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I came to Berlin on December 27 and stayed until now. My 90 days are almost over but last week I went to Croatia (which is not part of Schengen) for one night and came back to Berlin. My friends have told me that once I'm out of Schengen area I can restart my 90 days again.

Can I stay in Schengen area for another 90 days after leaving it for one day or do I have to leave it for 3 months to restart the 90 days period?

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  • If you want to stay longer than allowed by a tourist visa, you should ask at Expatriates Stack Exchange.
    – o.m.
    Mar 18, 2017 at 13:51
  • @o.m. but the question was rejected there as off topic. A good question for expatriates is "how can I stay in Germany for the purpose of the course I want to take," but that's not being asked here. This question is about the rules for a tourist visa.
    – phoog
    Mar 19, 2017 at 4:12

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Your friends are wrong.

Unless you have a long-stay visa or residence permit, you can only be in the Schengen area for 90 days out of any 180. Leaving and reentering does not change that.

(Another way to state this is that at any point on time you must be able to point to 90 different dates within the last 180 days when you were outside Schengen for that entire day, midnight to midnight).

Going to Croatia for a single night doesn't even affect the counting, because both the day you exit and the day you enter count as days in Schengen.

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    But doesn't the stamp on the passport counts? ?
    – Jimena Banderas
    Mar 18, 2017 at 14:51
  • @JimenaBanderas: The stamp in the passport is nothing more than documentation of when you traveled into and out of the Schengen area, such that one can count days for the 90-of-180 rule. The stamp is not a visa and does not entitle you to 90 days of stay.
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Mar 18, 2017 at 14:56
  • Thank you henning, I've got a last question: if I want to stay for a German language course starting on April, could I extend my visa or start my course while the student VISA is in tramit? Should I ask in auslanderbehorde? ?
    – Jimena Banderas
    Mar 18, 2017 at 15:03
  • @JimenaBanderas: The only way to stay legally beyond the 90-day-rule is to get a national long-stay visa or residence permit (or asylum or citizenship, etc). There is no way to extend the 90-day count itself.
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Mar 18, 2017 at 15:07

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