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Warning over fines for people who overstay 90-day limit in France

British second-home owners and visitors to France are being warned not to overstay their 90-day limit, as border guards begin checking passports and issuing fines.

Published: 23 November 2021 13:34 CET
Warning over fines for people who overstay 90-day limit in France
Since Brexit, Brits are subject to the 90-day rule. Photo: Sam van der Wal/AFP

Since the end of the Brexit transition period, Brits who don’t have either a residency card or a visa face limits on their stays in France.

But while the 90-day rule was widely known in advance – and has always been in place for other non-EU nationals like Americans and Canadians – it was not clear how strictly it would be policed.

Now British visitors have reported being stopped and fined at the border upon exit if the entry stamp in their passport is more than 90 days old.

The Local has previously reported on the case of Kerry, who was fined after her passport was incorrectly stamped as a non-resident.

But several other Brits have reported being fined after visits to France that lasted more than 90 days, in one case for an overstay of just two days. Fines can also be accompanied with a stamp in your passport marking you as an over-stayer, which can make future travel complicated. 

Brits who live in France can prove their residency status by showing their carte de séjour, in which case the 90-day rule does not apply.

However those who are not resident and are merely visiting – either on holiday or to stay in second homes – have only two options; either stay less than 90 days or get a visa.

90 days

The 90-day rule is broken down in more detail HERE, but in essence it gives visitors from certain non-EU countries access to short visits without the need to get a visa.

The allowance is 90 days in every 180 – so in total over the course of a year you can be in France for 180 days, but these cannot be taken together. This is a problem for second home owners who like to spend the summer in France and the winter in the UK, or vice versa.

The other important thing to note is that the limit is for the entire EU and Schengen area, so trips to all EU or Schengen countries, not just France, count towards the 90-day limit.

To help you work out your allowance, you can find the Schengen calculator here.

Visa

Those who want to spend more than 90 days at a time will need to get a visa.

You can find a fuller explanation of the French visa system HERE.

Different types of visa exist, but the most common for second-home owners who do not intend to work in France is the visitor visa.

Crucially, visas must be applied for in your home country so that can enter France showing both the passport and visa, so that the 90-day ‘clock’ does not begin ticking.

Member comments

  1. It’s one thing informing the public but someone needs to urgently inform those working at the border when to stamp the passport and when not to. I mean, how difficult can that be ?

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TRAVEL NEWS

How do the EU’s new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

As European travellers prepare for the introduction of enhanced passport checks known as the Entry & Exit System (EES), many readers have asked us what this means for the '90-day rule' for non-EU citizens.

Published: 1 May 2024 07:18 CEST
How do the EU's new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

From the start date to the situation for dual nationals and non-EU residents living in the EU, it’s fair to say that readers of The Local have a lot of questions about the EU’s new biometric passport check system known as EES.

You can find our full Q&A on how the new system will work HERE, or leave us your questions HERE.

And one of the most commonly-asked questions was what the new system changes with regards to the 90-day rule – the rule that allows citizens of certain non-EU countries (including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to spend up to 90 days in every 180 in the EU without needing a visa.

And the short answer is – nothing. The key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any rules on immigration, visas etc.

Therefore the 90-day rule continues as it is – but what EES does change is the enforcement of the rule.

90 days 

The 90-day rule applies to citizens of a select group of non-EU countries;

Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Macau, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City and Venezuela.

Citizens of these countries can spend up to 90 days in every 180 within the EU or Schengen zone without needing a visa or residency permit.

People who are citizens of neither the EU/Schengen zone nor the above listed countries need a visa even for short trips into the EU – eg an Indian or Chinese tourist coming for a two-week holiday would require a visa. 

In total, beneficiaries of the 90-day rule can spend up to six months in the EU, but not all in one go. They must limit their visits so that in any 180-day (six month) period they have spent less than 90 days (three months) in the Bloc.

READ ALSO How does the 90-day rule work?

The 90 days are calculated according to a rolling calendar so that at any point in the year you must be able to count backwards to the last 180 days, and show that you have spent less than 90 of them in the EU/Schengen zone.

You can find full details on how to count your days HERE.

If you wish to spend more than 90 days at a time you will have to leave the EU and apply for a visa for a longer stay. Applications must be done from your home country, or via the consulate of your home country if you are living abroad.

Under EES 90-day rule beneficiaries will still be able to travel visa free (although ETIAS will introduce extra changes, more on that below).

EES does not change either the rule or how the days are calculated, but what it does change is the enforcement.

Enforcement

One of the stated aims of the new system is to tighten up enforcement of ‘over-stayers’ – that is people who have either overstayed the time allowed on their visa or over-stayed their visa-free 90 day period.

At present border officials keep track of your time within the Bloc via manually stamping passports with the date of each entry and exit to the Bloc. These stamps can then be examined and the days counted up to ensure that you have not over-stayed.

The system works up to a point – stamps are frequently not checked, sometimes border guards incorrectly stamp a passport or forget to stamp it as you leave the EU, and the stamps themselves are not always easy to read.

What EES does is computerise this, so that each time your passport is scanned as you enter or leave the EU/Schengen zone, the number of days you have spent in the Bloc is automatically tallied – and over-stayers will be flagged.

For people who stick to the limits the system should – if it works correctly – actually be better, as it will replace the sometimes haphazard manual stamping system.

But it will make it virtually impossible to over-stay your 90-day limit without being detected.

The penalties for overstaying remain as they are now – a fine, a warning or a ban on re-entering the EU for a specified period. The penalties are at the discretion of each EU member state and will vary depending on your personal circumstances (eg how long you over-stayed for and whether you were working or claiming benefits during that time).

ETIAS 

It’s worth mentioning ETIAS at this point, even though it is a completely separate system to EES, because it will have a bigger impact on travel for many people.

ETIAS is a different EU rule change, due to be introduced some time after EES has gone live (probably in 2025, but the timetable for ETIAS is still somewhat unclear).

It will have a big impact on beneficiaries of the 90-day rule, effectively ending the days of paperwork-free travel for them.

Under ETIAS, beneficiaries of the 90-rule will need to apply online for a visa waiver before they travel. Technically this is a visa waiver rather than a visa, but it still spells the end of an era when 90-day beneficiaries can travel without doing any kind of immigration paperwork.

If you have travelled to the US in recent years you will find the ETIAS system very similar to the ESTA visa waiver – you apply online in advance, fill in a form and answer some questions and are sent your visa waiver within a couple of days.

ETIAS will cost €7 (with an exemption for under 18s and over 70s) and will last for three years.

Find full details HERE. 

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