 30 days in Italy and 30 days in Spain, including travel days, we need to leave the Schengen Area for at least 90 days before staying in any Schengen member country. Border control agents regularly inquire about the length and purpose of our visits. We’ve also been asked if we know how many days we’ve been in the Schengen Area, so we are quite focused on tracking this aspect of our travel.
We use an online Schengen Calculator to tally our time and we log our travel details in a spreadsheet for compliance documentation. It’s important to closely monitor our own country border crossings since overstaying in the Schengen Area could result in fines, deportation, or even a re-entry ban. We also leave a few extra “cushion” days open, to mitigate risk, when managing our Schengen stays. This practice allows for illness, flight delays/cancellations, border closures, or any other unpredictable scenarios that might impact our Schengen dates.
While spending 90 days in and 90 days out of the Schengen Area is a viable short-term solution for us, we remain focused on our long-term strategy. Our goal is to obtain a second passport through Portugal, which will ultimately provide us with dual US and EU citizenship, along with Visa-free travel to more than 180 countries. Historically, this has been a six-year process through Portugal’s Golden Visa Program, yet our experience has been a bit bumpier due to pandemic restrictions, staffing shortages, political challenges, etc.
Our quest for temporary European residency (which also grants the privilege of unlimited travel within the Schengen Area) began in May 2021. That was when our offer to purchase an investment condo in a new development in Lagos, Portugal was accepted. Over the next five months, we worked with Portuguese legal counsel while compiling the required documentation, establishing a Portuguese bank account, and following the final construction phases of our Lagos condominium complex.
The condo project was scheduled for completion in July 2021, yet as many people and companies have experienced, global supply shortages and other complications played roles in delaying progress. We finally closed on our condo on November 10, 2021 and our Portuguese Visa application was submitted to Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (Foreigners and Borders Service), commonly known as SEF, in December 2021.
Ideally, we would have secured a SEF interview and biometrics appointment in March or April of 2022. Due to the aforementioned issues, however, we’ve heard this appointment might be scheduled between October 2022 and early 2023. In the interim, we are eagerly waiting to hear from SEF since we will then schedule a Portugal visit for our in-person appointments and leave wherever we are planted in the world to participate at the designated time.
Up to six months after our SEF appointment, we should receive our temporary Portuguese residency cards. After five full years of temporary Portuguese residency and property ownership, we will be positioned to obtain Portuguese citizenship and EU passports. Assuming we pass our Portuguese language proficiency tests and maintain our clean criminal records, of course!
Travel and residency rules have been, and will continue to be, an educational process for us. Although we now own property in an EU country that we aren’t able to access at will, we remind ourselves that we are still considered visitors and it’s our responsibility to know, understand and follow the appropriate laws, policies and procedures. We appreciate this learning curve, while communicating what we are discovering, hoping the information might be helpful to others as they navigate their Schengen travels or Visa acquisitions.
It’s a big world and there are plenty of countries we can explore outside the Schengen Area. Spending our summer months in Ireland and Scotland at this time, for example, is fabulous! The Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom are not in the Schengen Area and it’s easy to pop around from a travel perspective. We're also anticipating upcoming 2023 stays in Albania, Croatia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and other non-Schengen countries.
For those who know us well, you’ll recognize that deviating from our initial plan to explore Europe in depth during the first few years of our new lifestyle is a stretch for us, since we are were itinerary-focused planners. It’s a valuable growth opportunity and we’re becoming more flexible while enjoying the freedom and rewards associated with doing so. We are meeting extraordinary people in every location, which is the greatest blessing associated with global travel—connecting with others, while hearing their stories, in various corners of the planet.
We’ll wrap up with a lovely story, which might be especially interesting to our friends in the real estate industry. As we mentioned, our condo construction delays resulted in a November 10th closing date. Our flights were scheduled to land in Lagos on November 1st, since we initially thought everything would have been finalized months earlier. We imagined we would need a short-term rental prior to closing, yet we were able to move in upon our arrival in Portugal!
Additionally, when rock star Sofia from Abode (our furniture store) heard we were coming, she and her team staged our furnishings, lamps, bed sheets, towels, dishes, etc in advance. Our thoughtful friend Megan also stocked some groceries in our kitchen, including much appreciated coffee, and she met us with our new keys when we drove up at 8pm. We received an incredibly warm welcome, 10 days before we officially purchased the property, for which we will always be grateful!
Thank you for sharing these experiences with us …
- Stephen & Brenda