Originally Posted by LondonAussie

Living in London, I travel to Europe frequently, but stay no more than a week or two each time.

Since I now have a lot of stamps in my passport I’m increasingly getting questions from border guards about how much time I’ve spent in the Schengen area, and if I’m familiar with the 90/180 day rule.

Sometimes they spend a good 5-10 minutes checking all the dates on stamps. It doesn’t help that some border agents have stamped the departure in a different page to the corresponding entry, so it can appear like I’ve spent much longer on a trip than I really have.

Is there a good way to prepare for these questions and speed up the process? Should I try to calculate the number of days and offer that information proactively?

It’s not a huge hassle but the delay can be the difference of making a train or bus on arrival, or less time in the lounge on departure. Also I feel bad holding up people in the queue behind me.