How to track your days abroad (without a spreadsheet)
Whether it’s Schengen, a tax threshold or keeping residency at home, every rule comes down to one thing: an accurate list of where you were, and when.
What you need to record
- Entry and exit dates for every country, including short trips and layovers where you passed immigration.
- Where you were at midnight if a country counts that way (the UK does for tax).
- Time at home, if your home country has a minimum-days rule for keeping residency.
Why passport stamps and memory fail
E-gates and the EU’s Entry/Exit System mean fewer stamps. Memory blurs after a few months, and a spreadsheet falls behind the moment you’re busy. The record needs to fill itself in.
Back-fill the past from your photos
Your camera roll is already a travel diary: most photos carry a date and location. An app that reads those tags can rebuild years of trips in a minute — you just check the dates.
Log the present automatically
Location-based detection can start and end trips as you cross borders, so nothing depends on you remembering to log it.
Keep evidence
For tax or residency questions, a day count is stronger with proof: boarding passes, booking confirmations, bank and card statements, and a dated export of your travel record.
