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BREXIT

Brexit: How Brits can properly plan their 90 out of 180 days in Spain and Schengen Area

British second home owners and other UK nationals in Spain who aren’t residents in the country now have to plan their time carefully to not fall foul of the law whilst making the most of their new non-EU rights. Here are some ways to do it successfully.

Published: 7 September 2021 16:55 CEST
Updated: 27 September 2021 12:12 CEST
Brexit: How Brits can properly plan their 90 out of 180 days in Spain and Schengen Area
Can Brits in Spain get a Schengen visa extension or overstay? And what are their other options? Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP

Know the rules 

As you probably know, since the start of 2021 non-resident Brits can stay 90 days in any 180-day period within the Schengen Area, including Spain.

The date of entry is considered as the first day of stay in the Schengen territory and the date of exit is considered as the last day of stay in the Schengen territory.

However, it is possible to leave and re-enter the Schengen Area over that six-month period.

“The 180-day reference period is not fixed,” as the EU explains, “it is a moving window, based on the approach of looking backwards”.

That means taking a calendar and highlighting all the time spent in Spain and other Schengen countries already over the past 180 days.

There are also Schengen calculators that do the job for you. 

If police or border officials ever question how long you’ve been in the EU, this will be how they calculate if you’ve overstayed or not. 

It’s worth stressing as well that the Schengen rule doesn’t work with the calendar year, it’s always a case of counting back 180 days.

Schengen countries are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Time spent in Spain or the Schengen Area authorised under a residence permit or a long-stay visa are not taken into account in the calculation of the duration of the 90-day visa-free stay. 

Map: European Travel Information & Authorization System

Accept that you’ll probably have to spend some time away from Spain 

Whatever your preferences or calculations for your time spent in Spain and other Schengen countries, if you exhaust the 90 days in 180 day-period all in one go, you will have to spend 90 days outside of the Schengen Area. 

As the europa.eu website puts it, “an absence for an uninterrupted period of 90 days allows for a new stay for up to 90 days”.  

So when that happens, know that 90 full days outside of the Schengen Area and Spain will give you a new period of 90 days.

Plan ahead to make sure this absence from the Schengen Area doesn’t fall at a time when you want to be in Spain. 

However, remember that you are always counting back the last 180 days, so if you have not exhausted the 90-day limit over the past six months, you will not have to leave the Schengen Area until that’s the case. 

Plan for winter in the sun 

If you kickstart your 90 out of 180 day period during the summer in Spain, it will mean that the six-month window will end in winter, and you won’t be able to enter the Schengen Area for the next three months. 

For many Brits in this situation it will mean spending the coldest, darkest and wettest months of the year back in ‘Blighty’, which is often exactly what they don’t want.

In order to enjoy warmer winters in Spain and mild summers in the UK, try to avoid starting your 180-day Schengen window in summer and wait instead until at least October or November to enjoy three months of winter sunshine for the following six months.

Photo: JOSE JORDAN / AFP

Consider neighbouring countries outside Schengen 

If you have to leave Spain but you don’t want to return to the UK, consider spending some time in countries outside of the Schengen Area that aren’t too distant. 

Morocco, Cyprus and Turkey are three options with more temperate climates and affordable prices.

It’s worth highlighting that time spent in other Schengen countries counts too, so factor this in if you’re planning on travelling around Europe. 

Split your time in Spain into several trips

Over a period of 180 days, you can spend four three-week holidays (22.5 days each) in Spain, and alternate it with three-week periods in the UK or outside the Schengen Area.

You can also break the three months you have available into six-week periods. For example, if you arrive at the beginning of November in Spain, spend six weeks there till the middle of December, then return to the UK to spend Christmas and New Year in the UK, then go back to Spain in the middle of January until the end of February.

The UK’s Covid-19 travel restrictions and testing requirements mean this isn’t as affordable or practical at the moment, but in normal times there are countless low-cost airlines operating between both countries to make it a feasible option. 

This way you’ll be able to spread out your time in Spain over a six-month period. 

