The Schengen Area (English: SHENG-ən, Luxembourgish: [ˈʃæŋən] ) is a system of open borders that encompass 29 European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their common borders. As an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) policy of the European Union (EU), it mostly functions as a single jurisdiction under a common visa policy for international travel purposes. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement and the 1990 Schengen Convention, both signed in Schengen, Luxembourg.
Of the 27 EU member states, only two, Cyprus and Ireland, are not members of the Schengen Area. Cyprus is committed by treaty to join the system and aims to do so in 2026, although its participation has been complicated by the occupation of Northern Cyprus by Turkey since 1974. Ireland maintains an opt-out in order to maintain the Common Travel Area with non-EU member United Kingdom and operates its own visa policy. In addition to the member states of the European Union, all member states of the European Free Trade Association, namely Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, have signed association agreements with the EU to be part of the Schengen Area. The microstate of Monaco is de facto part of the Schengen Area as border controls are administered as part of France. Three other microstates – Andorra, San Marino, and Vatican City – have open borders with the Schengen Area due to their small size and difficulty of maintaining active border controls. The British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar has secured a unique status that removes immigration controls at its land border with Spain by shifting Schengen external controls directly to its international airport and seaport, making it a de facto member of the zone.
The Schengen Area has a population of more than 450 million people and an area of about 4,595,000 km2 (1,774,000 sq mi). About 1.7 million people commute to work across an internal European border each day, and in some regions these international commuters constitute up to a third of the workforce. In 2015, there were 1.3 billion crossings of Schengen borders in total. 57 million crossings were due to the transport of goods by road, with a value of €2.8 trillion. The decrease in the cost of trade due to Schengen varies from 0.42% to 1.59% depending on geography, trade partners, and other factors. The Schengen Area is the world's most visited travel zone, accounting for the vast majority of Europe's 793 million international tourist arrivals in 2025. Schengen member states processed 11.7 million visa applications in 2024, issuing approximately 9.7 million visas to travelers from around the world.
History
European borders prior to Schengen
Before World War I, most countries of the world, including those in Europe, had lax border policies, facilitating such educational trips as the Grand Tour amongst the wealthy.
Visas became commonplace during the interwar period, as did border controls. After World War II, however, customs unions arose between various European countries. The Nordic countries allowed free movement and residence between them in 1954, and the countries of Benelux opened their mutual borders in 1960. This reflected a greater trend towards European integration; the European Communities (EC), the predecessor of the EU, were established in the 1950s for economic cooperation, though they did not deal with border control issues.
Schengen Agreement
The first move towards the abolition of border controls between EC member states took place on 14 June 1985 with the signing of the Schengen Agreement by five EEC members – the Benelux countries as well as France and West Germany – of the then ten EEC member states. These five countries entered into the Schengen Agreement separately from the European Communities, because consensus could not be reached among all EEC member states.
The Agreement was supplemented in 1990 by the Schengen Convention, which proposed the abolition of internal border controls and a common visa policy. The Agreements and the rules adopted under them continued to be separate from the EC structures, and led to the creation of the Schengen Area on 26 March 1995.
As more EU member states signed the Schengen Agreement, consensus was reached on absorbing it into the procedures of the EU. The Agreement and its related conventions were incorporated into the mainstream of European Union law by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997, which came into effect in 1999. A consequence of the Agreement being part of European law is that any amendment or regulation is made within its processes, in which the non-EU members are not participants.
The UK, the Crown Dependencies, and the Republic of Ireland have operated a Common Travel Area (CTA) since 1923 (with passport-free travel and freedom of movement with each other), but the UK would not abolish border controls with any other countries and therefore opted out of the Agreement. While not signing the Schengen Treaty, Ireland has always looked more favourably on joining, but has not done so in order to maintain the CTA and its open border with Northern Ireland. However, as the Commission noted on the official website, Ireland requested participation in some Schengen areas, such as the Schengen Information System, due to "the benefits of Schengen cooperation".
Common Schengen Visa Policy
The common visa policy allows nationals of certain countries to enter the Schengen Area via air, land or sea without a visa for stays of up to 90 days within a 180-day period. Nationals of certain other countries are required to have a visa either upon arrival or in transit.
