emileebradford3908

Hi, so my plan was to travel around Europe on a holiday for 6 months, starting in Ireland and ending in Spain. I have been researching if visas are necessary and came across the Schengen area and the 90 day rule. I'm an AUS citizen so it is visa free for those 90 days but obviously I was intending to stay for longer. I'm wondering if anyone has travelled around Europe recently and had a work around for this or something.

I am now looking at getting a working holiday visa for italy as that is where I spend the most amount of nights. I am wondering if this would allow me to still travel for longer and in different countries, however I'm concerned that this isn't the first place I go, I start in Ireland but the first Schengen country I enter is Norway, then Sweden is first EU Schengen country. Does anyone have advice? please help me I'm very confused and just wanted to have a gap year (6months) after finishing my degree.

lavandula

I don't know how old you are (this makes a difference), but there are working holiday arrangements with reciprocal rights between Australia and several other countries in Europe for young people. Germany is one of these, and I just happen to know about this one because I have professional links to Germany (and I am Australian). The normal time I think might be 12 months. But the UK is one of these countries also, and additionally you can get 6 months in the UK without a visa at all. If you were planning to spend 6 months, the UK is a no-brainer. Google something like "working holiday arrangements Europe and Australia" and see what comes up. Then shape your trip around who will give you a visa, not around where your whim takes you. On the money you make you can keep doing weekends abroad and between jobs you can travel longer.

Lavandula

emileebradford3908

Thanks for your reply, I'm 21 turning 22 this year. For the working holiday visas do you actively have to work and can you visit other countries. If so would you have to return to the country the visa is for before and after.

Moderator1

Removed 12 country tags to restore page view

lavandula

Hi emilee, I don't think you have to work all the time and can travel around a bit. But you would probably want to work, the exchange rate between the euro and the Australian dollar is in their favour (and same for pounds sterling and A$), making it expensive in some cases (Norway for example is eye-wateringly expensive). I am not sure about returning to the first country, you would have to look into that for yourself (or maybe someone here will know). Usually also the jobs you take on are not supposed to be in your own industry, they are often pub jobs and the like, but you can get around that by tweaking your skill set. For instance my brother-in-law went to the UK after finishing electrical engineering and got a good job in a field that was a bit related but for which he wasn't entirely qualified with his degree. My SIL got a job in admin and not in the field that she was qualified in. They did rather well out of it and travelled a heap between jobs and on long weekends. I currently have a young German visiting us under this reciprocal arrangement and she didn't think about getting a job until she had been here for 6 months, and she also visited Bali during that time. So I know neither of those examples is Italy, but it gives you a feel for what I know about these reciprocal arrangements (i.e., nothing through my own experience, but I know some who have done it). I did my time overseas under different circumstances as I either was within the 90 days, had a work permit or travelled as a trailing spouse. There might be different conditions on leaving the country depending on where you are and how long you have left on your visa.

Lavandula

Traveler_Nick

You're supposed to work a certain amount of weeks IIRC. The terms should be on the website you'd apply to. But I think in general its something like 50% of the stay.

But all this assumes you can find a job. A job that actually pays something. Even if you speak Italian that isn't a sure thing. Worse of course if you don't speak Italian.

Ireland is not part of the Schengen zone. Doesn't it offer the same six months the UK does?

To actually answer your question You could enter Norway etc before getting to Italy just fine. You'd only need to stay less than ninety days in those countries. But between Ireland and the UK my guess is you'd not hit ninety in the zone.