Welcome to French bureaucracy, you’ll never leave . . .

Visas

First things first, if you are a citizen of a non-EU country (including the UK) and you want to either move to France or spend more than 90 days out of every 180 here you will need a visa. CLICK HERE to find out how to get your visa.

However getting a visa is usually only the first step in your French paperwork journey, what happens next depends on the type of visa you have and how long you intend to stay in France.

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Here’s a look at the most common visa types and what happens next:

Moving to France

If you’re moving to France you will need a visa, but the type will depend on the purpose of your move – work, study, joining family members or retirement

Once you get your visa, in between celebrating, it’s important to read carefully the accompanying instructions, because these will tell you what to do next.

There are two main types of long-stay visa:

Visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour  (VLS-TS) allows its holder to stay in France for up to one year. With this visa, there’s no need to apply for a residence permit because, to all intents and purposes, it is one. 

Holders of this type of visa will, however, have to register with the Office Français de l’Immigration et de l’Intégration (OFII) within three months of arrival.

This involves a fee of around €200, while the OFii can also request an in-person appointment and a medical examination. To register with the OFii, log on to this government online portal.

The second type, the visa long séjour temporaire (VLS-T) visa includes the wording “residence permit to be requested within two months of arrival”, which is self explanatory.

The holder of this type of visa must report to their local préfecture within two months of arrival in France in order to obtain a carte de séjour (residency permit).

In order to get the carte de séjour, you will require various documents, such as birth and marriage certificates, a medical certificate and you will have to pay a fee on top of the one you paid to get your visa in the first place.

Some also require signing an ‘integration’ contract, agreeing to support French values and pledging to take French lessons if necessary.

They are issued for periods from one to 10 years – depending on your circumstances – and then you will need to apply for renewal.

In certain cases, in particular for visas issued under the Talent Passport scheme – for highly qualified employees or highly-qualified and/or experienced people with a ‘real and serious’ project for setting up a company – a multi-year residence permit may be issued.

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Just visiting

If you don’t intend to live in France, but you do want to spend more than 90 days out of every 180 here then you also need a visa. This is particularly relevant to second-home owners, who will usually get a visitor visa if they want to enjoy long stays at their French property.

Britons with second homes in France are not considered resident, so cannot apply for a carte de séjour under the Brexit withdrawal agreement. 

The visitor visa requires a guarantee that you will not work while in France and in addition to the usual paperwork you will need to prove that you have the financial means to support yourselves for the period of your stay in France.

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Once you have the visa, there is no need for extra registration in France.

However the visa itself only lasts for a year.

As your visa approaches its expiry date you have the option to renew the visa, or to apply for a carte de séjour visiteur. The carte de séjour visiteur is not the same type of card as that given to British residents in France under the Brexit deal, and can only be obtained by people who have already had a visa.

Like the visa, the application process for the carte de séjour requires proof that you are financially able to support yourself and there is also a fee.

CLICK HERE for full details of a carte de séjour visiteur.

Citizenship

Once you have been living in France for five years (or two years if you completed higher education at a French university) then you have the option of applying for citizenship, which will do away once and for all with any requirement for visas and residency cards.

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