Britons Who Used Croatia As a Base to Reset Their Schengen Day Count No Longer Able to Do So
The Council of the European Union has decided to include Croatia in the borderless Schengen Area starting from January 1, 2023.
While the decision is good news for Croatians and other EU nationals, travellers from Schengen Area’s visa-free countries who have used Croatia as a base to reset their 90-day period of permitted stay in the Schengen countries are not very happy with the decision, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Since Croatia started its journey to become a Schengen country, and removed entry visas for travellers who did not need a tourist or business visa to enter the 26 Schengen Area countries for stays up to 90 days within any 180-day period, many travellers have used Croatia as a country they would travel to and stay there for some time, in order to be able to go back to the Schengen countries without violating the 90-days rule of stay.
Commenting on the issue, the founder of SchengenVisaInfo.com, Besart Bajrami, explains that while Croatia currently permits travellers from most of the Schengen visa-free countries to enter its territory without requiring an entry visa either, the travellers’ period of stay is not included in the number of days that they are permitted to remain in the Schengen.
“Once Croatia is officially part of the Schengen, which will happen on January 1, the days one spend in Croatia will also be counted towards the total number of days permitted to stay in the Schengen Zone. This means that those who used Croatia as a reset base will no longer be able to do so, including ehre British citizens,” Bajrami notes.
Yet, he explains that the three other non-Schengen EU countries, Romania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus, which permit visa-free entry for Britons, can also be used as a reset base as well.
“Travellers may also spend some time in other countries as Albania and the rest of the Western Balkan, before they travel back to the Schengen Zone, as these countries also permit visa-free entry for Britons, and none of them are part of the Schengen,” he says.
Further, he points out that these countries may actually be better options for Britons, as they are way cheaper than Croatia.
The decision to grant Croatia with the Schengen Area Member status was taken on December 8 by the Council of the EU, which consists of the heads of the EU countries.
The move means that starting from the very first day of next year, the land and sea border controls with the rest of the Schengen countries will be removed. Air border controls on the other hand will be removed on March 23, 2022.
Croatia will also be able to fully use the Schengen Information System, and grant Schengen visas to travellers who need one to travel to Croatia and the other 26 Schengen states, from January 1 as well.
>> EU Council Adopts Final Required Legal Acts for Croatia to Join Eurozone on January 1, 2023
