Paul Uden wrote:Interesting comments suggesting Spain / EU has no way of realistically checking lengths of stay. Pre-Covid Spain was typically turning away around 200,000 non-EU travellers at its borders every year. Across the EU as a whole 7.5% of these were because they had previously overstayed their 90 day allowance meaning, if Spain was similar, around 15,000 being turned away at Spanish borders for this reason each year. I too have no idea how they check, but the rules have been around for a some years so I'd be surprised if they don't or can't, even if it's only random spotchecks. I still don't think it's worth the risk if you intend to travel regularly to a second home in the future.
Good point but I suspect that a number of these "overstayers" were people that required a specific visa to enter the Schengen area. UK travelers don't (currently) require a visa to enter the Shengen area and are only subjected to a stamp in their passports.
Take a look at ETIAS. It's what the EU are hoping to get working in the next few years or so. I wish them luck but looking at the balls up the UK made of the NHS system (and others)... and that was operating within the same country. It's going to take some time before it's up & running.
https://www.etiasvisa.com/ Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning overstaying, it's just that the automatic checks aren't in place yet.