REMINDER: What are the rules for travel between Spain and the UK in September 2021?

Play by the rules 

It is possible for third-country nationals such as Britons to get a short-stay visa extension which would allow them to spend more than 90 in 180 days in Spain. 

But as Spanish authorities point out, you have to prove “exceptional reasons” for this extension to be accepted – usually force majeure reasons- and all the trouble you’ll go to process the paperwork (including proof of financial resources) isn’t worth it for the few extra weeks you’ll get. 

Needless to say, spending time in your Spanish home doesn’t count as an exceptional reason. 

Then there’s the matter of overstaying. Spain hasn’t given unregistered Brits already in the country before 2021 a date by which to register, although the advice for months from the UK embassy has been to become residents as soon as possible. 

READ MORE: When is the deadline for Brits to apply for residency in Spain?

Needless to say, overstaying your time in Spain is not a good idea. There is no clear mention in Spanish government sources regarding fines, deportations or travel bans from the Schengen Area for overstayers. 

But the likelihood of there being a record of this is high. Some sources say there are consequences, others that there aren’t, but the risk isn’t worth it if you intend to keep travelling back and forth between Spain and the UK for the foreseeable future.

READ ALSO: Can non-resident Brits in Spain get an extension on the 90-day rule and what happens if they overstay?

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For members

GIBRALTAR

Why has Gibraltar still not reached a Brexit deal with Spain?

With yet another round of Spain-UK negotiations set to begin more than eight years since the Brexit referendum, Gibraltar is still without a deal and a November deadline looms over any treaty. Why has it proven so hard to break the deadlock?

Published: 17 September 2024 13:38 CEST
Why has Gibraltar still not reached a Brexit deal with Spain?

On Thursday September 19th, Spain and the UK resume talks on Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status, and has been the case since 2016, uncertainty is still the prevailing feeling.

The British Foreign Secretary David Lammy recently received his Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares in London. Both did their diplomatic duties and talked up the prospects of a deal, with Lammy stating he hoped for an agreement that would ensure greater “prosperity and security for the people of Gibraltar.”

Albares, for his part, understandably centred any hypothetical deal on a “shared prosperity between Gibraltar and the 300,000 Andalusians connected every day in their normal lives”.

READ ALSO: Gibraltar demands Spain return stolen concrete block in new diplomatic spat

Though Lammy and Albares discussed the Rock, no formal negotiations or deal can be struck without EU oversight, so the meeting also included discussion of bilateral issues and international concerns such as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The meeting between the two Ministers was therefore a preamble to yet more formal treaty negotiations in Brussels on Thursday. Since Brexit came into effect at the end of 2020, Gibraltar has essentially existed in legal limbo with no formal treaty.

Border controls have been fudged ever since, leaving locals and Spaniards across the border faced with inconsistent rules and forcing travellers to find creative ways to bypass rules and get over ‘La Línea’. 

Why hasn’t a deal been reached?

So why all the meetings and pre-meetings and endless rounds of negotiations? How is it possible that Gibraltar is still without a Brexit deal all these years later?

A recent piece in El País by Rafa de Miguel, the daily’s UK and Ireland correspondent, perhaps put it best: “The amount of warm words in any political statement is inversely proportional to the progress in the negotiations.”

The reality is that, however many handshakes and photo opportunities and positive attitudes expressed between Spain and the UK on a bilateral level, these are ultimately irrelevant as nothing can be signed without the EU’s approval. 

This is further complicated by the fact that this makes any deal dependent on four way negotiations between Spain, the UK, the EU, and Gibraltar.

Each of these parties has their own individual set of needs, preferences and motivations. The EU won’t want to be seen to give Gibraltar, and by extension the UK, any special treatment for fear of emboldening other member states who desire bespoke arrangements when it comes to border controls and customs checks.

In light of Germany recently reimplementing land border checks, something some say is a direct violation of Schengen rules, this will be especially sensitive in these latest rounds of negotiations. 

Spain has long made territorial claims on Gibraltar dating back to the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, when the overseas territory was first ceded to the UK, and will want to come out of negotiations with something that can be perceived as a political victory, likely an increased Spanish role in border patrols.

Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, has ruled this out definitively over the last few years, citing concerns about British sovereignty.

The UK government in London will also have worries about British sovereignty, but will balance this with the knowledge that Gibraltar negotiations are also an opportunity to reset relations with Europe more widely, something the new Starmer government has repeatedly stated since coming into power.

READ ALSO: ‘It’s time to reset Britain’s relations with Europe’, says UK foreign secretary

Some reports, however, suggest that despite the positive musings coming from London, negotiations have stalled and that Lammy has no intention of signing anything that would deviate from Gibraltar’s needs and concerns.

Political tensions were increased recently when Gibraltar demanded Spanish far-right party Vox return a concrete block stolen from British waters, and the Euro 2024 winning Spanish football team made international headlines when it celebrating by singing ‘Gibraltar es Español’ (Gibraltar is Spanish).

READ ALSO: ‘Gibraltar is Spanish!’: How Spain celebrated Euro 2024 heroes

Despite wanting to improve relations with the EU, Lammy is expected to reiterate the Labour government’s unwavering commitment to the “double lock” on sovereignty, sources told El País.

Perhaps most pressingly, however, is the fact that these new negotiations now have a deadline: the enforcement of new Schengen Area border rules come into force on November 10th and a treaty must be finalised before then. 

READ MORE: Hard border? What we know so far about new Gibraltar-Spain checks

Schengen Zone rules mean that there are two major outstanding points in treaty negotiations: firstly, the sore point of Spanish border guards on British soil, something Gibraltar rejects outright, and also the question of who would run Gibraltar’s airport, which is located on the isthmus between Spain and the British territory, an area Madrid claims was never included in Treaty of Utrecht.

The most contested aspect of negotiations is Madrid’s demand that Spanish agents should be allowed to carry out checks on passengers arriving at Gibraltar airport and that they should be armed and in uniform.

For many Llanitos (Gibraltar locals) this is an intolerable idea and one Picardo rejects outright: “There will be no Spanish boots on the ground,” he has said repeatedly.

On the other hand, Spain argues that no specific protocol can be designed for Gibraltar and that if it wants to join the border-free European area, it must accept Schengen rules.

Spanish boots on British soil is a particularly visceral point for many Gibraltarians of a certain age. In June 1969, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco closed the border gate between Gibraltar and La Línea de la Concepción, cutting the tiny overseas territory off from the world, separating Spanish-British families and forcing Gibraltar to source food from elsewhere on the planet. 

It was eventually reopened in December in 1982 but those 13 years have taken deep root in Gibraltar’s historical memory and is now embedded into the Llanito collective imagination and identity.

For many on ‘The Rock’, the idea of Spanish border guards on British soil, whether it be in the airport or elsewhere, is simply unacceptable under any circumstances. 

Tax could also prove to be a sticking point. Gibraltar has no VAT, but Madrid has argued that if it wants to benefit from fluid border movement, its tax rules must be brought into line with EU rules.

Of course, there’s also both the domestic and international geopolitical contexts to consider here too. All parties – Spain, the UK, Gibraltar and the EU – have been distracted by other events in recent years.

Spain has been preoccupied by political tension, snap elections and the Catalan amnesty, while Britain suffered the almost cartoonish political instability of the outgoing Conservative government and treaty talks were postponed after the general election in July.

Added to this is the fact that the mediating party, the EU, has had its hands full with the war in Ukraine and surging far-right parties across member states, a trend that interestingly both the UK and Spain buck as the only major European states with centre-left governments.

Talks resume on Thursday September 19th, over 8 years since the Brexit referendum.

In British politics, the UK’s exit from the EU now seems strangely absent from debate, as though the issue is over and the country has finally begun to move on — but for Gibraltarians and the thousands of Spaniards who cross the border and work there everyday, Brexit is still an open-ended question.

READ ALSO: ‘Starting now’: New UK govt wastes no time in Gibraltar post-Brexit talks with Spain

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