Schengen: 90 days in any 180, counted automatically by EES. Croatia is now in Schengen too, so the old summer border queues are gone.
The Schengen arithmetic
- 90 days in any rolling 180. Not 90 days per visit and not 90 days per country. Every day anywhere in the Schengen area counts against the same allowance.
- Slovenia is a full Schengen member, and so is Croatia since 2023 - so the notorious summer queues on the road to the Adriatic are no longer a border check.
- Arriving from Austria, Italy or Hungary involves nothing at all.
- The rolling window is the part people get wrong. On any given day, count back 180 days and add up your Schengen days in that period.
- The passport must have been issued within the last 10 years and be valid for 3 months beyond your intended departure.
EES: no more stamps
- The EU Entry/Exit System has been fully operational since 10 April 2026.
- Your face and fingerprints are registered on first entry at a Schengen external border, and reused on later trips.
- No stamp goes in your passport. The system computes your 90/180 balance itself.
- Keep your own record of entry and exit dates. If the system's view and yours differ, you want the evidence.
ETIAS: not yet, and no date
- ETIAS has not launched and there is no announced launch date. The Q4 2026 target that circulated through 2025 was removed from the official pages in July 2026.
- Applications are not open. Any website selling you an ETIAS today is a scam.
- When it comes, the fee is EUR 20, free for under-18s and over-70s. The old EUR 7 figure is obsolete.
- It will be a travel authorisation, not a visa, valid three years or until the passport expires.
Where your nationality lands
| You hold | What you need |
|---|---|
| Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Poland | Nothing. EU freedom of movement |
| USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan | No visa. 90/180, EES registration |
| China, India, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia | Schengen visa in advance |
| Russia | Schengen visa in advance, single entry as a rule |
-
The Schengen short stay visa fee is EUR 90, EUR 45 for children aged 6 to 11.
-
Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro are outside Schengen. A drive down the Adriatic that dips into Bosnia at Neum crosses an external border twice - which now means EES, not a wave-through.
Comments
No comments yet. Share the first one.
Share a tip
Sign in to continue.