HN Explorer

Ask HN: US Hackers Who Spent 6 Mos Traveling Europe

2 points by smcguinness ↗ HN
My wife and I are looking into spending a year traveling Europe. I plan to pick up some freelancing work, however, through some research it looks like I'll need to obtain a visa to be able to stay in Europe that long. Has anyone done this? And if so, which country did you go with to get the visa? Also, what about health insurance?

5 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 24.3 ms ] thread
mc_hammer
no you just have to try another country after your 14, 30, or 90 day tourist entry expires.
aggronn
From http://thesavvybackpacker.com/long-term-travel-europe/

> The easiest ways to extend your trip past 90 days is to visit both Schengen and non-Schengen countries. Once your 90 days is up, travel to the UK, Ireland or many of the Eastern European countries that aren’t part of the agreement. Once you’ve spent those 90 days there you are free to return to to the Schengen area for another 90 days. You can keep repeating this process until you run out of money. - See more at: http://thesavvybackpacker.com/long-term-travel-europe/#sthas...

You can only be in Schengen zone for 90 days out of 180, so expect to spend some in eastern europe or UK/Ireland. You may also qualify for the german freelance visa:

https://medium.com/@imcatnoone/how-to-get-your-german-freela...

dalke
You are right that you will need to get a visa to stay in a specific country for 6 months. However, "Europe" has several different regions. You can be in the Schengen countries for 90 days out of 180. The Common Travel Area (UK, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey) is its own region. You can be in the UK for up to 6 months without a visa.

So what you can do is split your time between those two regions, plus the other countries in Europe which aren't part of those regions.

If you get a visa for a year's residence then you will also be paying local taxes, on top of the US taxes.

S4M
I suspect in most of the countries in EU you can go without visa for 3 months - your US passport grants you a tourist visa. When you go to another country, you get a new visa for that country, which means that you could stay in Europe for a while by going to a new country every three months.