Current members
The Schengen Area consists of 29 countries, including four which are not members of the European Union – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Iceland and Norway are part of the Nordic Passport Union and are officially classified as states associated with the Schengen activities of the European Union. Switzerland was allowed to participate in the same manner in 2008, and Liechtenstein in 2011.
Romania and Bulgaria are the newest members of the Schengen Area, with border controls lifted for air and sea travel on 31 March 2024 and land border controls lifted effective 1 January 2025, more than 17 years after they acceded to the European Union. Though both countries were declared technically ready back in 2011, their entry was blocked for over a decade by political vetoes from countries like Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Austria, who cited concerns over corruption, organized crime, and illegal immigration.
De facto, the Schengen Area also includes four European micro-states – Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City – that maintain open or semi-open borders with other Schengen member countries, as well as Gibraltar, which operates under its own unique border agreements with the European Union.
Ireland negotiated opt-outs from Schengen and continues to operate border controls with other EU member states, while at the same time being part of the open-border Common Travel Area with the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies (Bailiwick of Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey).
Summary table
Potential enlargement
The procedure to join the Schengen Area is that the European Commission evaluates certain criteria. These criteria include border control legislation, infrastructure and organisation, personal data protection, visas, deportations, police cooperation and more. After a positive evaluation, the Schengen members of the Council of the European Union decides unanimously together with the European Parliament to accept the new member.
Cyprus
Cyprus as EU member state is committed by its Treaty of Accession to join the Schengen Area eventually. However, before fully implementing the Schengen rules, the state must have its preparedness assessed in four areas: air borders, visas, police cooperation, and personal data protection. This evaluation process involves a questionnaire and visits by EU experts to selected institutions and workplaces in the country under assessment.
Although Cyprus, which joined the EU on 1 May 2004, is legally bound to join the Schengen Area, implementation has been delayed because of the Cyprus dispute. According to former Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Lillikas, "strict and full control based on Schengen will create a huge tribulation on a daily basis for the Turkish Cypriots" of Northern Cyprus, and it is unclear if this control is possible before the resolution of the dispute. The British Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a British Overseas Territory which is outside the EU, also needs "other handling and mechanisms". Akrotiri and Dhekelia has no border control to Cyprus, but has its own border control at its air base.
In November 2019, Cyprus's Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Christodoulides revealed that Cyprus formally began the process of joining the Schengen Area in September. In July 2023, Cyprus joined the Schengen Information System (SIS), which allows for cooperation on crime, immigration and other security-related matters within the Schengen Area. In October 2023, the commission was to "verify that the necessary conditions for the application of the Schengen acquis in the field of the Schengen Information System have been met". During the May 2025 Europe Day celebrations, President Nikos Christodoulides reaffirmed Cyprus’s strategic ambition to join the Schengen Area by 2026.
Following a high-level meeting in February 2026, Christodoulides and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed their commitment to a 'fast-track' accession, with France offering technical expertise to help Cyprus meet final requirements for external-border management. Diplomatic backing, combined with a positive evaluation by European Commissioner Magnus Brunner in January 2026, has shifted the 2026 target from a local expectation to a shared European objective.
In June 2026, EU technical evaluation formally cleared Cyprus as technically ready for full Schengen membership. The 60-page report, presented to the Schengen Committee, confirmed that Nicosia has successfully addressed 120 specific recommendations across the required fields since 2021, including updates to its Visa Information System and substantial progress in utilizing the Schengen Information System. The evaluation explicitly separated these technical achievements from the island's political division and the status of the British Sovereign Base Areas. EU officials deemed existing surveillance and checks along the Green Line to be highly satisfactory, noting that integrating into the passport-free zone would not create a hard border or disrupt legal travel, but could instead encourage a peaceful resolution to the Cyprus problem. With technical clearance successfully secured, the final decision now rests entirely on a upcoming political vote by the EU Council, anticipated by December 2026.
Territories of Schengen states outside the Area
There are territories of Schengen member states that are exempted from the Schengen Agreement. The only areas of Schengen member states located in Europe but excluded are the Faroe Islands and Svalbard.
