Schengen Countries List 2026: All 29 Member States

The Schengen Area is the group of 29 European countries that have abolished passport checks at their shared borders. Inside it, people move between member states as if crossing between regions of one country. For everyone else, one common short-stay rule applies across the entire area: visitors who don't need a visa may spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period, counted across all member states combined.

The 29 Schengen countries in 2026

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Czechia
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Iceland (non-EU)
• Italy
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein (non-EU)
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway (non-EU)
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland (non-EU)

Twenty-five of the 29 are EU member states; Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland participate through association agreements. The newest full members are Bulgaria and Romania: checks at air and sea borders ended in March 2024, and land border checks were lifted on 1 January 2025, completing their accession.

Which European countries are not in Schengen?

• Cyprus — an EU member obliged to join; its technical preparations are complete and accession awaits a unanimous Council decision, which Cypriot officials hope to secure as early as the end of 2026
• Ireland — an EU member with a permanent opt-out; it maintains the Common Travel Area with the United Kingdom instead
• United Kingdom — never a Schengen member, and outside the EU since 2020

The European microstates — Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City — are not formal members either, though in practice they are reachable only through Schengen territory and maintain open borders with their neighbors.

The 90/180-day rule, briefly

The 90 days are a rolling allowance across the whole area, not per country: a month in Spain, a month in France, and a month in Italy uses the full quota. Overstays are recorded and can affect future entry. The EU's biometric Entry/Exit System (EES) began its phased rollout in October 2025, automating that record-keeping at the external border, with the ETIAS travel authorization scheduled to follow — a detail worth checking close to any planned travel, as its start date has moved more than once.

What Schengen access means in investment migration

Much of the demand for second citizenship is really demand for easier Schengen travel. Citizens of St. Lucia, Grenada, and Antigua & Barbuda currently enter the Schengen Area visa-free under the standard 90/180 rule. That access is a treaty privilege between states, not a permanent right: the EU suspended Vanuatu's visa waiver over due-diligence concerns in 2023 and moved Vanuatu to its visa-required list in 2025, and it reviews the Caribbean arrangements periodically. Reputable advice prices that risk in rather than pretending it away.

European residency by investment works differently: a Portuguese or Greek golden visa, or Maltese permanent residence, grants the right to live in that country and to move within the wider area under the visitor allowance. Citizenship of an EU Schengen state — obtainable in time through naturalization in several residency programs — brings full free movement. Which route fits depends on whether you need occasional access, a European base, or a permanent European status; that is a planning conversation, not a price-list comparison.