Does Ireland count toward the Schengen 90 days?

No. Days in Ireland don't count toward your Schengen 90 days. Ireland is in the EU but not in the Schengen area, so MyTravelStatus leaves those days out. The days you fly in and out still count if you were in a Schengen country for part of them. Ireland has its own visitor rules, which we don't count for you.

Why Ireland doesn't count

The Schengen area is 29 countries: 25 EU states plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Ireland isn't one of them. The European Commission explains that the Schengen Protocol exceptionally allows Ireland not to apply the Schengen rules, so it keeps its own visa and border policies. The UK government's travel advice puts it plainly: although Ireland is in the EU, it isn't part of the Schengen area, and Schengen rules don't apply.

Because the 90/180 rule limits your time in the Schengen area, a week in Ireland is a week outside it, the same as a week in London.

Ireland's own rules for visitors

Ireland decides for itself who can come in and for how long. Canadian travel advice, for example, says Canadians can stay up to 90 days without a visa for tourism or business. The limit and the paperwork depend on your nationality, so check the Irish immigration service's guidance before you go. MyTravelStatus doesn't count an Irish visitor limit; Ireland only appears in your tracker as time outside the Schengen area.

Ireland, the UK and the Common Travel Area

Ireland shares the Common Travel Area with the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. British and Irish citizens can travel freely within it, and UK advice says British nationals can visit and remain indefinitely in Ireland. Other nationalities stay subject to each country's own immigration rules. If you're neither British nor Irish and you travel from Ireland to the UK, check whether you need UK permission, such as a visa or an ETA.

Days in the UK don't count toward the Schengen 90 either. The UK has its own visitor rules, explained in UK visitor rules vs Schengen.

Getting there from Schengen, and the checks you meet

Ireland is an island, so from the Schengen area you arrive by air or sea, and you need your passport. Canadian advice notes that a valid passport is required for travel between Ireland and other European countries. When you leave the Schengen area for Ireland, your exit should be recorded in the Entry/Exit System at the Schengen airport or port. Ireland isn't one of the 29 countries that use the EES, so your time there only shows in the EU's record as a gap between an exit and your next entry.

A worked example

Our rules engine looks at each date on its own: a date counts if at least one of your trips that day is in a counting country. The Ireland trip on a flight day doesn't cancel the French day, and it doesn't add one. So end the France trip on the day you fly, and start the Ireland trip that same day.

What you see in MyTravelStatus

• Trips page: an Ireland trip is labeled "Outside Schengen", with 0 days counted.
• Calculator: choose Ireland as the country and those days are left out of the count.
• EES check (Plus and Pro): if the EU's count differs from ours, we list your Ireland days as one possible explanation. Ireland doesn't run the EES, so if your exit wasn't recorded on the way there, the EES would treat those days as Schengen days.
• Tax residence (Pro): if you spend long stretches in Ireland, the tax residence page counts your Irish days against Ireland's own tax day tests, which are separate from any visitor limit.

Check your own dates

Enter your trips, with the flight days on both sides, in the free Schengen calculator. A free account keeps them and warns you before you run out. For how flight days are counted, read how Schengen days are counted.

Not legal advice. This guide explains the published rules as we understand them on the date above. Rules and how they're applied change, and border officers make the final decision. Check the official sources below, and get professional advice for your own situation.