Danish territories
The Danish territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland are neither part of the European Union nor part of the Schengen Area, and visas to Denmark are not automatically valid in these territories. However, both of these territories lack border controls on arrivals from the Schengen Area, and the air or sea carriers are responsible for carrying out document checks before boarding, as is common for travel inside the Schengen Area. Citizens of EU/EFTA countries can travel to the Faroes using a passport or a national ID card and to Greenland using a passport, but citizens of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden can use any acceptable identification such as driving licences or bank ID cards; although this is advised against since aircraft might be diverted to Scotland in bad weather.
Dutch territories
Only the Netherlands' European territory is part of the Schengen Area. Six Dutch territories in the Caribbean are outside the Area. Three of these territories – Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba (collectively known as the BES islands) – are special municipalities within the Netherlands proper. The other three – Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten – are autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. All islands retain their status as overseas countries and territories and are thus not part of the European Union. The six territories have a separate visa system from the European part of the Netherlands and people travelling between these islands and the Schengen Area are subjected to full border checks, with a passport being required even for EU/Schengen citizens, including Dutch (national ID cards are not accepted).
French territories
The French overseas departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Réunion, and the overseas collectivity of Saint Martin are part of the European Union but do not form part of the Schengen Area; so one cannot travel there with a Schengen Visa. The freedom of movement provisions of the EU apply, but each territory operates its own visa regime for non-European Economic Area (EEA), non-Swiss nationals. While a visa valid for one of these territories will be valid for all, visa exemption lists differ. A Schengen visa, even one issued by France, is not valid for these territories. A visa for Sint Maarten (which is valid for travelling to the Dutch side of the island of Saint Martin) is also valid for the French side. France also has several territories which are neither part of the EU nor the Schengen Area. These are: French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, New Caledonia, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and Wallis and Futuna.
Norwegian territories
Svalbard is part of Norway and has a special status under international law. It is not part of the Schengen Area. There is no visa regime for Svalbard for entry, residence, or work, but it is difficult to visit Svalbard without travelling through the Schengen Area, although there are charter flights from Russia. Since 2011, the Norwegian government has imposed systematic border checks on individuals wishing to enter and leave Svalbard, requiring a passport or national identity card. A double or multiple-entry visa is required for those who need a visa to enter Norway. As a result, the border between Svalbard and the rest of Norway is largely treated like any other external Schengen border. A Schengen visa must be multiple-entry to allow return to Norway. There is no welfare or asylum system for immigrants on Svalbard, and people who are incapable of supporting themselves may be sent away.
European microstates and Gibraltar
Four European microstates — Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City — are not officially part of the Schengen Area, but are considered de facto within the Schengen Area, as they have open or semi-open borders and do not conduct systematic border controls with the Schengen countries that surround them. Some national laws have the text "countries against which border control is not performed based on the Schengen Agreement and the 562/2006 EU regulation", which then includes the microstates and other non-EU areas with open borders.
In 2015, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino began negotiating an Association Agreement with the EU. Monaco left the negotiations in 2023, while an agreement for Andorra and San Marino was expected to be concluded in 2024. Andorra's ambassador to Spain, Jaume Gaytán, stated in 2015 that he hoped that the agreement would include provisions to make the states associate members of the Schengen Agreement. However, the final text only concerned free movement of people and not border control issues. However, on 30 May 2024, the Council of the European Union authorised the opening of negotiations for agreements between the European Union and Andorra and San Marino, respectively, in order to create a legal basis for the absence of border controls between these countries and the Schengen area.
Andorra
Access to the Principality of Andorra is restricted to road or helicopter transport through the neighbouring Schengen Area members, France and Spain. While the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported in June 2024 that Andorra maintains de facto open borders, the country is not officially part of the Schengen Area nor the European Union.
The country does not maintain its own visa requirements, EU citizens may enter with a national identity card or passport, while all other nationalities require a valid passport or equivalent. Travelers requiring a visa to enter the Schengen Area must possess a multiple-entry visa to visit Andorra, as entering the principality constitutes an exit from the Schengen zone and requires a new entry to return to France or Spain.
Although systematic border controls are absent, checkpoints exist primarily for customs enforcement rather than immigration. These controls are more frequent for travellers departing Andorra due to the country's significantly lower tax rates, including a standard VAT of only 4.5%.
