Originally Posted by
Confus
Interesting to see the ‘it doesn’t matter’ opinions above, particularly as I’ve had two hairy moments recently where (separate) border guards have noticeably been counting as they rifle through looking at stamps. I have all the stamps but the entry and exit ones aren’t always next to each other so it appears on first glance that I had two rather long stays, instead of two short ones. A growing collection doesn’t make it any easier.
I find that each country has good systems for tracking movements, but only through their individual borders, it’s not joined up centrally. A challenge if you occasionally travel in through one country and out from another.
I suspect we will get a whole mix of this for the rest of the year: some countries simply won't care, e.g. Spain and tourist Greece, they know the system is rubbish so there isn't much point aligning stamps up. Other countries, and at the risk of stereotypism, Germany and Switzerland come to mind, they will make an attempt to make the 90/90/180 rules work.
Frankly, frequent visitor Brits would be best to keep their own spreadsheet (or whatever) updated on their phone and be prepared to show it it Frontex if necessary. Note that for less regular visitors, a 90 day absence from the last exit stamp, with rounded corners, clears the problem at the Schengen entry end. So if the border guard is pointed to that exit stamp and there are no entry (sharp corner) stamps after that date, then it's problem over.