Rolling the 90 Day Rule

You can do 90 days in a rolling 180 days, so do the maths. Or use a Schengen calculator, e,g

https://www.visa-calculator.com

Hello and NO YOU CAN NOT DO THAT.   If you count 180days from the day your Passport is STAMPED You can stay 90days from that STAMP. Then you CAN NOT RETURN back to SPAIN or EU Countries until that 180 days has finished.    Then you can start again. 

6 weeks - being plus or minus 45 days, followed by 45 days in UK, followed by another 45 days here, taking you to a total of 90 days.

As long as in each stay you do not do more than 45 days, yes, you’ll be fine as you will not have exceeded 90 days in 180.

You’d be better off downloading a Schengen calculator to make sure though … the important thing is you do not go by calendar weeks, but by actual days.

No, Lowie, that’s not quite correct.  Once you have done 90 days, Schengen rules say you must “exit the Schengen for an equivalent period”.

The count back works from the day you start counting … every day is a new day to start counting back … count back 180 days and if you’ve spent 90 days within that 180, you have to wait until you haven’t got 90 days in the Schengen in that 180.

In the OP’s case, she intends to spend 45 days (6 weeks) in Spain, followed by 45 days out of the Schengen then another 45 days in Spain.  As long as OP does not exceed 45 days on each trip, she’ll be fine

Thank you so much for your answers, they're a great help.

Fran

Well  thanks but every person I have spoken to has a different way of explaining. I must of asked 12/15 people and everyone has said different.  I do not think that anybody has it right.   To be sure… Just go to the solicitor and he will tell you right or wrong.   As explain to me.  JANUARY to JUNE (is your 120. Days. If you come to the EU on the  January 1st you can stay till end of MARCH. You can not return till after that JUNE.    

Sort of correct, Lowie once you’ve done 90 days, you must exit for an equivalent period - and depending on what solicitor you speak to, you’ll get different answers because half of them don’t know either.

But it really doesn’t matter when you come - it’s a ROLLING 180 days.  You take todays date (or whenever you count back from) and count back 180 days.  If in that period, you’ve done 90 days, then that’s your lot.

So if in two weeks time you count back, it’s quite possible (depending on when you left the Schengen) that some days have “dropped off” and you find you have 4, 5, 10 days now available to you, as within that 180 day count back you’ve now got less than 90 days in the Schengen.  The next day when you count, you may have another day available … and so on and so forth.

Solicitor is NOT the way to go - unless you like paying for possibly dubious advice (see comment about many solicitors not understanding it either) … the best, safest and most practical way is to download a Schengen Calculator or use one of the various online ones i.e. as posted by lmj18 as the second post in this thread

Over the past two years we have been spending one month or three weeks every other month although do not come out in July or august as it too warm for us. I always use the Schengen visa calendar which I have found most valuable and tells me how many days I have left. I would as others have said before me use this excellent tool but do still check. Enjoy your time in spain 

That's really good to know, Joan, it's just what we were hoping to do.

Thank you for taking the time to share that with us.

Fran.