Understanding the Schengen Area and Bilateral Waiver Agreements

This post is about the Schengen Area and in particular bilateral waiver agreements for New Zealand citizens travelling in Europe. I have compiled this information from contacting the embassies of European counties to confirm certain agreements. 

Please note this information is valid as at May 2015. 

A brief overview: New Zealand citizens travelling on New Zealand passports can stay in the Schengen Area for up to 90 days during a period of 180 days. (The Schengen Area encompasses the yellow, green and cyan countries on the map above.) Their stay can be for 90 consecutive days, or divided into several stays. The six-month period starts on the day of first entry into the Schengen Area. A new six-month period starts immediately after the expiry of the previous one, thereby allowing another stay in the Schengen Area of up to 90 days. 

However, there is currently a separate bilateral agreement between certain countries (green and cyan on the map) and New Zealand allowing stays for up to 90 days visa free in those countries in addition to any days spent in a Schengen country. As a consequence, New Zealand citizens will not be refused entry to (as an example) France due to time spent in Spain. 

On the Safe Travel website (https://www.safetravel.govt.nz/travel-tips-travel-europe), it lists the countries with bilateral waiver agreements with New Zealand as:

But it also states that these are subject to change and it is best to contact the embassy of the country you will be visiting to check. I have therefore done so.

VALID BILATERAL WAIVER AGREEMENTS (BWAs)

France, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands are still working under the BWAs and these have been confirmed verbally at the embassy (France and Spain) or by email (Germany and the Netherlands).

Belgium also has a valid BWA, but the embassy official stated it is only for two months rather than the usual three.

Greece provided no confirmation, so if you are going there you should check. Either visit or call the embassy as they did not reply via email. 
Note that we did not check with Switzerland, so we have marked this as yellow (Schengen) on the map. If you intend to stay there for longer than three months, contact the embassy. 

NORDIC COUNTRIES BWA

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have confirmed that they have BWAs with New Zealand, however they are special in that they are Nordic BWAs, meaning that these countries all count as one country with a BWA. So you can spend three months in Nordic countries as a whole rather than here months in each country. If you then leave for three months and re-enter a Nordic country, this is acceptable under the Nordic BWA. 

EXCEPT FINLAND

After a very long explanation citing many pieces of legislation from a Finnish official, they stated:
"At this stage, I cannot, unfortunately recommend you to plan your forthcoming trip according to the old bilateral visa waiver agreement (to make sure that you will not end up in any trouble) but to act according to general Schengen rule that allows you to stay in in Schengen area 90 days within 180 days."

CONTRARY TO INFORMATION GIVEN
Portugal states "The Bilateral agreement has been overridden by the Schengen Agreement", so treat it as a normal Schengen country. 

I called the Austrian and Italian embassies and they stated that the BWAs were no longer valid. 

Iceland stated by email that it only follows Schengen rules as well. 

NO INFORMATION
Luxembourg stated that to give me that information, they would need "more details about your intended stay in Luxembourg: how long exactly, when, where exactly would you stay, contact persons in Luxembourg." As this was only a theoretical stay in Luxembourg, I did not query further. If you intend to stay in Luxembourg, you can email Manou Gillen at m.gillen@me.com. 

KEEPING RECORDS

As Germany said in their email, "as there are no border controls within these countries, it is up to you to prove to immigration that you have not spent more than 90 days in any one country." If you do not provide this, it's possible that you could be accused of being an overstayer and may be banned from entering the Schengen Area in the future. 

Netherlands said something similar: "We advise you to have proof with you (e.g. airline tickets, hotel bills, receipts, etc.) that can prove/explain the duration of your stay in both countries. Not every border official is aware of the agreements and as I mentioned you might be questioned." They also advise that you print out the information on the Safe Travel website to show border officials.

VISA FREE ENTRY

For NZ citizens, you can visit the UK for up to six months, but must show proof of onward travel. (I tried to look into onward travel further to see if a train or ferry ticket to France would be sufficient, and I was not given a straight answer. From researching it, it seems that the safest way is to have plane tickets out (and probably back to your home country), but if you feel like risking it you can use your diplomacy skills on the border official and you might just get lucky. You might also have to take the first flight back which would suck.)

For the Eastern European countries in blue on the map, you can visit each visa free for 90 days out of a 180 day period, which actually seems like a better deal than the Schengen Area even though there are border officials between the blue countries. Looks like I'll be planning a trip to Croatia soon!