90-DAY RULE
To many people has contact with our immigration lawyers in Spain to ensure how many days they can stay in Spain with their Schengen visa in Spain.
If you are wondering how many days you can stay in Spain with your tourist visa at this article you will find the right reply to your question.
So, according to the immigration Law, per 180-day period that a foreigner can stay in Spain 90 days maximum during his stay as a tourist. It is very important to specify that this is applicable for those who does need a visa to enter Spain while the those who needs a visa can only stay 90 days If their Spanish visas allow such time or the time their tourist visa allow specifically.
These 3 months that I have mentioned above apply throughout the Schengen area 90 consecutive or non-consecutive days are allowed within the countries that make up the Schengen area. Let’s give an example to make it clear, let’s imagine that we are in Spain for a period of 1 month and then we want to go to France, there we can only stay for a maximum period of 2 months, since those 90 days are computed.
Above all, we must take into account that these 90 days are counted within a period of 6 months. For this reason it is not possible to leave the Schengen area one day and enter again the next, since only 90 days are allowed in 6 months. Once this maximum time has passed, you must remain outside the Schengen area for a minimum of 3 months.
This period that I have been quoting begins to count from the day you cross the first border of the Schengen area, no matter if it is the country of your final destination or a transit country.
CAN WE EXTEND THE 90 DAYS?
The second more asked question is, can I extend my 90 days in Spain?
Extending these 90 days is possible but very difficult and most of the requests are rejected, since they are only admitted for exceptional reasons, such as an accident that prevents you from returning to your country of origin. Only few cases, are accepted by the immigration office in Spain to extend your 90 days, due to this, it is always better to talk with a Spanish lawyer in Spain to ensure that ability to extend your 90 days or not.
The only option to extend your 90 days is submitting any Spanish residency permit, because only like this you can stay in the country while you are waiting for the residency permit.
If you decide to stay longer than the 90 days allowed without have the approval of the immigration office, you would be in an irregular situation, and this can lead to significant penalties. Normally these are fines of between 500€ and 1000€ but depending on the seriousness of the case of each authorities and the second consequence is that this situation can carry as well an expulsion process from the Spain and the whole Schengen area.
In addition to the sanction explained above, you must take into account that the days that you exceed the allowed period will be counted for the next quarter. For example: if you stay 6 months, 3 months you are in an irregular situation, so you should wait a whole year to re-enter the Schengen area.
