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VISAS

Reader question: Can I work while in France on a visitor visa?

The visitor visa is a popular option for non-EU citizens in France - including retirees and second-home owners, but there are important restrictions to be aware of.

Published: 24 October 2023 12:25 CEST
Reader question: Can I work while in France on a visitor visa?
Can you work - including remote work - if you're in France on a visitor visa? Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

Along with the working visa and the student visa, the visitor visa is among the most popular category for non-EU citizens in France.

It’s relatively simple to apply for and requires only proof that you can support yourself financially while in France, but there is one very important aspect of the process that’s often forgotten – you are required to give an undertaking not to work while in France.

EXPLAINED How to apply for a French visa

Types of visa

There are two types of visitor visa – the short-stay visa known as VLS-T, and the long-stay visa known as VLS-TS.

The short-stay visa is typically issued for six months or less and is intended for people who want to pay visits of more than 90 days to France, but do not want to live here. It’s most commonly used by second-home owners who want to spend longer than 90 days at a time at their French property, but can also be used by people for extended holidays or family visits.

The long-stay visitor visa is for people who intend to move to France and live here, but not work. It’s most commonly used by retirees.

However in both cases, part of the application process is giving an undertaking that you will not work while you are in France. Keep in mind that if you want to volunteer from time to time, then this is a separate situation. You can find more information here.

So what does this mean in practice, and how does it apply to remote working?

Semi-retiring

Not everyone wants to go from full-time employment to being completely retired, and many people plan to ‘semi retire’ – maybe carry on working just on special projects or start up a new enterprise. 

For example, pre Brexit, it was common for Brits to ‘semi-retire’ to France – often they retired from their main job in the UK and then moved to France and ran a small business, often tourist related such as renting out a couple of gîtes or running a B&B at their French property. 

This would not be possible on a visitor visa – if you intend to run a business, even a small one, in France you would need to be on an entrepreneur visa, and would have to provide a business plan and demonstrate that your business will make enough money to support you (which can be difficult with small-scale tourist businesses like gîtes).

Immigration lawyer Maître Valerie Maricot of CMG LEGAL cautioned that “a lot of the answers online about how to open a gîte in France are geared toward a general public in France who it is assumed to have the right to work already”.

“To start, we must clarify one thing. With visitor visa status, it is not possible to exercise a professional activity in France, and therefore it is not possible legally to open and run a gîte in France . . . French authorities would require that a residency permit authorises this activity.”

Remote work

The other option that is increasingly popular if your job allows is dropping down from full-time work to part time, and working remotely – say working two days a week for a company back in your home country, but doing the work from France.

Unlike some European countries, France does not have a ‘digital nomad’ visa aimed at remote workers, and the visitor visa requires a declaration that you will not “undertake any professional activity in France”.

Remote working can be a bit of a grey area – essentially because visa rules were written before remote working became widespread – but anyone planning to do this is advised to seek legal advice.

Ask the experts: What’s the deal with remote work on a visitor visa?

Fiona Mougenot, immigration specialist and founder of Expat Partners said: “It’s complicated, this is a real grey area as most of the rules were put in place before remote working became widespread. Everyone’s circumstances are different, but when we have clients making this decision once we have pointed out to them all of the knock-on effects people almost always decide that it’s better to be officially working in France.

“Many people have a desire to avoid the French admin, which is understandable, but if you see yourself staying in France for any kind of long or medium term future it’s inevitable and if you want to do things like having access to healthcare then you will need to engage with the system.”

There are also important tax implications to remote working, as well as insurance issues for the company that employs you – if you plan to do this, it is advisable to consult a specialist immigration lawyer and/tax adviser in advance.

READ ALSO What are the rules on working remotely in France?

Remote work from a holiday home 

For second home owners it can be tempting to prolong their stay and do a bit of work remotely from their French property – but the short-stay visitor visa also requires you to give an undertaking that you will not work in France.

Because short-stay visitor visa holders are not living in France, and are not part of the French tax system, there is in practical terms a little more flexibility, since it’s unlikely that anyone will ever know that you’re answering work emails from France.

However there can be implications for your company back in the UK – especially around tax and insurance.

You would also not be able to take on any work from a French company, as they would need to register you as an employee or freelance contributor.  

Running a business from France 

If you have a business in your home country that you’re confident you can run remotely, it might be tempting to pack up and move to France and continue running the business.

However this is not possible on a visitor visa – you would need an entrepreneur visa in order to run a business while you are based in France, and you would also need to pay tax in France on your earnings and you may need to register your business in France.

There are also likely to be tax complications in your home country if you are no longer resident but still running a business there.

How will they ever know? 

It’s tempting to think that no-one will ever find out – especially if you’re working remotely for a company back in your home country. After all, if you’re busily tapping away at your laptop, who’s to say whether you are working or just emailing a friend (or perhaps working on your novel)?

But the reality is that sooner or later, this probably will catch up with you.

If you live in France you are required to file an annual tax declaration (even if you have no income in France) and you are required to declare all your worldwide income. You probably won’t pay tax on income from overseas if your country has a dual taxation agreement with France, but you will still need to tell the French taxman about it.

READ ALSO What exactly do I have to tell the French taxman about my assets overseas?

Being in breach of your visa conditions can lead to you being expelled from the country and will certainly make it highly unlikely that your visa or residency card will be renewed.

READ ALSO Working without a permit and polygamy: What can get you expelled from France?

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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

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