Hi Everybody ;-)
Yes its me again, whinging about something new - the EU 90/180 Day Rule.
I was told that its fairly simple and logical [a rule....set by the EU...simple and logical.....Oh I did Larf!].
OK, so the basic rules are, within 180 days you can only spend a maximum of 90 days within any [was going to put a capital there to emphasise "any" as there is no "bold" type font - however I have previously been called H'Igonorant and unedumikated so I dekklined ;-) ] EU state.
I was also told that, its simple because the "clock" [for the 180 day period] starts counting down from the 1st day of entry.
What could be more simple? Hang on a minute. Why don't I use the EU issued Calculator to work it out exactly.
Question 1 then is has anyone actually been able to make that calculator work - because I couldn't.
Found another calculator [approved by the EU] and yes, 180 days after my first entry I can access the EU again. But wait a minute, instead of resetting the clock to the full 90 days, it only permits me XX days - exactly the number of days of my first visit.
My second visit of XX days was within the same 90 day bubble but apparently set off a second clock and its only 180 days after that entry date can I access the EU for a full 90 days.
But surely, if my first visit + 180 only permits the same number of days, say 21, why doesn't the second visit/clock do the same?
And if both visits were within 90 days, did not exceed 90 days and the original clock started ticking on first entry, why does the clock not reset 180 of the first ever entry to EU.
Confused? I most certainly am. My plans for a winter visit to sort out my olive terraces is now shot. Think again Max ;-I
Looking ahead, it appears that the easiest option will be to take a block 90 day visit and then wait 90 days to initiate another 90 day block visit. How inflexible is that!
Anyone any clues?
Max