# AI tells travelers a Morocco visa-free tourist stay resets to a fresh 90 days every time they exit and re-enter the country (a 'border run'), or that Morocco grants 90 days per entry rather than per rolling window

- **ID:** `visa/tourist-stay-90-in-180-days`
- **Domain:** visa
- **Category:** immigration_risk
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 50%

## Root Cause

Morocco's visa-exempt tourist stay is officially described by Moroccan diplomatic missions as three consecutive months within a six-month period, not a flat 90 days that restarts on every new entry stamp. Leaving and quickly re-entering (a common 'border run' via Ceuta, Melilla, or a Spain ferry) is not an officially guaranteed way to reset the clock; the only documented way to legally extend a stay is filing a residence request with the local police prefecture (Bureau des Étrangers) or Royal Gendarmerie before the visa-free period expires.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| any | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **File a residence-card / stay-extension request with the local police prefecture (Bureau des Étrangers) or Royal Gendarmerie before the 90 days are up** (75% success)
   ```
   Bring proof of address in Morocco and proof of sufficient financial resources; approval grants documented time beyond the initial visa-free window instead of relying on border-run enforcement discretion.
   ```
2. **Track cumulative days in Morocco against a rolling six-month window instead of assuming each new entry stamp resets a fresh 90 days** (65% success)
   ```
   Log entry/exit dates; if approaching 90 cumulative days within any 180-day span, either file the extension request or plan to stay outside Morocco long enough that a new six-month window has clearly begun.
   ```

## Dead Ends

- **Take a short ferry trip to Spain (or cross into Ceuta/Melilla) and back after 90 days, assuming the new entry stamp restarts a full fresh 90-day allowance** — Both the French Embassy in Morocco and the French Consulates General in Morocco describe the rule as a stay of at most three consecutive months within a six-month period, not 90 days per entry. Because the limit is scoped to a rolling window rather than reset by an exit/entry stamp, immigration officers can refuse to treat a short border hop as starting a new period, particularly for travelers making repeated short exits. (50% fail)
- **Plan to start the stay-extension paperwork only once the 90-day period has already run out** — Moroccan police authorities require foreigners wishing to stay beyond the visa-free period to apply for a residence document themselves, before their authorized stay expires; by the time the 90 days are already over, the traveler is in irregular status and the request is a regularization rather than a straightforward extension. (55% fail)