The 90/180-day rule, explained: how long can you stay in France?
Since Brexit, a British passport buys you 90 days in France, and not a day more without paperwork. But "90 days" is more slippery than it sounds: it rolls, it is shared across the whole of Europe, and as of 2026 a new border system counts every day for you. Here is exactly how it works, in plain English.
The short version
- You get 90 days in any 180. As a British passport holder, you can spend up to 90 days in the Schengen AreaThe group of 29 European countries with no internal border checks. Your 90 days are shared across all of them, not per country. within any rolling 180-day window, visa-free.
- It is one shared pot, not 90 days per country. Days in France, Spain, Italy and the rest all come out of the same 90.
- The window rolls. On any given day, look back 180 days: you must not have spent more than 90 of them in Schengen. Both your arrival and departure days count.
- The new border system now counts for you. Since late 2025, the EESThe EU Entry/Exit System: a biometric border system that records every entry and exit electronically, replacing passport stamps. logs every entry and exit electronically. The days of a quiet unstamped overstay are over.
- Owning a French home buys you nothing extra. A holiday house gives you no additional days. The clock is the same for everyone with a British passport.
- To stay longer, you need a visa. More than 90 days means a long-stay visa, arranged before you travel.
It is the question behind almost every "can we move to France" daydream, and the one people most often get quietly wrong: how long am I actually allowed to stay? Before Brexit the answer was "as long as you like." Since 1 January 2021 it is "90 days, and the rules are stricter than you think." Get it right and France is yours for a generous chunk of the year. Get it wrong and you risk fines, a stamp on your record, and trouble the next time you try to come back, or to apply for residency. So it is worth ten minutes to understand it properly.
The rule, in one sentence
As a third-country nationalSomeone who is not a citizen of an EU or Schengen country. British citizens became third-country nationals after Brexit., you may spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen Area without a visa. That is the whole rule. Every complication below is just a consequence of two words in it: "any" and "Schengen".
Why "rolling" is the word that trips people up
The 180 days is not a fixed calendar block that resets on 1 January. It is a window that moves with you. On any day you are in France, the question the border asks is: "in the last 180 days, counting back from today, how many did this person spend in Schengen?" If the answer is 90 or fewer, you are fine. If it is more, you have overstayed. Because the window is always sliding, your used days gradually fall out of the back of it: a trip you took five months ago stops counting once it is more than 180 days behind you, and that allowance comes back.
How to count your days without getting it wrong
Three things catch people out. First, both the day you arrive and the day you leave count as full days in Schengen, even if you land at midnight or fly home at dawn. Second, a trip home, or to any non-Schengen country, does not reset the clock, it just pauses it; your used days keep sitting in the window until they age out. Third, and most important, do not count in your head. The EU publishes a free short-stay calculator: put in your planned dates and it tells you exactly where you stand. Use it before you book, not after.
It is Schengen-wide, not just France
This is the one that catches second-home owners out. Your 90 days are not 90 days in France. They are 90 days across the entire Schengen Area, which is most of the EU plus a handful of others. A fortnight in Spain in spring, a week in Italy in summer and two months at your French house in autumn are not three separate allowances; they are one running total. If you are planning a European life rather than just a French one, every border you cross inside Schengen draws from the same 90.
What changed in 2026: the EES
For years, enforcement of the 90/180 rule was patchy. Passports were stamped by hand, the maths was nobody's job in particular, and plenty of people quietly overstayed without consequence. That era has ended. The EESThe EU Entry/Exit System: a biometric border system that records every entry and exit electronically, replacing passport stamps., the EU's Entry/Exit System, began rolling out across Schengen borders in late 2025 and is now in operation. On your first crossing it records your face and fingerprints; after that, it logs every entry and exit automatically and calculates your remaining days for you.
The practical upshot is simple and worth taking seriously: the system now knows exactly how long you have been in Schengen, to the day. There are no stamps to misread and no ambiguity to lean on. On the positive side, it should eventually mean faster, cleaner borders and an authoritative record of your own days. But it also means the casual overstay is finished. If you are near your limit, the border will know before you do.
ETIAS: coming, but not a visa, and not more days
You will also hear about ETIASA cheap online travel authorisation the EU will require from visa-exempt visitors before travel. It is not a visa and grants no extra time., and it is worth clearing up now because it is widely misunderstood. ETIAS is a travel authorisation, a cheap online form (around €20, valid three years) that visa-free visitors will need to fill in before travelling, rather like the American ESTA. As of late 2026 it has not yet launched, and the date has slipped more than once, with the EU promising several months' notice before it does. Two things to hold on to: ETIAS is not a visa, and it gives you no extra days. It is simply permission to turn up and start your 90-day clock. Do not confuse getting an ETIAS with getting the right to stay longer.
The myth that catches people out
Owning a house in France does not give you more time
It feels as though it should, but it does not. A British passport holder who owns a chateau in the Dordogne gets exactly the same 90 days as a backpacker with a rucksack. There is no second-home visa, and no automatic right to extra time for property owners: a proposed measure along those lines was struck down and is not law. If you want to spend more than 90 days in any 180 at your French home, there is only one route, and it is a proper long-stay visa.
What happens if you overstay
Overstaying is not a parking ticket, and it is best not to treat it as one. Depending on the country and the length of the overstay, consequences can include a fine, a note on your record, extra questioning or delays at the border, a ban on re-entering the Schengen Area for a period, and real difficulty later when you apply for a visa or for residency. With the EES now recording everything, an overstay is far more likely to be noticed and far harder to explain away. If you realise you have miscounted and are at risk of overstaying, the sensible move is to seek advice promptly rather than hope it goes unnoticed.
Who the clock does not apply to
The 90/180 rule is for visitors. The moment you become a resident, through a long-stay visaA VLS-TS visa, applied for before you move, that lets you live in France beyond 90 days. The legal route to staying longer. and then a carte de séjourThe French residence permit. Once you hold one as a resident, the 90/180 visitor clock no longer applies to you., the counting stops. Residents are not visitors, and the 90-day clock is simply not aimed at them. That is the whole point of the long-stay route: it takes you out of the 90/180 game entirely and lets you live in France for as long as your permit allows.
Want to stay longer than 90 days?
Then the 90/180 rule is not your answer, a long-stay visa is. Our visa guide walks through which route fits your situation and what each one actually requires.
Read: the French long-stay visa, explained →Not sure how your days add up?
If you are juggling trips across several countries, or planning right up to the 90-day line, it is worth having someone check the dates before you commit. A miscount is a lot more expensive than a second opinion.
See how Pimpernel can help →See how the whole move fits together
The 90-day rule is the very first gate. If you are thinking beyond a long holiday, our complete guide lays out the entire path from visitor to resident.
Read: Moving to France, the complete guide →This guide offers practical, general information about entry rules; it is not legal or immigration advice. The 90/180 rule, the EES and ETIAS timelines, and the penalties for overstaying change and are applied differently by different countries, the details here are a plain-English orientation for 2026, not a ruling on your situation. Confirm current rules against the official sources and take qualified advice before relying on anything that affects your right to enter or stay.