Schengen rules by nationality

For Americans, Britons, Canadians and Australians the answer is the same, which is worth saying plainly, because plenty of pages imply otherwise.

If you hold a passport from the United States, Canada, Australia or a British passport you do not need a visa for a short stay in Europe. All four sit on the European Union's own list of visa-exempt countries, and the limit that applies is the 90/180 rule: ninety days inside the area in any rolling one hundred and eighty.

What changes between the four is not the rule. It is only how easily you use days without noticing.

Britons: no habit of counting

Before 2021 there was nothing to count, so the habit never formed. A long summer, a ski week and two city breaks is most of the allowance gone, and nothing resets in January. If you own property in Europe, this rule decides how long you may sit in your own house.

Americans and Canadians: the trip that is really two

A three-week holiday rarely troubles the limit. A long trip broken by a week somewhere outside the area does, because the days on both sides still count and the gap in the middle counts for nothing.

Australians: the stopover nobody tallies

Flying to Europe usually means a night or two at each end. Those nights are days inside if you pass through passport control, and they are the ones most often left off.

ETIAS: not yet, whatever you have read

You will find pages telling you to apply for an ETIAS authorisation before you travel. As of today that is not true, and the European Union says so on its own page:

Read on the EU's own ETIAS page, 11 August 2026. The same page says the start date will be announced several months before launch, and that nationals of all four here will need one once it begins.

Two things follow. Anybody charging you for an ETIAS today is selling you nothing. And when it does start it is permission to travel, not extra days: the 90/180 limit is untouched by it.

What counts against you

The same for every passport on this page. Arrival day and departure day are each a full day whatever the hour. Airport transits count if you pass through passport control. The window is the last 180 days measured backwards from the day you are standing at the border, so it moves with you rather than resetting.

The method is in how to count the 180 days, and what happens when the count is wrong is in what happens if you overstay.

Check your own number

Put in the trips you have already taken and the calculator gives the date you must be out by, and shows when your days come back. Free, no sign-up, and nothing you type leaves your own browser. It is a helping tool: the officer at the border decides.