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Hi I'm a US Citizen with a student visa for the Netherlands that expires December 1st. If I leave the Schengen zone November 30th (day before my student visa expires), to visit the Morocco (Non-Schengen country), can I re-enter the Schengen zone (Italy) still my student visa will be expired (December 3rd) and start as a tourist visit (tourist visa for 90 days)?

I know I can re-enter as a tourist back in the Netherlands but I wanted to take a post graduation trip to Italy and I'm using Morocco as my "layover" 72 hours out of Schengen zone.

Gayot Fow
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Carolyn
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  • If you are correct that you can re-enter NL as a tourist, then you can also re-enter Italy. I say "if you are correct" because I don't know the effect on the 90/180 rule for short-stay visas of recent presence on a different type of visa. – phoog Sep 16 '14 at 15:34
  • I now know what I didn't know. Time covered by a long-term visa such as a student visa does not count toward the 90/180 calculation. It is not even necessary to leave the Schengen area. Your 90-day count begins on the day after your visa expires, though you might have to add days that you spent in other Schengen countries during the visa's validity. – phoog Jun 16 '15 at 18:34

2 Answers2

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Yes, you can do that or, as Aditya Somani, explained simply stay in the Netherlands.

If you enter Italy after December 1st, you won't receive a visa but simply make use of the 90-day visa-free stay granted to US citizens. This is possible because the time spent under a long stay visa do not count towards the 90-day limit. If it did, it would not be possible to enter the Netherlands either.

The official source for this rule is article 5 of the Schengen Borders Code:

  1. For intended stays on the territory of the Member States of a duration of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, which entails considering the 180-day period preceding each day of stay, the entry conditions for third-country nationals shall be the following:

[…]

1a. For the purposes of implementing paragraph 1, the date of entry shall be considered as the first day of stay on the territory of the Member States and the date of exit shall be considered as the last day of stay on the territory of the Member States. Periods of stay authorised under a residence permit or a long-stay visa shall not be taken into account in the calculation of the duration of stay on the territory of the Member States.

(b) they are in possession of a valid visa, if required pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 of 15 March 2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement, except where they hold a valid residence permit or a valid long-stay visa;

The second paragraph explains the visa types that are applicable under this rule.

Gayot Fow
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Relaxed
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Yes you can. In fact you don't even need to re-enter the Schengen region

While studying in France, many of my friends (US citizens) were allowed to arrive earlier and stay later than their allowed limit (as per their Student Visa) and were not required to exit the country or the Schengen region at all.

Me as an Indian citizen was not allowed to do the same and was asked to leave the Schengen Area once my Student visa was expired. I confirmed both situations in great detail with the French Consulate in US and they assured me that I would have been eligible to stay longer provided I was a US citizen.

The Student Visa will not apply towards the 90/180 rule and the cycle will start afresh.

Aditya Somani
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  • Note that the rule also applies to you as an Indian citizen. In practice, it's less relevant because, unlike US citizens, you also need a visa but formally you could get one. – Relaxed Sep 16 '14 at 19:04