I would like to point out that there is a quite serious misstatement concerning EU policy on visiting within the Schengen zone in your August 2024 article on Bordighera, Italy.
There is a lot to unpack here, so please bear with me.
I am a US citizen permanently resident in an EU country within the Schengen zone; my partner has a temporary residence card for said EU country. The rules are the same for citizens of that country as they are for us.
The rules are as follows:
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Citizens and permanent residents have the right to live indefinitely in their country of EU residence or citizenship.
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Persons with temporary residence cards have the right to live in their country of EU temporary residence for the term of their residence card.
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Assuming that said residence or citizenship is held in a country falling within the Schengen zone (and in the example cited in your article, both countries - France and Italy - fall within the Schengen zone), all persons covered by pts. 1 and 2 have the right to visit other parts of the Schengen zone for a total period of no more than 90 days out of every 180 days.
In all cases, this total period of 90 days applies to all Schengen countries combined. It is not possible to stay for 90 days in one Schengen country, then move on to another Schengen country etc.
Once your 90 days in other parts of the Schengen zone have been exhausted, you must either return to your country of EU/Schengen residence/citizenship, or leave the Schengen zone entirely, for a period of 90 days, i.e. until your 180-day period has elapsed and the counter is reset.
- Visitors to the EU Schengen zone who do not have a temporary residence card for a country in the Schengen zone must either leave the Schengen zone entirely after 90 days, or - before the 90 days have elapsed - apply for a temporary residence card, which will entitle them to stay in that one country for the duration of the term of temporary residence granted (usually 1, 2 or 3 years).
If, God forbid, you have been in the Schengen zone for longer than 90 days, thinking mistakenly that it is sufficient that you were not in any one Schengen country for 90 days, you must consult a local immigration lawyer for advice on how to remedy the damage (or, indeed, whether it can be remedied) before making your temporary residence application.
If you have only overstayed your 90-day allotment by a day or two, you may be able to get away with claiming ignorance, as long as you have kept your nose squeaky clean since you became aware of the rules, adhering scrupulously to all regulations.
If you have overstayed by longer than that, your lawyer may, for example, advise you that the residence card application requires you to provide complete information about all countries where you have been for the past X number of years, and that you need to leave the Schengen zone and remain outside it for at least those X number of years, so that you will no longer be required to provide info about the time period in question. You may also be advised to renew your passport.
But that may or may not be sufficient. There may be other questions on the application or in the interview that you cannot answer truthfully without revealing your mistake, regardless of the time frame in which the mistake happened. And you do need to be truthful. Any statements made on your application or during the interview will be made under penalty of perjury.
There may also be other issues to consider that may have bearing on what is or is not possible to do under your individual circumstances. This is why you must consult a local immigration lawyer if you find yourself in a situation of having overstayed your 90-day allotment.
At any rate, if you decide to go the temporary residence route, once the initial 90-day visit period has elapsed, you must stay in the country where the temporary residence application has been made, until the card has been issued. You will receive a stamp in your passport that entitles you to remain in the country legally, but it does not entitle you to travel anywhere outside the country.
If you leave the country, you will have no way to re-enter legally until the residence card is issued. Furthermore, the police and/ or border guards will come to check up on you sometime after you have submitted your application. Their visit will not be announced. It could be a serious problem if you are found to have left the country.
And yes, especially the first time around, it will take several months for the application to be processed. It will include separate interviews with both spouses - conducted in the local language, so that if you do not speak the local language, you will need an interpreter - to establish that the marital relationship which will form the basis for granting the residence card is in fact a real marriage.
So, applying for a temporary residence card is not a decision to be made lightly. It will require a substantial time commitment on your part.
Also: a notice of positive decision granting the right of temporary residence is not sufficient to allow travel outside the country of temporary residence. You must continue to stay in the country and wait to take physical possession of the actual residence card before you can travel outside of the country.
There are no special privileges in this regard for spouses of EU citizens.
- Spouses do, however, have the privilege that their marital relationship with a citizen of a Schengen country does qualify them to receive a residence card in any Schengen country on the basis of said marital relationship.
US citizens also enjoy visa-free status in the EU/Schengen zone, which means that they can simply enter their EU/Schengen country of choice with their spouse and take care of the residence card application there, rather than having to apply for a visa before departing the United States, in order to be able to enter the selected EU/Schengen country.
Again: if visitors do not apply for a temporary residence card before their 90-day allotment has elapsed, they will have to leave the Schengen zone entirely for the next 90 days if they wish to remain compliant with immigration regulations and not potentially subject themselves to deportation.