Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

LIVING IN FRANCE

Paris in August, visas and the OFII: 6 essential articles for life in France

From the pros and cons to consider when staying in Paris during August to a quick guide to the 2024 Paris Olympics and what to expect when dealing with France's office of immigration (OFII), here are our six must-reads of the week.

Published: 30 July 2023 09:00 CEST
Paris in August, visas and the OFII: 6 essential articles for life in France
A closed sign in August 2022 for a Paris cinema (Photo by BERTRAND GUAY / AFP)

If you are struggling to decide whether to stay in France’s capital city during the month of August, or to escape like many other Parisians, then you will want to weight the pros and cons. While the pace of life does slow down, many shops close and it can be hard to get a rendez-vous when you need one.

That being said, it can be a great time to get out of your comfort zone and explore other parts of the city. This list of benefits and drawbacks can help you make your choice.

5 reasons to spend August in Paris (and 5 to stay away)

Part of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will take place in August next year, and the city is slated to be packed with tourists, athletes and fans. 

Here is everything you can expect – in under five minutes – regarding the Games, from whether you are considering listing your apartment on Airbnb to the ways you can still enjoy the festivities, matches and competitions without having to purchase tickets.

Tickets, fan zones and Airbnb: Your 5-minute guide to the 2024 Paris Olympics

If you have ever driven in France, then you have likely passed by signposting for the country’s villages étapes. These are stopover towns that have been specifically recognised by France’s ministry of environment for meeting certain requirement, such as being a generally pleasant and attractive place to visit. 

When planning your next French road trip, you might consider stopping off at one of these 76 special spots not too far from the motorway.

Driving in France: What are the French ‘villages étapes’?

If you, or someone you know, has recently moved to France, then France’s office of immigration and integration (OFII) has likely been a topic of conversation.

The OFII represents one of the important first steps foreigners must complete after arriving in France, as it is required for anyone arriving with a long-stay visa known as VLS-TS, or visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour (ie they intend to live here). From a mandatory medical appointment to ‘integration’ sessions, this is what you can expect when dealing with France’s immigration office.

OFII: Your questions answered on France’s immigration office

The European Union has said it will be introducing something similar to the United States’ ESTA visa waiver. The programme called ETIAS will require non-EU nationals without residency cards or visas to register and pay a small fee prior to entering the EU. 

The scheme does not have an official start date yet, but if you have friends or family planning to visit from outside the EU (including the United States) you’ll want to keep an eye on The Local’s coverage of ETIAS.

Will American tourists need to pay for a visa to visit France?

Countries like Italy and Ireland have schemes in place that allow descendants to obtain citizenship with relative ease. But if you were curious about the possibility of doing so in France, the rules are a bit different. 

There are several routes to obtaining French nationality. The best-known methods, other than being born in France to French parents, are by marriage to a French citizen, or to have lived in the country long enough to fulfil residency requirements. In France, citizenship by ancestry is less common. Here is what you can expect if you were thinking of using this route.

Can I obtain French citizenship through ancestry?

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the deal with passport stamping in France?

There are clear guidelines in place about who should have their passport stamped when they enter or leave France - but the letter of the law doesn't always seem to be applied on the ground. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 17 May 2024 14:24 CEST
What's the deal with passport stamping in France?

When you pass through a French border control post, officers will check your passport and – in some cases – stamp the date of your entry or exit of the country onto one of the blank pages in the booklet.

Although the system should be clear and simple, it becomes complicated when conflicting information is given on the ground.

Here’s what the rules say, and whether it’s really a problem if your passport is incorrectly stamped.

Who should be stamped?

The purpose of the date stamps for entry and exit is to calculate how long you have been in France, and therefore whether you have overstayed your allowed time – whether that is the time allowed by a short-stay Schengen visa or the visa-free 90-day allowance that certain non-EU nationals benefit from. 

Those people who are exempt from 90-day restrictions should therefore not have their passports stamped.

EU passport – people who have an EU passport should not have it stamped, because they have the right to unlimited stays due to EU freedom of movement.

Dual nationals – people who have passports of both EU and non-EU countries should not be stamped when they are travelling on their EU passport. However, because the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’, those travelling on their non-EU passports will be stamped, unless they have other proof of residency.

READ ALSO What are the rules for dual-nationals travelling in France?

French residents – the passports of non-EU citizens who have a residency permit in France (carte de séjour) should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their permit is valid.

Visa holders – people who have a long-stay visa or a short-stay visitor visa should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their visa is valid. 

Tourists/visitors – people making short visits to France who do not have a visa should be stamped, with the stamps keeping track of their 90-day allowance. Visitors from nationalities who do not benefit from the 90-day rule (eg Indians) are also stamped.

Travel practicalities

When crossing a French border, you should present your passport along with other documents – visa or carte de séjour – if relevant. Don’t wait for border guards to ask whether you are a resident.

It should be noted that the carte de séjour is not a travel document and cannot be used to cross borders, not even internal Schengen zone borders. The only valid travel documents for entering France are a passport or national ID card. Any other forms of ID – driving licence, residency card etc – cannot be used for travel purposes.

Border problems

While the rules on stamping are simple in theory, many readers of The Local have reported having their passports incorrectly stamped at the border, and this seems to be a particular problem for non-EU nationals who are resident in France.

Travellers are also often given incorrect information by border guards – for example being told that only holders of the post-Brexit Article 50 TUE carte de séjour are exempt from stamping, that all non-EU nationals must have their passports stamped or that only being married to a French national exempts you from stamping.

None of these are correct.

It’s also sometimes the case that people whose passports should be stamped – tourists, visitors and second-home owners who don’t have a visa – do not receive the stamp. For frequent visitors this can be a problem because it looks as though they have had a long stay in France, due to their exit not being recorded.

The system of stamping itself is also a bit haphazard with stamps scattered throughout the passport book in random order, so border guards sometimes make mistakes and miss an entry or exit stamp and therefore think that people have overstayed when they haven’t.

So how much of a problem actually is it if your passport is wrongly stamped?

It’s one thing to know the rules yourself, it’s quite another to have an argument with a border guard, in French, when a long queue is building behind you. Numerous Local readers have reported feeling that they had no choice but to accept a stamp when an implacable guard insisted upon it.

But is this really a problem?

One thing is clear – if you are a resident of France then you have the right to re-enter, and your proof of residency (visa or carte de séjour) takes precedence over any passport stamps. So it’s not a question of being barred from the country – it can, however, be inconvenient as it might lead to delays at the border while your passport record is queried.

Meanwhile people who did not receive correct exit stamps can be incorrectly told that they have over-stayed and even be liable for a fine. 

Will the new EES passport control system improve this?

Theoretically, the EU’s new Entry & Exit System – which does away with the manual stamping of passports – should get rid of these problems.

However, as we have seen, theory and what actually happens on the ground are two different things.

The EES system, due to come into effect later this year, brings in two main changes – it makes passport checks more secure by adding diometric data such as fingerprints and facial scans and it does away with manual stamping of passports and replaces it with scans which automatically calculate how long people have been in France.

You can read full details of how it works HERE. 

So that should eliminate the problems of unclear stamps, stamps being read wrongly or passports not getting the stamps they need.

Residents in France – carte de séjour and visa holders – are not required to complete EES checks and should have a separate system at ports, airports and railway terminals.

However, at present it’s pretty common for border guards to give incorrect information to non-EU residents who are resident in the EU – let’s hope that they are properly briefed before EES is deployed.

Have you had problems with passports being incorrectly stamped? Please share your experiences in the comments section below

SHOW COMMENTS