Schengen 90/180, EES and ETIAS for Second-Home Owners in Italy

Picture the second week of a summer at the house. The shutters are open, the garden is watered, and somewhere between the olive trees a visitor starts counting days.

This article draws on the Schengen Borders Code, the EES Regulation and the pages of the European Commission, of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAECI) and of the Polizia di Stato, as read on 30 September 2026.^[4] It sets out how the days are counted, who falls inside and outside the rule, what EES records, what ETIAS will be, what Italy asks of a short-stay visitor and where a long stay begins. It does not say how anyone should plan their time in Italy and does not assess any individual’s position.

Does owning a home change the 90-day rule?

It does not. Article 6(1) of the Schengen Borders Code sets the conditions of entry for intended stays of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, “which entails considering the 180-day period preceding each day of stay”.^[5][6] There are five conditions. The third-country national must hold a valid travel document, valid for at least three months after the intended date of departure (waivable in a justified emergency) and issued within the previous 10 years. A valid visa is required if one is needed, unless the traveller holds a valid residence permit or long-stay visa. The traveller must justify the purpose and conditions of the intended stay and have sufficient means of subsistence for the stay and for the return or onward journey, or be able to acquire them lawfully. And the traveller must not be the subject of an alert in the Schengen Information System for refusal of entry, nor be considered a threat to public policy, internal security, public health or the international relations of any Member State.^[5]

Nothing in the conditions refers to ownership of property. The means of subsistence are assessed by reference to the duration and purpose of the stay and to average prices for board and lodging in budget accommodation, multiplied by the number of days.^[7] A non-exhaustive list of supporting documents that a border guard may request is in Annex I to the Code.^[8]

That ownership does not extend the permitted stay is stated also in “The Elective Residency Visa” and in “Buying in Italy as a US Citizen”. This article does not repeat those passages and goes on to the mechanics.

How are the days counted?

The rule is a rolling one. For each day of stay, the 180 days before it are examined, and the days of presence within them may not exceed 90. The Code states that the date of entry counts as the first day of stay and the date of exit as the last day.^[9] The Commission’s short-stay calculator page adds three points. The count runs back 180 days from each day of the stay, and the total must not exceed 90. Periods spent on an EU residence permit or a long-stay (D) visa are not entered in the calculation, and a holder of such a document is not subject to the 90/180 rule in that period. And a short-stay visa shows its own authorised period on the sticker; where that period is shorter than 90 days, the calculator is not to be used.

The calculator has a “check” mode, which tests stays already made or in progress, and a “planning” mode, which gives the maximum stay from a future entry date on the basis of the entries and exits in the preceding 180 days.

An illustration of the method, with invented dates. A stay from 1 June to 15 July 2026 is 45 days (both days count), and a stay from 1 September to 15 October 2026 is another 45 days. On 15 October the 180-day window runs from 19 April 2026, and it contains 90 days of presence, so the allowance is used up. On each later date the window moves forward by a day. The window reaches back to 2 June on 28 November 2026, so the day of 1 June has dropped out by then; on 28 November a further day of stay would be the ninetieth in the window and not the ninety-first. Before that date a further day would be the ninety-first. Each later day from the first period leaves the window in turn.

The count is single for all the countries. The MAECI page on EES states (in Italian; translated here) that a short stay means a maximum of 90 days in 180, calculated as a single period for all the European countries that use the EES. Days in France, Spain or Switzerland therefore count with days in Italy, and a stay in a home in Italy counts in the same way as a stay in a hotel. Internal border checks are not carried out between Schengen states, but the Code allows them to be reintroduced temporarily.^[10] The presence of a check at an internal border does not change the count.

Are there exceptions to the 90/180 method?

The Commission’s border-crossing page records two. The Visa Code rules do not apply to the visa-waiver agreement between the EU and Brazil, for which the older definition (three months in a six-month period from first entry) continues to apply.^[11] And visas issued under the visa facilitation agreements with certain third countries are calculated by the 90/180 method, because those agreements refer to “90 days per period of 180 days”.^[11]

Who is inside the rule, and who is outside it?

The table sets out, situation by situation, where a traveller stands.

The rule turns on the traveller’s nationality and on the document under which the stay is made, and the entry rules change over time. Whether a person is an owner is not a factor in any of these situations.

What does EES record?

According to the Commission, EES is an automated system that registers, each time a non-EU national travelling for a short stay crosses the external borders of the 29 countries that use it, the person’s name, travel-document data, biometric data (fingerprints and captured facial images) and the date and place of entry and exit. It also records refusals of entry. From 10 April 2026 it replaces the stamping of passports and allows the automatic detection of overstayers. The system is managed by eu-LISA, the EU agency for large-scale IT systems.

The EES Regulation adds detail. EES applies to third-country nationals admitted for a short stay who are subject to border checks at the borders where it operates, and not, among others, to holders of residence permits, holders of long-stay visas, and nationals of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino.^[16] For a visa-exempt national the file contains the facial image and fingerprint data from the right hand where present, otherwise from the left;^[18] children under 12 and persons for whom fingerprinting is physically impossible are exempt.^[18] EES contains an automated calculator that indicates the maximum authorised stay. It informs the authorities, on entry, of that maximum; during checks within the territory, of the remaining authorised stay or the length of an overstay; and on exit, of any overstay.^[19] The border authorities must tell the traveller the maximum authorised stay, either through the border guard or through equipment at the crossing point giving access to a web service.^[20]

Three limits should be noted. EES registers crossings of the external borders; entering Italy from another Schengen state does not involve it. It registers persons on short stays; it does not register a person who holds a residence permit or long-stay visa. And it does not itself decide any question of status: it supplies data and a calculation to the border and police authorities.

