Schengen Visa Time-lapse question

[LittleHobo2012]

Hi,
I had a problem with an overstay charge in Zurich,
but i don't think I should have been charged with this... any insight?
Below are the details. Thanks!

I am Canadian and I visited Spain in June 2015 for 7 days.
Then I went back for a 2nd visit in November 2015 and stayed 100 days.

When I left Spain at the end of the 100 days, I was routed through Zurich and was stopped at customs and charged with an overstay of 10 days.

The customs officer counted the schengen visa as having started in November 2015 on the 1st day of my 2nd visit and not from the 1st day of my 1st visit in June 2015.

If the visa had been counted as having started in June, the 180 day period spans from June to November.
In that period from June to November I only spent 37days out of 180days in the Schengen area.

At the end of November (at the end of the 180 days) doesn't the schengen visa clock reset? And I would have been allowed another 90 days over a period of 180 days? This 180 days period would be from December 2015 to May 2016.

My Trip ended in Feb 2016. If my first visa was counted as having started in June 2015 and my second schengen visa was counted as starting in December 2015, I would have only stayed another 69 days in the schengen area when I left in Feb 2016 and I would not have received the overstayed penalty.

Any thoughts on this?

[steven]

Unfortunately, they were correct. The duration of the stay may not exceed 90 days in any six-month period. If you at any day look back 180 days, you are allowed to stay only 90 out of those 180 days. The period does not "reset". You can find the definition of the 90/180 rule or the short-term Schengen visa in The Schengen acquis, Title III, C H A P T E R 3, Visas, SECTION 1, Short-stay visas, Article 11, paragraph 1 (a). Hope that helps.

[steven]

More details here:

Schengen Area definition of 180 day period
http://www.maxi-pedia.com/forum/index.php?topic=318.0