European Union consists of 27 countries. Schengen area a special zone for free movement between countries without border control and it consists from 26 countries, mainly members of EU but not exclusively. Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus are members of EU but still not a parties of Schengen area.
Poland is one of the EU-member states as well as Schengen area members that has a special role in our legal structure of legal stay in Schengen
General rule that applies for US citizens in all countries of Schengen area as well as all EU-members says that US citizen can stay on a visa free basis at any country of Schengen area 90 days out of 180 day. Meaning that is you stayed 90 day straight on the visa free basis you will not be able to enter Schengen area for the next 90 day.
Still, as a US citizen you can go visa free to any EU country (Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus) that is not a part of Schengen area and then come back after your 90 days will be refreshed. You can go to non-EU European country on a visa free as well. Yes, this may be confusing, but not all European countries are part of the EU (European Union). In fact, Europe geographically consist from 50 countries. The bordering European countries with EU are Ukraine, Moldova, North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro etc.
Visiting either non-Schengen countries or non-EU countries that are not a part of Schengen gives you pretty easy way to get you 90 days renewed. But what if you could stay in Schengen on the visa free for a 90 days then do a one day visa run and get your 90 days back?
You will never find this information at the website of the US or Polish embassies or other sources in simple words. But in fact there is a straight forward and totally legal pass to stay in Schengen based on visa free for 360 days out of 365 in one year. This you can do by staying in Poland for 90 days and leaving for 1 day, after staying 1 day out of the Poland you have a legal right to visit Poland again on visa free and stay there for next 90 days. This 1 day visa run can be done for any amount on next 90 days. Basically, this means that if you are a US citizen, you can legally stay in Schengen for as long as you want without any visa, residence permit or any other paperwork.
Poland gives you this opportunity based on the fact that Poland and USA have entered into bilateral agreement signed 04-04-1991 and effective date 15-04-1991.
You can find the full text of the treaty here or by visiting Polish official website https://traktaty.msz.gov.pl/ and by choosing “bilateral agreement” and putting the date range April 1991 and choosing USA as a party of the treaty.
Main point of this short agreement is the following:
Basically here you can see that Poland is oblige to grant unconditionally (without other conditions) the right for US citizen to visit Poland for the period less than 90 day. This means you have a legal right not depending on other rules, including regulations of Schengen area, to stay in Poland for 90 days, leave Poland for at least one full day (24 hours) and come back for next 90 days.
Note, if you crossed border with Poland directly from US or other non-EU country (Turkey, Ukraine) and was staying 90 days in Poland based on this treaty shall not be included in 180 days of stay in Schengen area (though the Poland is a part of Schengen as was already mentioned).
This mean that you can stay in Poland 90 days and after this you are free to travel EU for next 90 days. The only recommendation in this regard would be that you need to leave Schengen area via Poland, otherwise you may have complications for explaining that you was not violating 90/180 rule while in fact staying 180 days out of 180 days.
All you need is a proof of stay in Poland for the period of first and following 90 days. Any rented apartment or purchased one will perfectly work.
If you want to have more information feel free to send email to info@uaresidency.com.
If you are interested in Warsaw real-estate purchase feel free to contact us as well.
Prepared by Taras Guk