The Commission’s page records the timeline. The Regulation was adopted on 20 November 2017; a Regulation of 18 July 2025 allowed a progressive start; operations began on 12 October 2025; and EES became fully operational on 10 April 2026. MAECI’s page states that registration is mandatory both for foreign nationals who need a short-stay visa and for those who are exempt.

Under the Regulation of 18 July 2025, for 90 days after the end of the progressive start, extended by 60 days if fewer than 80% of the files registered during it contained biometric data, Member States could suspend biometric registration at a border crossing point for up to six hours at a time when traffic was so heavy that waiting times became excessive.^[21] Those provisions cease to apply 330 days after the start date of 12 October 2025, so the flexibility ended in early September 2026.^[22][23]

What is ETIAS, and where does it stand?

The official EU information, as reproduced on the page of the European External Action Service (dated 22 April 2025 and describing a late-2026 start that has since been overtaken), and on the European Commission’s ETIAS page, describes ETIAS as an entry requirement for visa-exempt nationals travelling to the 30 European countries concerned.^[24][3] It is an authorisation linked to the traveller’s passport, valid for up to three years or until the passport expires, which allows entry for short stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period but does not guarantee entry: the border guard still checks the entry conditions. It is not a visa.

On status, the European Commission’s ETIAS page (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu, last modified 14 July 2026; read on 1 October 2026) states: “ETIAS is currently not in operation and no applications for travel authorisations are collected at this point. The European Union will inform about the specific date for the start of ETIAS several months prior to its launch.”^[3] The official ETIAS site (travel-europe.europa.eu) says the same, according to search extracts of its text.^[25]

Two reports of August and September 2026 agree. Euronews (12 August 2026, updated 17 August) quotes the EU website: “ETIAS is currently not in operation and no applications for travel authorizations are collected at this point”, and “The European Union will inform about the specific date for the start of ETIAS several months prior to its launch”. It reports that the earlier expectation of a 2027 launch is also uncertain.^[26] Newland Chase (9 September 2026) reports that the official portal has removed its “last quarter of 2026” launch window, that no replacement date has been published, and that the Commission is the body that sets the start date.^[27]

The fee is EUR 20, according to the European Commission’s ETIAS page, which says the fee “has been set at EUR 20 instead of the previous EUR 7” and that the adjustment is undergoing the formal procedure; the official ETIAS site also shows EUR 20.^[3][25] The EEAS page (dated 22 April 2025) still shows EUR 7.^[28] The fee applies only once ETIAS is operational. The EEAS page itself warns against websites that claim to be official and collect personal data.

What does Italy ask of a short-stay visitor?

Italian law asks a foreign national who stays up to 90 days for tourism, business, study and similar purposes to declare his or her presence; no residence permit is required.^[29] The pages of the Polizia di Stato and MAECI describe the rule as follows. For a traveller arriving from a country outside Schengen, the declaration is satisfied by the uniform Schengen border stamp in the travel document at the border check. The Polizia page predates EES and refers to the passport stamp, which EES replaced from 10 April 2026 at the external borders. The Questura is the authority for current practice. For a traveller arriving from another Schengen state, the declaration is filed with the Questura, the provincial police headquarters, of the province where the person is, within eight days of entry, on the prescribed form.^[30] The eight working days that appear elsewhere are those for applying for a residence permit after a long-stay visa.^[31][32] For a stay in a hotel, a copy of the declaration made to the hotelier serves as the declaration of presence.

Failing to declare on time, or staying beyond the permitted period after declaring, can lead to an expulsion order, unless the delay was due to force majeure.^[30] The Polizia page, last modified on 26 January 2021, also refers to a fine of €5,000 to €10,000 for irregular entry or stay.^[33]

Where does a long stay begin?

A national who wishes to stay more than 90 days needs a national long-stay visa (type D, 91 to 365 days) from the Member State in which the stay will take place, and then applies in Italy for a residence permit within eight working days of entry.^[13][14] The visa is issued for a stated purpose. The elective residence visa, the investor visa and the other types, with the requirements of each, are described in “The Elective Residency Visa”; this article does not repeat them.

The difference between the two regimes is one of legal basis, not of length alone. A short stay rests on the exemption from the visa or on a short-stay visa, is subject to the conditions for entry and to the 90/180 count, and is recorded in EES.^[34][16] A long stay rests on a visa and permit issued for a purpose, is outside the 90/180 count while the document is valid, and is not recorded in EES.^[34][16] The owner of a second home who holds neither a D visa nor a residence permit is in the first group, as is any other visitor of the same nationality.

What this article does not cover

It does not cover the nationals of any one country beyond the visa-exempt list (for United States citizens, see “Buying in Italy as a US Citizen”); the position of British citizens under the withdrawal agreement; the rules for EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, who are not subject to these entry conditions; the taxes on a second home (see “Owning as a Non-Resident: Filings, IMU and TARI, and Who Sets Them”); the rules for letting a property, which are in “Letting a Tuscan Property When You Are Not There”; the purchase itself (“How a Foreigner Buys Property in Italy”); or any individual’s right to enter or remain.