Are tourist visas always 90 days?
Tourist stays range from 7 days (Bhutan tourist visa) to 180 days (Mexico FMM) depending on the passport-destination pair. The 90-day figure is just the most common Schengen and ESTA value.
The truth
Common tourist-stay lengths: Schengen Type C visa = 90 days in 180 (visa-free or visa-required). US ESTA = 90 days. US B-1/B-2 = up to 180 days at officer discretion. Canada eTA = 6 months. UK visa-free / ETA = 6 months. Mexico FMM = up to 180 days. Singapore = 30 days (default). UAE = 30 days (most) or 90 (some). Indonesia VOA = 30 days, extendable. India e-Tourist 30-day, 1-year, 5-year variants. China = 30 days standard / 60-90 for specific cases or transit. Thailand visa-free = 60 days (extended 2024). Russia tourist visa = up to 30 days. Bhutan tourist permit = 7-14 days standard. Cuba tourist card = 30 days, extendable. New Zealand visa-free / NZeTA = up to 9 months. Japan = 90 days. The 90-day standard reflects Schengen + ESTA dominance in Western travel media. Outside that, the variance is enormous, and getting it wrong is the most common cause of inadvertent overstays.
Why this rumour persists
Schengen and ESTA together dominate the visa-free travel that Western media covers, both being 90 days. The 90-day figure became shorthand, especially for digital-nomad and travel-blogger content.
What to actually do
- Every time you travel visa-free or visa-required tourism, look up the SPECIFIC stay limit for your pair
- Visavu's matrix records the maxStayDays for each visa option — check before booking long trips
- Border officers can grant less than the maximum — the stay actually granted is the officer's stamp date + max-stay-officer-grants
- If you've planned a trip longer than the visa-free max, either get a long-stay visa OR plan to leave and re-enter (where allowed)
- Always carry proof of onward travel within the maximum stay — border officers ask for this