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VISAS

Getting a French visa – what paperwork comes next?

Citizens of non-EU countries will need a visa if they want to move to France or spend long periods of time here. But people fondly imagining that the paperwork is all finished once they get their visa may be in for a disappointment.

Published: 27 September 2021 14:49 CEST
Getting a French visa - what paperwork comes next?
Photo: Raymond Roig / AFP

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.

READ ALSO ‘Organise your documents and dress smartly’: Readers’ top tips for getting a French visa

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.

READ ALSO ‘Not too complicated but quite expensive’ – getting a French visa as a Brit

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.

READ ALSO How to get a visitor visa 

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.

READ ALSO Am I eligible for French citizenship?

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For members

TAXES

Explained: France’s exit tax

Planning on leaving France? You may, depending on your circumstances, be charged the 'exit tax'.

Published: 11 April 2024 11:28 CEST
Explained: France's exit tax

Like some other European countries, France does have an exit tax for those (French or foreign) who are leaving the country. It’s known by the English name l’Exit tax.

However, it won’t affect most people.

Only those who have been tax resident for a minimum six years of the 10 years immediately before they permanently move out of the country are liable to pay an exit tax – if, that is, they own property, titles or rights worth a minimum of €800,000, or that represent 50 percent of a company’s social profits.

If that affects you, the best advice is to seek expert individual financial advice before moving out of France for good. The relevant page on the French government’s impot.gouv.fr website says it is possible to defer payments, and some relief is available.

Because of the relatively high figures involved, this tax is irrelevant for most people. That said, however, you will still have to inform tax authorities that you are moving out of the country because you may still have income, property and capital gains taxes to pay.

Income tax

You must inform the tax office that you are moving and give them your new address so that your tax declarations can be transferred to your new address.

You are liable for tax on everything you earned in France prior to your departure as well as on any French earnings that are taxable in France under international tax treaties that you earned after your departure.

The year of your departure, you declare your previous year’s earnings as normal – declarations in spring 2024 are for earnings in 2023.

A year later, you will have to declare any earnings taxable in France from January 1st up to the date of your departure, and any French-sourced income taxable source until December 31st of the year of your departure.

If you continue to have any French-sourced income – such as from renting out a French property – you will have to declare that income annually, using the non-residents declaration form.

Property taxes

You will have property taxes to pay if you own a French property on January 1st of any given year – whether it is occupied or not. 

Property tax bills come out in the autumn, but they refer to the situation on January 1st of that year, so even if you sell your property you will usually have the pay a final property tax bill the following year.

Moreover, if you receive income from property in France or have rights related to that property (such as shared ownership or stock in property companies), as well as any additional revenue connected to the property, during the year you leave France, you will be required to pay taxes on these earnings.

If any property assets in France exceed €1.3 million on January 1st of a given year, you may also have to pay the wealth tax (IFI).

READ ALSO What is France’s wealth tax and who pays it?

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Capital gains tax 

If you sell your French property or share of a French property, you may be liable for capital gains tax at a rate of 19 percent. It will also be subject to social security contributions at the overall rate of 17.2 percent.

Capital gains tax varies depending on how long you have owned the property and whether it was a second home or your main residence.

READ ALSO How much capital gains tax will I have to pay if I sell my French property?

The good news is, if you move to another EU country, or any country that has a specific tax agreement with France, you may be exempt from capital gains tax for non-resident sellers on the sale of a property that was your principal residence in France.

If you move elsewhere, you may be able to claim exemption on capital gains tax up to €150,000. As always, you should seek expert financial advice.

Tell Social Security

Inform social security that you are leaving France permanently – and return your carte vitale if you have one. If you do not, you may be liable for any benefits you receive to which you are no longer entitled.

More mundane tasks involve informing utility and water companies, your internet provider, if you have one, the phone company, your insurance companies, banks – and La Poste, who will be able to forward your mail for up to 12 months, for a fee…

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