Visiting without a visa: what is actually needed

Without a visa the formal obligation falls away. Three things remain: evidence of purpose and means, insurance that is legally optional but expensive to skip, and counting the 90 days.

✓ Verified: 17/08/2026

WHAT TO DO

Draft an informal invitation letter: who you are, whom you expect, the dates, where the guest will stay, who pays for the trip — this is not an official form

Arrange travel health insurance: not legally required, but without it your guest pays for every treatment personally
Keep the return ticket and the guest's means to hand — Article 6 requires evidence of purpose AND of means
Track the days used within the 180-day window and plan departure before day 91

Your guest may enter without a visa — so the formal obligation is off the table. No office appointment, no fee, no liability stretching five years.

What remains is smaller, but it is not nothing.

The three things that stay

Evidence of purpose and means. Article 6 still requires both, only not in the shape of a form. In practice a return ticket, the address of the accommodation and sufficient means will do.

Insurance — optional, and the most expensive thing to skip. It is not a condition for visa-free entry. Without it, your guest pays for any treatment out of pocket.

Counting the days. 90 days in any 180, rolling, and across all Schengen states together.

What you should NOT sign

Some families obtain a formal obligation anyway, “just in case”. That is usually a poor trade: it costs €29, is accepted for only half a year — and creates liability lasting five years. For a three-week visit with no visa procedure it almost never pays off.

› Details and tips

👨🏻‍💻

Max recommends:

My mother came visa-free and uninsured — which was fine right up to the fall on the stairs. The clinic billed her, not me: I had signed nothing. We paid it together anyway, just with no insurer behind us.

👩🏼‍💼

Lea recommends:

I always enclose a one-page invitation letter with the address and dates even though nobody asks for it. At the desk it answers the question about the purpose of travel in five seconds instead of five minutes.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Does my guest need travel health insurance? ▾

Legally no — unlike for a visa. Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/399 lists the entry conditions exhaustively and insurance is not among them. Skipping it is still risky: without cover your guest pays for every treatment themselves, and one emergency admission with a hospital stay quickly reaches four figures. You are not liable for it — you signed nothing.

What letter should I send my guest? ▾

An informal invitation letter is enough: your name and address, your guest's name and date of birth, how you know each other, the travel dates, the accommodation and who bears the costs. It is a private letter with no official stamp — it creates no liability and must be kept strictly apart from the formal obligation.

Can someone still be turned away at the border? ▾

Yes. Visa exemption is not a right of entry: border officers still check the Article 6 conditions, meaning purpose, circumstances and means. Someone arriving with no return ticket, no money and no address may be refused. That is why the letter, the booking and evidence of means are worth having even though nobody formally demands them.

What happens if the 90 days are exceeded? ▾

The stay becomes unlawful. That is not a trifle: a fine, an order to leave and a record that complicates future entries and permits. Anyone wishing to stay longer needs their own residence permit before the period runs out — a different procedure, and one that does not start with an invitation.

Visiting without a visa: what is actually needed

The three things that stay

What you should NOT sign

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

OFFICIAL SOURCES