Ok, I wrote a very lengthy question about being able to stay as a tourist in Italy (I am American) following the expiration of my Italian long-term (type D) student visa. After some searching, I found Article 6 Entry conditions for third country nationals Point 2 of the Schengen Borders Code and deleted the original question. The relevant text from the code is as follows:
...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.
Great. If I've just finished a long-stay visa, those days don't count in calculating the 90 days I have in the 90/180 rule for tourism.
However, the question I have is now this:
Even though I have been on a long-term Type D visa in Italy for longer than 180 days, does any time I spent in Italy as a tourist before the visa started count?
I know this might seem like a ridiculous question, but I spent slightly less than 90 days in Italy as a tourist before my long-term visa started and if these days did count, it would significantly reduce the amount of time I could stay in Italy as a tourist after my visa expires.
I'm asking because "shall not be taken into account" can be interpreted in slightly different ways: 1) as if they don't count at all in the 90 days of the 90/180 day rule and I'm good to go or 2) as if the entire period of your visa didn't exist at all and you need to factor in any time you spent in the Schengen Zone the day before your visa started. Does anyone have any idea about this?
This is just a side note, but I did make sure to exit the Schengen Zone and re-enter on the start-date of my visa, so I have a stamp with the visa's start-date.
Thanks for any information!
