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France: Visa and Passport Requirements
| Passport required | Return ticket required | Visa required | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian | Yes | No | No |
| British | Yes | No | No |
| Canadian | Yes | No | No |
| Other EU | 1 | No | No |
| USA | Yes | No | No |
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Passports:
To enter France, a valid passport is required for nationals referred to in the chart above, except (1) EU nationals who hold a valid national ID card.
Visas:
Neither visas, return tickets nor sufficient funds for the length of their proposed visit are required by nationals referred to in the chart above.
Note: Nationals not referred to in the chart are advised to contact the embassy for visa requirements.
Types and cost:
Transit/short-stay Schengen visa: €60. This typically covers tourism, business or family visits for nationals requiring a visa.
Long-stay visa: €99.
Visa fees are waived for the following foreign nationals: foreign members of families of nationals of other member states of the EU/EEA and Switzerland; the foreign spouse of a French national and children under six. For other exemptions please see the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs website (www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en).
Validity:
Short-stay/Schengen visa: up to 90 days within a six-month period. It can be issued for one entry or multiple entries into the Schengen area and can be valid for up to five years.
Long-stay visa: this is a national visa that entitles you, whatever the reason for your stay, to live in France for more than three months. It is not a Schengen visa. Some categories of long-stay visa are valid as residence permits for the first year of your stay in France.
Transit:
If you’re transiting through an airport in France to travel to another airport in France or in the Schengen area, then unless exempt, you’re required to have a short-stay Schengen visa.
Application to:
If France is your main destination in the Schengen area, apply to your local French consulate (or consular section at embassy). In the UK, the French authorities have outsourced the visa application process to a company called TLS Contact (www.tlscontact.com/gb2fr). TLS Contact charges an additional €28 processing fee.
Schengen visas:
France is a signatory to the 1995 Schengen Agreement.
Temporary residence:
Some categories of long-stay visa are valid as residence permits for the first year of your stay in France: study visas, some work visas, visas for spouses of French nationals and visitors’ visas. If you are in one of these cases, when you arrive in France, you must send the OFII form to the relevant regional delegation of the Office Français d’Immigration et d’Intégration, which will give you an appointment for a medical examination and payment of residence fees. After the first year (in the two months before your long-stay visa expires), you must apply to renew your residence permit at the relevant prefecture for your place of residence.
In all other cases, if you are a foreign national holding a long-stay visa marked 'carte de séjour à solliciter' (residence permit to be applied for), you must apply to the prefecture for a residence permit.
Working days:
Visa processing times vary depending on the applicant's nationality. Short-stay/Schengen applications take between one and 21 days. Long-stay visas usually take 10 days to process.
Sufficient funds:
If applying for a visa, you’ll be asked to detail how you intend to support yourself for the duration of your stay.
Extension of stay:
If you need to extend your stay in France for reasons of force majeure, you must, before the date of expiry of your visa, submit an application for 'prolongation de visa' (visa extension) with documentary evidence.
Entry with children:
If visas are needed, a form must be filled out for each individual applicant, including children under 18.
Entry with pets:
Visitors are able to bring pets into the country from within the EU without them being quarantined, so long as the pets are fitted with an ISO pet microchip and have been vaccinated for rabies and other diseases at least 21 days (but no more than a year) prior to travel.
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