What Is the Schengen Area?
The Schengen Area is a zone of 29 European countries — named after a small village in Luxembourg — that have eliminated passport controls at their shared borders. Once you enter one Schengen country, you can travel freely between all of them with no additional border checks.
For visa and immigration purposes, the entire Schengen Area functions as a single country. That means your 90/180-day limit applies across all 29 countries combined — not per country. Two weeks in France, a month in Spain, and three weeks in Italy all draw from the same 90-day pool.
As of May 2026, there are 29 countries in the Schengen Area, with Bulgaria and Romania the most recent additions in 2024.