How We're Living in Europe for 2 Years With Zero Visas (Here's Our Exact System)

How are my husband and I living in Europe with no visas, no residency requirements, and no permanent home base? Well, in this episode of the Schengen Shuffle with Shelley, I'm going to explain exactly how the shuffle works, how we plotted our route with our black lab in tow, and how we're now counting our days like it's our part-time job. So, grab a coffee. This could be your roadmap to living a European lifestyle. I'm Shelley Bailey Shaw, International Living Schengen Correspondent. Let's start at the very beginning because I think a lot of people are unfamiliar with the word Schengen. The Schengen area is a group of European countries that have agreed to open borders. You can drive from one to another seamlessly without border controls. Right now, there are 29 countries in the Schengen area. That's a lot of countries. And as a U.S. passport holder, you can visit all of them visa-free for up to 90 days within a 180-day rolling window. Importantly, the European Union and the Schengen area are not the same thing. The European Union is an economic and political union. Schengen is all about border control. Norway and Iceland, for example, are in the Schengen area but are not EU members. Ireland and Cyprus are in the EU but are not Schengen. Why does it matter? Because it's the non-Schengen countries that make the shuffle possible. Here are your non-Schengen options. Ireland, the UK, and Dora and the other countries shown here in blue. Time spent in these countries does not count against your 90 day Schengen allowance. How long can you stay? Well, that depends on the country. Americans can stay in Ireland for up to 90 days. The UK six months and Albania a whopping year. One note, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City are de facto Schengen countries because they operate open borders with their neighbors. Okay, this is the part where you want to pay close attention because the 90-day rule is genuinely misunderstood. As I mentioned, you can stay a maximum of 90 days in the Schengen region during a 180-day rolling window. So on any given day, you look back at the previous 180 days and count how many of those days you spent in a Schengen country. If that number hits 90, you cannot enter the Schengen. And there's another critical detail. The day you enter and the day you exit both count as Schengen days, no matter how long you spent there. Let me give you a real example from our trip. When we drive from Spain to Scotland, we're stopping in Andorra for a few days. Andorra is not a Schengen country, so the full days we spend in Andorra don't count against our 90 days. But the day we drive from Spain into Andorra and the day we drive from Andorra into France, those crossing days count as Schengen days because we're transiting through Schengen territory. Which brings me to the... my Schengen tracking spreadsheet. I know, I know, spreadsheets, but this is where I'm accounting for every day over the next two years. I've already decided on all our routes, how many hours we're driving a day, where we're stopping for the night, and what we're doing for fun. There are also online Schengen calculators. The European Commission has one on its official website, and I check those too. But I find having my own spreadsheet gives me clarity that a calculator alone doesn't. When you want to know more on how to make the move abroad, International Living has compared, contrasted, ranked, and rated... 24 of the top retiree destinations on the globe in our annual global retirement index you can find out how to grab it by scanning the qr code right here below for simplicity's sake we've structured our trip so that we're in a schengen country for roughly 10 weeks then we have about a week or so of travel time to our next destination which leaves us with one week of cushion just to be safe One more thing worth noting, the EU just rolled out a new digital border process called the Entry-Exit System, or EES. Every Schengen crossing is now logged electronically. Your fingerprints and facial image are registered in a digital file, so authorities now have a far more accurate record of your entries and exits. In theory, it sounds pretty simple, but in practice, there's actually a lot of strategy involved, and I spent weeks thinking through ours. So this is exactly how we built our plan. Yours, of course, could be very different. Step one, I took the Schengen countries and had AI order them by cost of living. Fortunately, some of Europe's most beautiful countries are also the most affordable. Step two, I eliminated countries we'd already visited. One of the reasons we're doing this is to see all of Europe. I didn't want to spend precious time in places we'd already experienced. The goal, by the end of these two years, is to set foot in every corner of Europe. Step three, I considered location and seasonality. We didn't want to be in Scotland in January, nor did we want to be here in southern Spain in August with hordes of tourists. So I mapped it out. The med in the winter and early spring when it's mild and relatively uncrowded, northern Europe and the UK in the summer and fall when the weather is actually pleasant. That logic drove a lot of our sequencing. Step 4, we picked countries that could serve as a home base for exploring other nearby countries. So for example, when