Because the only people eligible for this visa are the people who don’t require a regular tourist visa in the first place. And it’s literally just a tourist visa that lets you stay for twice as long.
I don’t see the appeal. It seems completely pointless to me. It’s basically targetting only wealthy countries outside of the EU, like Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand.
And in that case, why would I bother with visa and the paperwork just to be able to stay for 90 days longer?
It’s basically like applying for a B1/B2 visa for the US if you’re from a VWP country. You can do it, but why in the gods name would you?
The 180 days might be nice if you’ve already consumed your 90 Schengen days in Iceland or in another Schengen country. So I guess it’s one way to extend your European stay to 9 months, and then you might have another 90 Schengen days available. Could do 90d Portugal, 180d Iceland, then 90d Portugal?
> It’s basically like applying for a B1/B2 visa for the US if you’re from a VWP country. You can do it, but why in the gods name would you?
When you work it's really annoying to move every 90 days, the double is a lot more interesting. I'm guessing it's 180 because of tax reasons, that is a limit that many countries have for "you do not need to pay taxes anymore". Looking at the paper work this visa seems realitively easy get, and well worth the time. I do not see this as a competition with other countries, just away to make it easier to live there.
Let's say you're an outdoorsy software engineer and want to enjoy the beautiful nature of Iceland for half a year while working remotely. That doesn't sound too far-fetched (I know several people personally that scenario would be appealing to).