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You are here: Home Moving to Getting Started A guide to the French visa system

Getting Started

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29/10/2008A guide to the French visa system

Whether it be a residence, entry or student visa you require, Explorer Publishing takes a look at the rules and regulations.

Entry Visa
If you don’t have an EU passport or a contract to work in France and are arriving from North America or Japan you may stay, but not work, in France for 90 days without a visa. If you’re arriving from any other country a tourist visa is compulsory. For these visas you must be able to convince the embassy that you have the appropriate funds to support your trip and that you are travelling for the purposes of tourism, business or a family visit. If you’d like to stay longer you must first obtain the appropriate visa from the French consulate in your home country.

This inevitably requires documentation, some of which may need to be translated into French by a certified translator and then notarised. Visas usually take approximately three weeks to process but may take three months, or in some cases, even longer. Regardless of why you want to come to France, unless you’re planning on staying for less than three months, you should begin the process in your home country. Do not make the mistake of arriving in France without proper documentation; legally, you will not be able to stay and you will not be able to work.

If you have the means to stay in France without working you may apply for a long-term visa (visa de long séjour) which will allow you to stay in France without working.

Residence Visa
To begin the residency process, you are obliged to go to your local préfecture de police office within one week of your arrival in France. If your request is accepted you will be granted a receipt (récépissé). It is likely that you will have to return to the préfecture several times before finally being given your receipt. When you do receive your récépissé you will be legal to either work or study (depending upon your request) for three months. It is possible (even likely) that you will have to return to renew your receipt before your final card is ready.

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maryb211 posted: 29-04-2009 | 12:24 PM

The article says "At the time of your third carte de séjour renewal you may apply for a 10 year carte de resident," but this is not the case. According to Article L314-8 of the "Code de l'entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d'asile" approved in 2007, you can request the resident card after a minimum of 5 consecutive years in France. More info here: http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do;jsessionid=DC294EBB14B2FC0B9214604AE0BD64B5.tpdjo09v_1?idArticle=LEGIARTI000006335105

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