The Schengen Visa: A Crash Course
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The Schengen Area
An Introduction to the Schengen Area:
In 1985, a handful of diplomats gathered in the small village of Schengen, Luxembourg to destroy any plans I might one day have of WWOOFing in Europe for an entire year.
Well, okay – that may not have been their primary goal. The Schengen Area is a conglomeration of 26 European states that act as one in terms of international travel. Under the Schengen Agreement, border controls between Schengen members are eliminated (if you have a Schengen Visa – we’ll get to that in a minute) while border controls with non-member states are strengthened.
The Agreement also introduced a swanky information system shared between member states along with a variety of other acquis. In short, it takes a lot less paperwork to hop around Europe now than it did in pre-Schengen days. However, you now have to play by Schengen rules or risk some pretty steep consequences.
Here are the 26 Schengen countries:
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Gremany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
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