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FRENCH RESIDENCY

Reader question: Can I come to France for 90 days then get a visa?

This is a common question, but in most cases it's not possible to get a visa once you have arrived in France.

Published: 14 August 2023 11:00 CEST
Reader question: Can I come to France for 90 days then get a visa?
(Photo by MARTIN BUREAU / AFP)

Question: We bought a house in France and arrived under the 90 day rule in July – we know we now need to get a visa but we’ve had no luck in dealing with the préfecture, what the best way to get a visa?

The short answer to this question is in most cases it’s not possible and you will have to go back to your home country.

Here’s the longer answer . . . 

As most people know, if you want to move to France to live and you come from a non-EU country you will need a visa.

There are several different visa options which depend on your individual situation – eg worker, student, retiree – but with the exception of certain specific groups (more on them later), first-time visas of these type must be applied for outside of France.

The other key point is that préfectures do not deal with visas – you need to go through the France Visas service.

READ MORE: EXPLAINED: What type of French visa do you need?

Visitor visas are common for second-home owners wishing to spend more than 90 days out of every 180 in France.

The first option is the short-stay visitor visa (VLS-T), which is typically awarded for a period of under six months and does not involve establishing residency in France. If you wish to come back to France on this visa, then you would have to return to your home country and apply for it again from there.

The other option for those looking to move to France and establish residency here is the long-stay visitor visa (VLS-TS). 

READ MORE: VLS-T or VLS-TS: What are the key differences between France’s visitor visas?

The first step is to complete your application using France’s online portal at the website France-Visas.

Once you have finished this first part on France-Visas, you can click to see the next steps for making an appointment in your country by clicking on the link to ‘places of submission‘. This will provide information regarding the organisation that will receive you in-person for your visa appointment.

In the UK, you will have to make an appointment with TLS Contact, which has application centres in London, Manchester and Edinburgh. Applications can be submitted up to 120 days prior to planned departure.

For the United States, you can submit your application through VFS Global, which has 9 centres across the country. “Applications cannot be submitted more than six months before the departure date for short-stay visa applications and no more than 3 months before the departure date for long-stay visa applications”, according to VFS Global policy.

After you the appointment and application submission, you will need to wait until the centre gives you back your passport with your visa inside. Be sure to give yourself wiggle room in case of delays.

During the period that your visa applies, you are exempt from the 90-day rule in France (and only in France, the rule still applies if you travel to another EU/Schengen zone country) and your passport doesn’t need to be stamped when entering or exiting France.

READ MORE: Reader question: How does getting a French visa affect the 90-day rule?

If you’re moving to France to live, you will have extra ‘in country’ admin once you arrive, including a visit to the Immigration Office and – eventually – to the préfecture to get a residency card.

READ MORE: OFII: Your questions answered on France’s immigration office

Exceptions

So that’s the situation for most people, but there are certain groups for whom it is possible to apply for residency from within France.

Refugees and asylum seekers can apply in France – more information here.

Family reunification can also be an exception to having to apply for a visa from outside of France – in many cases the dependent family member can apply for residency in France with their family member’s local préfecture. Typically, the relationships considered for family reunification are dependent minor children, as well as spouses and sometimes partners (“with a lasting and proven relationship”).

Brexit Withdrawal Agreement – if you benefit from the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement (ie you were living in France before December 31st 2020) you have the right to be joined by a family member, and in that case this includes dependant parents as well as children or spouses/partners.

READ MORE: EXPLAINED: Can you bring an ageing parent to France to live?

Why is there confusion around this?

Looking at Facebook groups and questions from readers, the biggest reason for confusion seems to be simply people comparing themselves to others who are in a completely different immigration situation.

For example, Brits who were in France prior to 2021 had a greatly simplified residency process thanks to the Withdrawal Agreement – but this is not available to new arrivals who must go through the standard visa process for non-EU nationals.

Some are also thrown off due to the exceptions which exist surrounding dependent family members, and there’s also confusion around the difference between residency cards (cartes de séjour) and visas. 

Visas are generally required for new arrivals into France – they must be applied for outside France, usually in your home country or country of residence, through the online France Visas service.

Residency cards (cartes de séjour) are in most cases issued to people who are resident in France, some time after their visa was issued, and are dealt with by the local préfecture. In most cases you cannot go directly onto a carte de séjour – you need a visa first. The exception to this was Brits who were resident in France prior to 2021 and who benefited from a special post-Brexit process that allowed them to be issued with five-year or 10-year cards without the need for a visa.

The 90 day rule 

You may be tempted to stay longer than 90 days in France without a visa, particularly if you were hoping to not have to return back to your home country any time soon. This is not advisable as people found to have over-stayed without a valid residency permit can be fined, deported and banned from re-entry to the EU.

In practice, enforcement varies between countries and most countries keep the toughest penalties for people who have overstayed for many months or even years, or who are working illegally.

The most likely scenario for people who have over-stayed for a short time is a fine – French authorities have been issuing €198 fines to over-stayers – and a stamp in the passport flagging the person as an over-stayer. This stamp will likely lead to added complications on future trips, and can make getting a visa more difficult.

The 90 day rule is calculated on a rolling calendar, so you always count back 180 days from the present date to see how many days you have spent in the EU without a visa or residency permit, and therefore how many you have left – if you’re confused, the online Schengen calculator HERE allows you to input your dates and work out your total. 

