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I hold UK and Australian citizenship/passport, and have entered Europe on my UK passport. I plan to leave Europe and head back to the UK after about 3 weeks stay, but will need to return to Europe afterward for another week.

Is there an issue with me entering Europe with my Australian passport?

Bearing in mind that both UK and Aus passports allow visa free travel in Europe for 90 days within 180 day period, would this then start a "fresh" 90 day period, or would it count towards the original 3 weeks already used up?

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    The 90/180 day rule applies to the individual, not the passport. You’ve only used 3 weeks out of the 90 days allowed. Why risk any issues either now or in the future by using a different passport to return for just 1 more week?
    – Traveller
    Jun 19 at 6:02
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    The 90/180 rule does not have "fresh" periods or whatever. It is a constant, rolling 180 period - look up how it works so you understand how not to breach it (although your current travel plans would not, regardless of which passports you used)
    – CMaster
    Jun 19 at 14:17
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    this has been asked to death by people who think they found a loophole in the stay duration rules...
    – njzk2
    Jun 19 at 18:56

2 Answers 2

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Officially your time in the Schengen area is per person, so added for both passports.

In practice people sometimes report that using two passports the border officials ignored the one not in their hands.
On the other hand, I have also heard of people who were asked about other nationalities and had to proof they had not overstayed their 90 days.

In the future a system with computer registration will be started, which should keep track of your time in Schengen and then you will not be allowed to add the time on the two passports.

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    "In the future" is in this case next year (at least it was the last time I looked, which was a couple of weeks ago).
    – phoog
    Jun 18 at 18:02
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    It has been 'next year' for a few years now, I believe the start date when they have started it.
    – Willeke ♦
    Jun 18 at 18:04
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    The risk of using two passports to get two stays is that sometime in the future authorities will do a detailed investigation (e.g. because you need permission to stay long term) and when they find you did this you will be guilty of overstay.
    – DJClayworth
    Jun 18 at 18:13
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    Whatever happens, it’s not a matter of it being somehow allowed, just a matter of not getting caught (at least temporarily). The rule most definitely applies to the person, not any of the passports. Even with a single citizenship, as the only easy record is the list of stamps in the passport, border officials won’t be able to easily detect overstays if one just get a new passport… That does not make it legal in any way.
    – jcaron
    Jun 18 at 20:57
  • "It has been 'next year' for a few years now": actually I was confusing the date with the ETIAS date. The only date I could find for EES on an official EU page was "May 2023," but I found a news article from February 2023 saying "Originally slated to launch in 2022, the EES was at first rescheduled for May 2023. Now, it is due to come into effect by the end of 2023." (euronews.com/travel/2023/02/27/…). They have certainly earned your skepticism about the date.
    – phoog
    Jun 19 at 9:28
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Let’s make it clear: you can have however many citizenships and passports, as long as the 90/180 rule applies to you, it applies to you, not each of your citizenships or passports separately.

So, no, coming back on a different passport does not reset anything.

Yes, it will be harder for a border official to determine whether you are or aren’t within your allowance, as currently the only simple way they have is to check stamps in your passport and count the days, so like if you renewed a passport, they will only get part of the picture.

But if they become suspicious for whatever reason, dig a bit further, and find out your other passport or find traces of your presence in Schengen via other means, then you could be in big trouble. Not only could you be turned away immediately, but you may have difficulty ever coming back.

Of course this will become a lot easier for them once the forever-delayed EES and ETIAS come into force, but even before then, it’s just not allowed.

But in any case, 3 weeks and then another week sometime later is well within the 90/180 limit, with months to spare.

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    Surely travelling on the UK passport sometimes and the Australian passport at other times is fine? (as long as you aren't attempting to use that to disguise breaking the 90/180 of course and are honest about other nationalities if asked). Your answer makes it sound like you must commit to one or the other passport forever
    – Richard Tingle
    Jun 19 at 21:19

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