Rule changes that affect how your travel days are counted, newest first. Last updated .
The official remaining-days tool ignores stays before 10 April 2026
The EU's own check how long you can stay tool carries two warnings that matter if you are anywhere near 90 days. The first: the remaining allowance it reports does not account for any stay in the Schengen area that began before 10 April 2026, whether that visit ended before the date or continued past it. Since the rule looks back 180 days, a window ending on 6 October 2026 still reaches back to 10 April; from 7 October 2026 every day in the window sits inside the fully operational period and the gap closes on its own. The EU publishes no closing date for this one, so that arithmetic is ours rather than theirs.
The second warning is separate and does carry a date. Until 6 October 2026 inclusive, an "OK" answer may be unreliable for holders of a single-entry or double-entry visa who already used one of those entries between 12 October 2025 and 9 April 2026, the progressive rollout window when crossings were not all recorded. The issue there is not the day count but the entry quota: the visa itself may already be spent. Keep your own dated record until both caveats expire, and cross-check the number with the Schengen calculator.
No start date has been announced. The plan is still the last quarter of 2026, and the Commission says the exact date will be communicated later in the year, with several months of notice before it takes effect. The most recent item in the official ETIAS news corner, dated 6 July 2026, names no date either.
What is settled is the sequence after launch, and it runs at least 12 months. A transitional period of at least six months comes first: you should apply, but you will not be refused entry without an authorisation as long as you meet every other entry condition. A grace period of at least six months follows, in which an ETIAS is required, with one exception: a traveler arriving in Europe for the first time since the transitional period ended can still enter without one. After that, no authorisation means no entry. The fee is 20 euros, with no charge for applicants under 18 or over 70 or for qualifying family members of EU nationals, and an authorisation lasts three years or until the passport expires. None of it changes the 90-day limit. Details are in our ETIAS guide.
The EU still plans to launch ETIAS, the travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors, in the last quarter of 2026. As of July 2026 no exact start date has been announced; the EU says it will confirm one several months in advance. An application costs EUR 20, and the authorisation is valid for up to three years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first. A grace period of roughly six months is planned after launch, so enforcement starts gradually. ETIAS does not change the 90/180 limit itself: it is a pre-travel check, not extra days. Our ETIAS guide covers who needs it.
Cyprus accession reaches the Council with no date attached
The Council's Working Party for Schengen Matters put the Schengen evaluation of Cyprus on its agenda for 3 July 2026 as a state-of-play item, document CM 3361/3/26. Six weeks earlier the Commission's 2026 State of Schengen report, adopted on 18 May 2026, recorded a monitoring visit to Cyprus in December 2025, described substantial progress through 2025, and listed completing Cypriot accession among the priorities for the 2026 to 2027 Schengen cycle.
Neither step is the one that ends border checks. That takes a unanimous Council decision, none has been taken, and the Commission's own Schengen area page still describes Cypriot integration as under way. No official target date exists, so treat any year you see quoted as commentary. Until the decision lands, days in Cyprus stay outside your Schengen 90/180 count and run against Cyprus's own separate 90-day allowance. The EU's ETIAS guidance says the same thing: Cypriot stays are counted separately.
Cyprus cleared the EU's technical evaluation for Schengen membership in June 2026, after working through the recommendations from earlier assessment visits. The remaining step is a unanimous vote in the EU Council, and no date for that vote has been announced. Until accession takes effect, days spent in Cyprus still do not count toward the Schengen 90/180 limit. Cyprus applies its own separate 90-day rule for visa-free visitors, so keep those stays in a separate count from your Schengen days.
EES is fully operational at all Schengen crossings
The Entry/Exit System has been fully operational at every Schengen external border crossing since 10 April 2026, completing the progressive rollout that began on 12 October 2025. Passport stamps are replaced for short-stay visitors: each entry and exit is recorded digitally, together with facial images and fingerprints. For the 90/180 rule this means day counting is now automatic on the EU side, and an overstay is detected from exact crossing dates rather than from stamps. Check your own numbers before you travel with the Schengen calculator.
Bulgaria and Romania have been full Schengen members since 1 January 2025, when checks at their internal land borders were lifted. Air and sea border checks had already ended on 31 March 2024. For travelers this means days spent in Bulgaria or Romania count toward the Schengen 90/180 limit, the same as days in France or Spain. If you split a trip between these countries and the rest of the area, add everything into a single count rather than tracking them separately.