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For members

LIVING IN FRANCE

5 things Brits in France need to know about swapping driving licences

Now that the dust has settled from the somewhat chaotic post-Brexit period, the system for swapping a UK driving licence for a French one seems to be running fairly smoothly. There are, however, some things that UK licence holders need to know.

Published: 3 May 2024 17:20 CEST
5 things Brits in France need to know about swapping driving licences

This article is aimed at holders of a UK or Northern Ireland driving licence who are living in France – tourists, visitors and second-home owners can continue to drive in France on a UK licence and do not need an international driving permit.

British students who are studying in France on a student visa can continue to drive on their UK licence during their studies – if however they settle in France afterwards, they need to follow the below process for swapping their licence. 

1 You’re special

Well, maybe special is over-stating it, but the system for holders of UK and NI licence holders is different to that of other non-EU nationals, and also different to the system for EU licence holders.

The reason for this is that a pragmatic post-Brexit agreement was (finally) reached between France and the UK, in order to avoid the chaos that was triggered when thousands of Brits in France all tried to swap their driving licences at once.

Unlike almost all other post-Brexit agreements, this one applies both to people who moved to France before the end of Brexit transition period in 2021 and those who have moved here since. 

The below terms apply to everyone who has a UK or NI licence, regardless of their nationality or when they moved to France. 

2 But you still have to swap

It was technically always the case that Brits who were living in France should have swapped their licence for a French one, just as other EU licence holders do now, but in reality many people lived here for years or decades without ever exchanging their licence and there was little or no enforcement of the rule.

That has now changed and you must swap according to the following timetable;

If your UK licence was issued after January 1st, 2021 – you must swap within one year of moving to France.

If your UK licence was issued before January 1st 2021 – you only swap when you meet one of the following conditions;

  • The licence itself or the photocard is within six months of its expiry date. For more people the photocard expiry will come around first, but UK licences also require renewal when the holder reaches the age of 70
  • Your licence has been lost or stolen
  • You have been ordered to exchange your licence by a gendarme after committing a driving offence

For people who are exchanging because the licence is about to expire, it is important that you don’t start the process until your licence is within six months of the expiry date – early applications will simply be rejected.

3 It might not be as much of a nightmare as you think 

Unlike the old days when licence swaps were done by préfectures, the whole process has now moved online and is run through a single, central system.

The online portal for requesting a swap is known as ANTS and you can find it HERE.

If you haven’t used it before you will need to create an online account, or if you already have online accounts for French government services such as Ameli or tax declarations you can login by clicking on the France Connect button.

Once logged in, select Je demande l’échange ou l’enregistrement de mon permis de conduire étranger (I request the exchange or registration of a foreign driving licence) and fill in the details requested on the form such as name, address etc.

You might be pleasantly surprised by the fact the form itself is relatively straightforward (as French admin forms go), asking basic questions such as your personal details and the details of your driving licence.

You will have to upload supporting documents, but these are likely to be things that you already have to hand including

  • Proof of ID (passport or carte de séjour)
  • Proof of address (a recent utility bill or attestation from your utility provider)
  • If your driver’s licence is in a different name to your passport, you will need to supply your full birth certificate

You will also need to supply a photo – you can either use the internet-enabled Photomaton booths – find your nearest here – to create a digital photo with the required security code, or you can use the normal photo booths to print out a physical photo and send it by post after you have made your application. 

Once completed, you can use the ANTS site to track the progress of your application and upload any other documents that are requested.

4 But don’t leave it too late 

If you’re applying because your licence is about to expire then you cannot apply until you are within six months of the expiry date.

But it’s a good idea not to leave it until the last minute as the whole process does take time – things have improved massively since the dark days of 2020 and 2021 when people were waiting for years and their licences expired while they waited.

But it still takes time – the current average for a straightforward application with no extra documents required seems to be between four and five months, although processing times can vary, especially over holiday periods.

It’s therefore a good idea to make the application fairly soon after you enter that magic six-month window.

Once you make the application you should get an automated response acknowledging receipt – this is usually sent by SMS and/or email, it’s a good idea to check your spam folder if you don’t get the email.

Don’t panic if you don’t then hear anything for the next few weeks or even months, this appears to be normal. If your application is complete and there are no outstanding queries or other documents required, the next step will be a request to send in your old UK licence.

You send this by post (recorded delivery with a signature is strongly recommended) and at the same time you can download an Attestation de Depot de Permis de Conduire (certificate of deposit of driving licence) – you can use this to prove your continued entitled to drive in the period between sending in your old licence and receiving your new one.

Your French licence is then sent by registered post, and the window between posting the old licence and receiving the new one is usually not more than a month, you 

5 Help is out there 

If your application runs into problems or you have an untypical situation or find the ANTS website hard to use, don’t panic – help is available.

The Facebook group Driving in France – French Licence Applications is a good place to start with comprehensive guides and knowledgeable admins who are quick to respond to questions.

You can also chat to others in your situation and get updates on how long processing times seem to be.

If you have problems using the online system, your local France Services office may be able to help.

You can also head to The Local’s reader questions section, or email us at [email protected] if you have questions.

Digital licences

You might have heard about France’s new digital driving licence – unfortunately this is only available to people who have French citizenship (including dual nationals).

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