we're in Croatia, we can easily do a day or weekend trip to Bosnia or Montenegro. Step 5, I routed our transit travel through regions we're missing. We're actually planning to spend an entire month between Albania and the Czech Republic to explore all the Balkan countries plus the European side of Turkey. So here's our plan. We start in Spain, where we are right now. Then we head to Scotland for our first non-Schengen stop. Then Croatia, Albania, the Czech Republic, Wales, Ireland, and we finish in Portugal. Eight countries, two years, one dog, and a lot of spreadsheets. Let's talk about housing because that's another area where people have a rude awakening. Most rental markets either cater to short-term visitors or long-term residents who sign a year-long contract. We fall awkwardly in the middle and landlords aren't crazy about 90-day leases. Right now, we're relying heavily on Airbnb. Yes, it's more expensive than traditional rentals and no, I'm not thrilled about that, but I have been able to negotiate some discounts with owners. It's easy to filter for pet friendly units and having all our reservations in one place is super convenient. That being said, we are exploring other alternatives. In Scotland, we're taking a wolfing assignment where we'll be helping out at a castle with a gin distillery in exchange for free room and board in that castle. We're also keeping our eye on platforms like trusted house sitters for house sitting or pet sitting opportunities to save money. That brings me to our dog, Java. He's a 65-pound black lab. Bringing him was a non-negotiable for my husband. The dog is the reason we're not flying or taking trains, so we needed a car. We looked at shipping our car, renting a car, leasing a car, even buying a car in one of those overseas delivery programs. But none of those options worked for us, either because of cost, insurance, or time constraints. Generally speaking, to buy and register a car in a particular country, you need a local address in that country, something we don't have. We landed on CarTurf in Germany and I want to be clear this is not a sponsored ad or an endorsement this is simply how we solved our problem. In Germany you still need a registered German address but there's a loophole. A company like CarTurf can act as your registered agent. You buy the car your name is on the sales contract so you're the legal owner. but CarTurf holds the registration in their name at their German address. They handle the insurance, the vehicle tax, all of it. We paid them a monthly subscription fee of about $115 plus $1,600 for our yearly car insurance. At the end of our time in Europe, we'll sell the car. Hopefully we'll make back the majority of what we paid. We're cautiously optimistic. Before I wrap up, let me answer some questions that I've been getting. The first... What happens if you overstay? How strict are they? Increasingly strict. With the new digital entry and exit system rolling out, there's really no wiggle room anymore. Any overstay can result in fines, deportation, or being banned from reentering the Schengen region. So it's really not worth it. Make sure you track your days carefully. Next, can you just fly to a non-Schengen country for a week and reset? No. Remember, it's a rolling 180-day window. Leaving the Schengen area for a week and coming back doesn't erase your previous days. Do you still pay U.S. taxes? Yes, we are still U.S. residents, we still file U.S. taxes, and our financial life is still anchored in the states. What about health care? Well, we actually got a global health care plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield. It works everywhere but the U.S. We pay about $1,400 a month for two people. Won't you get tired of moving so much? Maybe. We'll see. Staying somewhere for three months seems like long enough to actually settle in to find a grocery store, a favorite cafe, our rhythm. At least that is our goal. Is it lonely? Some days, yes. We're far from family and friends, and honestly, because we're only here for three months or so at a time, it's hard to plug into the local scene, but we are working on some ideas. In the meantime, my husband and I are doing this together, which is immensely helpful. So there it is, the full mechanics of how we're pulling this off. No visas, no residency, a dog, a German registered car, and a healthy respect for the 91-80 rule. Is it complicated? Yes. Is it doable? Absolutely. We're proof of that. If you're interested in trying this for yourself, I hope you found this video helpful. Check back for new episodes of the Schengen Shuffle with Shelley. We'll cover additional topics in the weeks to come.

How are Shellie and her husband living in Europe for two years with no visas, no residency, and no permanent home base?

In this episode of The Schengen Shuffle with Shellie, Shellie breaks down exactly how the Schengen Shuffle works — from the 90/180-day rule to planning a route through Spain, Scotland, Croatia, Albania, Ireland, and beyond with their black Lab, Java.

She also shares:
➡️ How they planned their exact Europe route
➡️ How they track every Schengen day
➡️ The reality of housing and travel logistics
➡️ How they bought and insured a car in Europe
➡️ What happens if you overstay

Subscribe for more episodes as Shellie documents their two-year journey across Europe.

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