The Schengen 90/180 rule for South Korean citizens

The basics

Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes the rule as 90 days of visa-free travel within the 180 days before your final departure (or check) date.

• EES: since 10 April 2026 every entry and exit is recorded with fingerprints and a photo, and the system counts your days automatically.
• ETIAS: no official start date yet, and nothing to apply for.

Bilateral visa-waiver agreements

The ministry lists 13 Schengen countries where a bilateral agreement takes priority: the Netherlands, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Czechia, Malta, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland. It describes these special cases:

• Austria: after a 90-day stay you may leave and re-enter immediately once; after that the 90/180 rule applies.
• Belgium: 90 days are allowed, counted together with time in the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
• Hungary: after 90 days under the Schengen rule, a further 90 days may be possible under the bilateral agreement, but you must then leave Hungary directly to a non-Schengen country.

For the other countries on the list, the ministry does not explain in detail how the agreements apply in practice. Check with the embassy of the country concerned before you plan beyond 90 days, and carry written confirmation.

How to count your days

On every day you are in the Schengen area, count the days you spent there in that day and the 179 days before it. The total must never go above 90. Entry and exit days both count, and days in all 29 countries are added together. The 90180.app calculator does this for every day of every trip, including trips you are only planning, and tells you your latest exit date.

Before you travel, you can confirm with the EU's official EES tool, which uses your border record. It does not include stays that began before 10 April 2026.