Rules on spending too long in another EU country are in place for everyone
Reader Question: I am a non-EU citizen with a Spanish residency permit and spend most of the year in Menorca. Am I impacted in visiting France by the 90/180 day rule?
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The 90/180 day rule limits the amount of time tourists with visa-free access can spend in the Schengen Area cumulatively between all countries in the bloc.
Their limit for a visa-free ‘short stay’ is no more than 90 days in the area, looking back from today, in the last 180-day period.
The 90/180 day rule also applies to visitors who require a short-term visa to enter the bloc in the first place (such as those from India, China, Morocco) when they travel around the bloc outside of the country for which they have a visa.
As a general rule, non-EU/EEA/Swiss citizens who have a visa/residency card for a Schengen area country (such as France or Spain) can spend time in other Schengen countries also while respecting the rule of 90/180 days with regard to their travel outside the home country (even though this will not always be checked on where open borders apply).
In practice, they should respect the rules for a ‘short stay’, when outside the country they live in, ie. in your case, Spain.
Check your residency permit
Be mindful of spending too much time in a different EU country.
As mentioned, visa/residency card holders cannot as a general rule spend more than 90 of any 180 days in another EU country they do not have the right to live in.
If they wish to do so they may have to obtain a visa to live there.
‘Long-term EU residents’ (this term refers to non-EU citizens who have been in the bloc for at least five years and have a card equal to the French carte de résident de longue-durée- UE) can remain for more than three months in another country in some cases without a visa but would still have to apply for a residency permit in this new country to be able to do so.
However, if you only plan to spend less than three months in France before returning to Spain – or to visit multiple Schengen countries while respecting the rule of 90/180 days – you can do so without formalities.
