Bulgaria and Romania now count against your 90 days
Both became full Schengen members on 1 January 2025, and air and sea borders had already opened in March 2024. Days spent there used to sit outside the count. They no longer do, and old advice about using them as a gap is now advice to overstay.
For years the practical workaround was well known among long-stay travellers: when the Schengen clock ran down, spend a few weeks in Bulgaria or Romania. They were European Union members outside the Schengen area, so the days did not enter the 90/180 calculation.
That is no longer true, and anyone still working from it is building an overstay.
What changed, and when
Two dates, and they are separate.
31 March 2024 — internal air and sea border controls between Bulgaria, Romania and the rest of the Schengen area were lifted.
1 January 2025 — both became full members when checks on persons at the internal land borders were lifted.
The Commission's own announcement records both. The staged shape matters for anyone reconstructing an old trip: a flight in mid-2024 and a bus crossing in mid-2024 were not in the same position.
Why this catches people specifically
The advice that these countries sat outside the count was correct for a long time, it was widely repeated, and it was genuinely useful. That combination is exactly what makes it dangerous now. It was not a myth someone invented; it was true, and then it stopped being true.
Travel forums, older blog posts and a good deal of remembered advice still describe the old position. None of it carries a date, and the reader has no way to tell which side of the change it was written on.
Worked: the itinerary that used to be legal
A traveller spends 1 April 2026 to 29 June 2026 in France — that is 90 days, the whole allowance, counting both ends.
Under the old arrangement they could cross into Romania on 30 June 2026, spend six weeks there, and none of it touched the Schengen count.
Today those six weeks are Schengen days. On 30 June the traveller is not resetting anything — they are continuing a stay that already reached the limit the day before. The country changed. The count did not.
What still does not count
Two European Union members remain outside the Schengen area, and days spent in them still do not enter the calculation: Ireland and Cyprus. Both still stamp passports by hand, because neither operates the Entry/Exit System.
The broader list of European countries whose days sit outside the count is in which European countries do not count.
Note what this means in combination: the two EU countries outside Schengen are also the two that still stamp. If your trip runs through either, that ink may be the only record of those dates, and it is worth keeping.
The count does not care which country
This is the underlying point, and it outlasts any particular accession.
The 90 days are not per country. They are shared across the whole area, and a border crossing inside it changes nothing about your total. Adding Bulgaria and Romania to the area did not give anyone extra days; it removed two places where days were not being counted.
If your travel pattern depended on a country being outside the area, that pattern depends on a membership list that changes. Count the actual days against your real dates rather than against a list you memorised.
Sources: European Commission — Bulgaria and Romania join the Schengen Area; EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2016/399, Schengen Borders Code.
Before you travel: DAYOZA provides informational calculations based on the rules and sources available on this page. Immigration and entry requirements can change. Always verify your eligibility and permitted stay with the relevant official authority before traveling.