Applying for our French visas has probably been the most anxiety-inducing part of planning our family’s move to France. It’s not even that the process of applying for a visa is particularly difficult — it’s really just gathering a bunch of documents. Rather, it’s the fact that, without visas, we can not move to France. Full stop. No pressure, right?
There are many, many different types of French visas available, and the hardest part, in my opinion, is simply choosing the correct one for your situation. Assuming you want to stay longer than three months, you’ll be applying for a long-stay visa, or a visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour (VLS-TS). Beneath that umbrella, there are many categories depending on whether your stay is for work, study, tourism, joining family, etc. And it only gets more complicated from there.
Spoiler alert: We got our visas about a month before our planned moving date — but not without hitting a few snags along the way. If you’re an American considering applying for a French visa, I’d love to share a list of things I wish I’d known before applying for our French visas. It would have saved us a lot of time and stress along the way!
Full disclosure: I’m not a visa expert! Which very conveniently leads me to my first point:
1. It pays to consult an immigration expert. As a couple of self-employed freelancers, it really wasn’t clear what type of French visa we should apply for. So I dove deep into researching the French visa application process, joining multiple webinars and Facebook groups focused on moving to France, and reading countless blog posts and Reddit threads on the topic of French visas. I spent HOURS trying to figure out which type of visa to apply for and how to go about doing it. And guess what? I wound up more confused than when I started.
If I could go back in time and give my past self one piece of advice, it would be this: Talk to an expert. Don’t listen to a bunch of random people on Facebook and Reddit, or even self-proclaimed “relocation specialists” with dubious credentials. Don’t waste your time! I learned more in one hour-long phone call with immigration attorney Daniel Tostado than I learned in months of research. He told us exactly what type of visa to apply for and how to go about doing it. Paying Daniel for his expertise is by far the best investment we’ve made toward our future in France. Maybe your situation is different and you already know what type of visa to apply for. That’s great! But if you’re at all unsure about your visa application, start with an expert consultation.
2. Make sure your passport is valid. As an American applying for a French visa, you will need to provide a valid passport (or other travel document) with your application. And not just any valid passport! Triple-check your expiration date, because it needs to be valid for “at least three months longer than the expiry date of the visa requested,” according to the official French immigration site. We didn’t catch this little detail until a few months before we were planning to leave, and we had to pay up for expedited passports, since ours were set to expire before our projected return.
According to the French visa site, your passport needs to have been issued less than 10 years ago, with at least two blank pages. When applying, you’ll need to scan ALL pages of your passport with any stamps or inscriptions.
3. Be prepared to pay. A lot. Unfortunately, the process of acquiring a French visa is not cheap — and it was more expensive than I anticipated. In the U.S., we paid a service charge of about $35 per application to make an appointment at VFS Global. Then, at the application center, we paid an additional $104 Visa Fee plus $38.50 courier charge per application. I also had to pay an additional $13.20 for new photos because the ($17) photos Walgreens had taken did not show my ears. Which apparently matters. So altogether that was about $550 just to VFS for securing the visas. This is not to mention the cost of traveling to and staying in D.C. for our early-morning appointment and our consultation with an immigration attorney (about $300).
I also want to note that VFS, the company contracted by the French consulate to process visa applications, is notorious for trying to upcharge. Be careful when making your appointment to avoid falling prey to their attempts to sell you optional services intended to “enhance your experience.” Think twice before paying more for “prime time” appointments, the “comfort lounge,” and their “visa preparation assistance.” Also note that, if they have to make copies for you at the center, they’ll charge $1 per page.
4. Kids’ visas are different. First of all, you must submit separate applications for each member of your family, including children. However, you should make only one appointment as a group at the processing center. Two things we needed for our son’s visa application: His birth certificate (original and copies), and proof that he was enrolled in a French school. This latter part was less official. Our immigration attorney assured us that an email chain between ourselves and his potential school would suffice, and they did.
5. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would. Of course, this can change. I know that earlier this year, people were waiting months to get a visa appointment. However, we were able to secure an appointment at VFS Global within a day of submitting our applications online. And we were told we’d receive our visas within 15 days. We got them in under a week. In this case, Reddit and other forums can be helpful in getting a read on current processing times so you can plan accordingly.
So there you have it, five things I wish I’d known as an American applying for a French visa. If you’re thinking about making a move to France, I hope this will save you some time, energy, and maybe even a bit of money!