Which Countries Are in the Schengen Area? Full 2026 List for Business Travellers

The complete list of Schengen member states and microstates, and the three countries most often wrongly assumed to be included.

---

The Short Answer

As of 2026, the Schengen Area consists of 29 full member countries plus 4 microstates with open borders to their Schengen neighbours — 33 territories in total where days count toward the 90/180-day rule. Notably, Schengen membership is not the same as EU membership: some Schengen members aren't in the EU, and some EU members aren't in Schengen. That mismatch is where most compliance mistakes start.

---

Full Schengen Member States (29)

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Four of these — Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland — are Schengen members but not EU members. Days spent in any of them count fully toward the 90/180 allowance in exactly the same way as an EU Schengen country.

Romania and Bulgaria are recent additions: both became full Schengen members on 1 January 2025, having previously operated under partial Schengen rules. Trips there before that date and trips on or after it are treated differently for historical compliance records, but from 2025 onward they count exactly like any other member state.

---

The Four Microstates That Also Count

This is the detail that trips up even careful travel planners: Monaco, Vatican City, San Marino, and Andorra are not formally Schengen members, but each has fully open borders with its Schengen neighbours and no passport control. Border authorities treat time spent in them as Schengen presence, and any compliance tracking that ignores them will understate an employee's real day count.

• Monaco — open border with France
• Vatican City — open border with Italy
• San Marino — open border with Italy
• Andorra — open borders with France and Spain

If your business has employees attending events in Monaco or transiting through San Marino, those days need to be recorded exactly as if they were spent in France or Italy.

---

The Three Countries Everyone Assumes Are Included (But Aren't)

• Ireland — an EU member state that opted out of Schengen. Trips to Dublin or Cork do not draw down the Schengen 90-day allowance at all (though Ireland has its own separate entry rules for UK nationals under the Common Travel Area).
• Cyprus — an EU member state that has not yet implemented the Schengen border framework. Like Ireland, time spent in Cyprus is not counted against the Schengen 90/180 limit.
• United Kingdom — obviously not Schengen, but worth stating plainly for any policy document: UK travel days are never part of this calculation.

Getting this wrong in either direction causes real problems. Wrongly counting Irish or Cypriot days makes a compliant travel plan look artificially risky. Wrongly excluding microstate days makes an at-risk employee look artificially safe — and that's the more dangerous mistake, since it's the one likely to cause an actual overstay.

---

Why the EU/Schengen Distinction Matters for Policy

A UK company writing an internal travel policy that says "no more than 90 days in the EU" is already wrong in two directions: it would incorrectly restrict travel to Ireland and Cyprus (not required), and it could miss non-EU Schengen countries like Switzerland and Norway (which absolutely count). Compliance policy should always be written and tracked in terms of Schengen membership, not EU membership — they overlap heavily but are not the same list.

---

Key Takeaways

• 29 full Schengen members + 4 open-border microstates = 33 places where days count toward the 90/180 limit.
• Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland are Schengen but not EU — days there fully count.
• Romania and Bulgaria became full members on 1 January 2025.
• Monaco, Vatican City, San Marino, and Andorra count due to open borders, despite not being formal members.
• Ireland, Cyprus, and the UK are the three countries most often wrongly assumed to be in scope — none of them are.

This list is maintained against the European Commission's official Schengen Area reference (opens in a new tab) and reviewed quarterly. ComplyEur applies the current membership list automatically to every trip record, so nobody has to check country-by-country before approving travel. See how it works or read the FAQ.