1

Can I apply for a Schengen visa within the Schengen zone?

No, you can't. I don't know if you could be able to apply for long term visa for one of the countries of the Schengen area (e.g.: a WHV) but that visa will allow you to stay long term in that country; the 90 days in each 180 calendar days period will remain valid when traveling to other countries in the Schengen Area.

Also wondering about the possibility of working a ski season in either Switzerland or Austria as a non-EU citizen - likely?

You would need to get firstly a visa that allows you to work...

2

So do you think getting a Working Holiday Visa (WHV) would 'reset' the 90/180 days rule? I'm about 60 days into my current 90 day period, if I get a WH visa in 2 weeks, would I be allowed a new 90/180 day period? any ideas appreciated!

3

I'm Australian and my understanding is you have to be in your country of residence (Australia) to be able to apply for an overseas WHV. If I were you I'd contact the embassy though and ask them, coz you never know, I could be wrong, and they're going to have the right answer

4

obviously, if you get a WHV for a certain period, that WHV is valid for that period. The 90/180 rule no longer applies to teh country your visa is for, but still applies to the other countries of the Schengen zone.

Having said that, once you have a long term visa (WHV or otherwise) for a Schengen country, due t the lack of internal border control, it is practically impossible for anybody to verify how much time you have spend in Schengen countries not covered by your visa.

see this post here:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2261665

5

I do think that you may be able to find work in the Swiss Canton Wallis/Valais. They belong to Switzerland but they have their own interpretations and applications of existing rules. The respective police chief had even been in jail in turkey

6

Working holiday visas, student visas etc are only valid for the issuing country, and technically speaking don't give you more than 90 out of 180 days in the rest of the Schengen Area. However, as MTL pointed out, once you have a national long-stay visa in hand, it's nearly impossible to monitor your movements through the rest of the Schengen Area so you shouldn't worry too much about that.

HOWEVER I doubt you'll be able to arrange a working holiday or other visa at this point. As far as I know, in principle these visas are only issued through the embassy in the country of residence; but even if you'd manage to arrange it through an embassy in another Schengen country, it's not likely you'll have it processed before your 90 days in Schengen are over.

wondering about the possibility of working a ski season in either Switzerland or Austria as a non-EU citizen
First of all, you need to make sure you get a working holiday visa for either Switzerland or Austria. Note that it is illegal to work on a working visa issued by another country.

7

So do you think getting a Working Holiday Visa (WHV) would 'reset' the 90/180 days rule?

No, it won't reset it (AFAIK. It wouldn't hurt to ask in the embassy/consulate where you get your WHV). The only difference is that with a WHV instead of having to go out of the Schengen Area 90 days in each 180 calendar days period, you can spend those 90 days in the country that issued the visa.

BTW, as other users pointed out, you'll probably need to go to your home country to get it. However, there are so many countries in the Schengen Area that it's difficult for non-experts to say if there's one that allows to apply for a WHV or a work permit or any other long stay visa/permit once in the relevant country

8

Thanks for the replies... starting to get me down that I'm probably going to have to leave Western Europe before I wanted :(

9

Why? You can always spend 90 days in non-Schengen countries in Western Europe - which would be the UK or Ireland - or elsewhere (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, and - for the time being - Romania and Bulgaria, for example).

10

loos like the new plan

cheers