Remaining in a Schengen country for more than 90 days -- WITHOUT a long stay visa
Overview
This is a compilation of information regarding “bilateral visa agreements” between the United States and various countries in Europe (specifically, in the Schengen zone). The goal is to have all the information available in one place to facilitate border crossings, as it’s unlikely that all border control agents will be aware of these agreements.
Disclaimer
I have pulled this information from various sources on the Internet, in March 2026. To the extent possible I have provided links to seemingly authoritative (national) websites, but I am certainly not an immigration or international law expert. Use this information at your own risk. I encourage you to do your own verification and look for more recent information before traveling. Feedback is appreciated.
What are bilateral agreements?
The gist of the matter is this: prior to the establishment of the Schengen agreement, many countries had bilateral agreements to allow visa-free travel for their nationals. These agreements typically provided for 90 days (sometimes expressed as “three months”) of visa-free travel. Many of these agreements are still in force, and were not negated by the advent of Schengen.
What this means practically is that, once the 90 days of Schengen-permitted travel have been exhausted, another 90 days of travel are permitted under the bilateral agreement, extending the total duration in a single Schengen country to 180 days.
To invoke these agreements, it is necessary to enter and leave the countries in question at an external border point; the usual seamless travel between Schengen countries does not apply.
However, the extension is per-country, so it is possible to move amongst Schengen countries for much longer than 180 days. The specific authorization for this is in Article 20 of the Schengen agreement. The EU website has a list of the countries with such bilateral agreements. The list is available in the language of each country.
I will focus on the United States (since that’s where I’m from…).
The Schengen countries that have a bilateral agreement with the U.S. (and links to relevant pages, where I could find them) are:
Suggested statement at the border
"I'm [ENTERING/EXITING] [NAME OF COUNTRY] [FOR/AFTER] a total of [NUMBER] of days in accordance to the bilateral agreement of [AGREEMENT YEAR] between [NAME OF COUNTRY] and the United States."
References
Good, and recent, blog post regarding using bilateral agreements to remain in Schengen
EU documentation regarding the establishment of the Entry/Exit System (EES). In particular, it contains an amendment to the Schengen agreement Article 20, which deals with bilateral agreements.
The Schengen acquis - the convention implementing the Schengen Agreement
Schengen Agreement article 20 on bilateral agreements
This is as amended by the establishment of EES.
CHAPTER VIII
AMENDMENTS TO OTHER UNION INSTRUMENTS
Article 60
Amendment to the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement
Article 20 of the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement is amended as follows:
(1)
paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:
‘2. Paragraph 1 shall not affect each Contracting Party’s right to extend beyond 90 days in any 180-day period an alien’s stay on its territory:
(a)
in exceptional circumstances; or
(b)
in accordance with a bilateral agreement concluded before the entry into force of this Convention and notified to the Commission in accordance with paragraph 2d.’;
(2)
the following paragraphs are inserted:
‘2a. The stay of an alien on the territory of a Contracting Party may be extended in accordance with a bilateral agreement pursuant to point (b) of paragraph 2, upon request of the alien, and lodged with the competent authorities of that Contracting Party on entry or during the stay of the alien at the latest on the last working day of his or her 90-day stay in any 180-day period.
Where the alien has not lodged a request during the 90-day stay in any 180-day period, his or her stay may be extended pursuant to a bilateral agreement concluded by a Contracting Party and his or her stay beyond the 90-day stay in any 180-day period preceding that extension may be presumed lawful by the competent authorities of that Contracting Party, provided that that alien presents credible evidence which proves that during that time he or she stayed only on the territory of that Contracting Party.
2b. Where the stay is extended pursuant to paragraph 2 of this Article, the competent authorities of that Contracting Party shall enter the data related to the extension in the latest relevant entry/exit record linked to the alien’s individual file contained in the Entry/Exit System established by Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( *1 ). Such data shall be entered in accordance with Article 19 of that Regulation.
2c. Where the stay is extended pursuant to paragraph 2, the alien concerned shall be authorised to stay only on the territory of that Contracting Party and exit at the external borders of that Contracting Party.
The competent authority which extended the stay shall inform the alien concerned that the extension of stay authorises the alien concerned to stay only on the territory of that Contracting Party and that he or she is to exit at the external borders of that Contracting party.
2d. By 30 March 2018, the Contracting Parties shall notify the text of their relevant applicable bilateral agreements as referred to in point (b) of paragraph 2 to the Commission. If a Contracting Party ceases to apply any of those bilateral agreements, it shall notify the Commission thereof. The Commission shall publish information about such bilateral agreements in the Official Journal of the European Union, including at least the Member States and third countries concerned, the rights derived for aliens from those bilateral agreements, as well as any changes thereto.