Andorra remains exempt from the European Union's biometric Entry/Exit System (EES) to ensure that road traffic between the principality and its neighbours remains fluid.
Gibraltar
As a result of Brexit, Gibraltar ceased to be part of the European Union on 31 January 2020, although for most purposes it was treated as part of it during the transition phase until 31 December 2020. Like the United Kingdom, it had not been part of the Schengen Area but, unlike the United Kingdom, Gibraltar had also been outside of the EU customs union. Owing to a declaration lodged by the United Kingdom with the EEC in 1982, in view of the entry into force of the British Nationality Act 1981, Gibraltarians had been counted as British nationals for the purposes of Community law, and as such they had enjoyed full free movement within the European Economic Area and Switzerland. During the Brexit transition period until 31 December 2020, Gibraltar was still for most purposes treated as an EU territory.
An agreement reached on 11 June 2025 established a framework for Gibraltar's post-Brexit relationship with the European Union, notably removing physical border checks at the La Línea crossing to facilitate free movement for all travellers and streamline the 15,000 daily crossings made by workers and visitors. To facilitate this, Gibraltar's "external" borders, the airport and seaport, became the primary control points. At these locations, travellers from the United Kingdom and third countries must pass through two separate checkpoints: one operated by the Gibraltar Borders and Coastguard Agency and a second Schengen check conducted by Spanish officials. For the first time in history, Spanish police have a permanent, legal role inside Gibraltar’s airport and port.
Under the terms of the treaty, residents of Gibraltar are exempt from the Entry/Exit System (EES), ETIAS and the 90-day Schengen stay limit. However, British citizens who are not residents of Gibraltar are treated as third-country nationals, consequently, they must obtain an ETIAS travel authorization, undergo biometric registration under the EES and have their time in Gibraltar count toward their 90-day Schengen visa-free allowance. The legal text was finalized on 12 December 2025, and by 1 April 2026, the COREPER agreed on the texts for provisional application.
On 20 June 2026, Spain physically tore down its border barriers and police buildings at the land frontier with Gibraltar, ending routine checks for the first time in nearly 300 years. Biometric electronic gates were set up at the airport to check air travellers under the EES to satisfy the territory's Schengen requirements. The transition to Schengen standards also halted the long-standing direct ferry service between Gibraltar and Morocco, forcing travellers from the local Moroccan community to reroute through Spanish ports under Schengen visa rules.
The agreement was signed in Brussels on 14 July 2026, which allowed it to enter into provisional force on 15 July 2026. As a result, the land border opened immediately to free movement, alongside the launch of the new airport checks. The treaty still awaits final, formal ratification by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which is expected later in 2026, alongside a corresponding ratification vote by the European Parliament scheduled for December 2026. While the agreement effectively made Gibraltar a de facto member through the implementation of Schengen rules, the territory did not officially become part of the area.
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein has been a member of the Schengen Area since 2011. As a landlocked state without its own international airport, the country relies on its neighbours for primary transit. The heliport at Balzers does not maintain border checks, as all arriving and departing flights are restricted to destinations within the Schengen Area.
Monaco
The Principality of Monaco and France maintain an entirely open land border, which is facilitated by the 1963 Convention on Good Neighbourly Relations. Although Monaco is not an official member of the European Union or a formal signatory to the Schengen Agreement, its territory is administered as an integral part of the Schengen Area due to its longstanding customs union with France. The movement of persons and goods between the two nations occurs without permanent immigration checkpoints or physical barriers.
Despite the absence of land controls, both French and Monégasque authorities carry out coordinated security and immigration checks at Monaco’s seaport and the Fontvieille heliport. The maritime border is particularly scrutinized by the Maritime and Airport Police Division to ensure that vessels entering the Principality from outside the Schengen zone comply with European security standards.
Additionally, while the country lacks its own visa policy, foreigners wishing to reside in Monaco for longer than three months must apply for a Monégasque residence permit, a process that requires close administrative cooperation with the French government.
San Marino
The Republic of San Marino maintains an entirely open border with Italy, functioning as a de facto member of the Schengen Area despite not being a formal signatory of the agreement. Although it is not a member state of the European Union, there are no physical barriers or permanent immigration controls at the frontier, allowing for the free flow of pedestrians and vehicles between the two nations.