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everyone! Please bear with me, I am absolutely panicking and have worried I have absolutely miscalculated the time I have been in Finland. I am trying to do the right thing and honestly am at a loss.

My backstory: I am American, but am studying my PhD in Germany and have a German residency permit, as a result. My partner is Finnish, and living in Espoo, FI. We have dated about two years, and I have visited Finland every so often for short periods of time (a week, or two weeks, generally) over those two years.

Recently, I came to stay on March 21, 2021. I've had some severe health issues with kidney stones, and have been in and out of the hospital here in Espoo during that time. I am struggling to walk, am miserable and in pain, and have been essentially bedridden with my partner caring for me. I am still in pain to the point where I honestly don't think I can hop on a flight back to Germany -- I live totally alone there, with no support.

I am wildly terrified I may have accidentally overstayed. I have not been here for 90 days, yet -- I arrived on March 21. However, I have visited my partner a few times over the past few years and am not sure how to calculate those past visits in with my current visit. I honestly don't know what to do, am a mess, and struggling to find accurate info online about what I need to do or how to calculate my time. Would anyone be willing to talk to me and walk me through it? Is there a way I can contact someone here in Finland for a temporary stay extension, if need be?

I do believe that if I calculate my past visits (short stays in Nov., Dec., and early March), I might be 4-5 days over the 90/180 day limit.

Thank you so much, in advance! I am feeling terrified and pressed for time, and would love any support. I have emailed Raja, Migri, the American embassy, and the local police stations, asking their opinion, as well.

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    Related question travel.stackexchange.com/questions/11114/… Have you tried using ec.europa.eu/assets/home/visa-calculator/calculator.htm?lang=en to work out your stays? Without definitive dates it’s not possible to answer your question, can you edit them into it?
    – Traveller
    Commented May 12, 2021 at 21:00
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    We're in May now. Would your November visit be counted in the 180 period?
    – reallydismayed
    Commented May 13, 2021 at 0:03
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    I don’t think you should panic. In practice the 90/180 rule is not enforced when you are a long term resident. You may have noticed that there is no passport control between Germany and Finland. Nobody is keeping track of your movements within the Schengen area...
    – Krist van Besien
    Commented May 13, 2021 at 6:50
  • @Krist van Besien They might be now, since the OP says they have emailed the local police :-)
    – Traveller
    Commented May 13, 2021 at 13:11
  • At the moment there is passport control between Finland and the rest of the Schengen area so it is possible that they were indeed registered on the way in, but presumably there are no exit checks so they may not actually be keeping track.
    – Lll
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 20:19

2 Answers 2

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The Schengen rules are a rolling window. You can spend 90 days out of every 180 days outside the country of your long-stay visa. Today is May 14th, 2021, so visits before November 16th, 2020 do not matter any more. Tomorrow, the window will be November 17th to May 15th. The day after that, it will be November 18th to May 16th.

The visits in December and early March do count. The visit in November may or may not count, depending on when you left. Count the days (and remember that partial days count in full, and so do visits/transits in other Schengen member states outside Germany).

Between March 21th, 2021, and May 14th, 2021, you have used up 55 days.

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There is a great app I have found that is a Schengen calculator app. You can put in and lock days you have already been in the Schengen area, then go forward a put in proposed travel days. It's very useful. It tells you when you must leave by and when you can return as it takes in the rolling 180 day period.

Android app

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  • There are (or used to be) also websites with this kind of calculator.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jan 12, 2023 at 18:52

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