also called free movement
The right of citizens of a bloc such as the EU to live and work in any member country without a visa.
The right that citizens of a bloc like the EU have to live and work in any member country without a visa or permit. It flows from your citizenship, not from a document you apply for. It is not the same as the Schengen Area, which is about scrapping passport checks at borders; freedom of movement is about the right to settle and earn.
Someone with an EU passport decides to move from their home country to another member state for a job, and simply goes, no permit, no sponsor, no application. A non-EU friend eyeing the same move faces months of visa paperwork for the exact same country.
An EU passport, for example, unlocks dozens of countries with no permit, a huge advantage over visa-run living.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
The Schengen Area is a group of European countries with no passport checks between them, which is not the same body as the European Union, an economic and political union, though the two overlap.
The 90/180 rule is the cap letting a visa-free visitor stay up to ninety days in any rolling one-hundred-eighty, and a Schengen calculator counts those days for you.
Freedom of movement is the wider right EU citizens have to live and work in any member country, which ordinary visitors do not get.
A new term lands on this site every day, and the email is how you get it the day it lands. No digest, no roundup, no pitch. One term, what it means, and what it costs you to get it wrong.
Unsubscribe in one click, any time. We do not sell or share your address.