The French Estate Agent

 

France Visa Requirements Stripped Down to Basics

If you're thinking about buying a house in France, one question very quickly raises its head:

How do I actually get a visa to live in France?

There is plenty of information online about French visas. The problem is that a lot of it tries to cover every possible situation at once: retirees, workers, families, second-home owners, students, people starting businesses and just about everyone in between.

By the end of it, what should be a relatively straightforward explanation can sound terrifyingly complicated.

So in my video, France Visa Requirements Stripped Down to Basics, I decided to do exactly what the title says and strip the subject back to the basic principles.

Obviously everyone's circumstances are different, and your eventual application needs to reflect your particular situation. But if you're looking at moving to France without working here, there are essentially three big things you need to think about.

1. Somewhere to live in France

First, you need to demonstrate that you have suitable accommodation in France.

For somebody buying a property, that may obviously be the house they have purchased. For somebody renting, it could be their rental agreement.

The important point is that the French authorities want evidence of where you are actually going to live.

This is one reason why the visa question and the property-buying question often become intertwined. Your accommodation, financial situation and proposed life in France form part of the overall picture presented with your application.

2. Medical cover

The second major consideration is healthcare.

For a long-stay visitor visa, you need to demonstrate appropriate medical cover in France.

This is an area where it is important not simply to assume that your normal holiday travel insurance will automatically do the job. You need cover appropriate to the visa you are applying for and the period you intend to spend in France.

The cost can vary enormously according to your circumstances, particularly your age and the level of cover required.

So healthcare needs to be included in your calculations when working out the realistic cost of moving to France.

3. Sufficient financial resources

And then we get to money.

The principle here is actually quite simple.

France wants to know that you have sufficient resources to support yourself without becoming a financial burden on the French state.

That does not necessarily mean having a salary.

Your resources might come from a pension, investments, rental income, savings or other legitimate sources.

This is also where I think people sometimes become too fixated on finding one magic monthly figure on the internet.

Your circumstances matter.

A couple who own their French house outright are in a very different financial position from somebody paying substantial monthly rent. Equally, living in rural Brittany or the Dordogne is not financially identical to living in central Paris.

Your overall financial circumstances therefore matter rather more than simply finding a number online and multiplying it by the number of people moving with you.

So is that really it?

At its most basic level, yes.

For a typical long-stay visitor application, think:

Accommodation + medical cover + sufficient resources.

There is paperwork behind each of those, of course, and the exact documents required depend upon your nationality and circumstances.

But understanding those three basic elements makes the whole subject considerably less intimidating.

The official France-Visas system is where you should check the current requirements for your particular situation before making an application.

What happened to the special visa for British second-home owners?

There is an important update to the original video.

When I recorded France Visa Requirements Stripped Down to Basics, there had just been a potentially very significant development for British owners of French second homes.

The French Senate had backed a proposal which would have made obtaining a long-stay visa considerably easier for British nationals owning second homes in France.

At the time, I stressed that people shouldn't get too excited because it still had further stages to go through.

And, unfortunately, that warning proved justified.

The measure was subsequently struck down by France's Constitutional Council in January 2024 and did not come into force.

As things stand, British nationals remain subject to the normal post-Brexit rules.

For stays of no more than 90 days in any rolling 180-day period within the Schengen area, British visitors generally do not require a visa.

For longer stays in France, a long-stay visa is normally required.

For British second-home owners, that generally means a temporary long-stay visitor visa (VLS-T) for stays between three and six months, or a long-stay visa equivalent to a residence permit (VLS-TS) for longer stays.

Don't let the visa put you off buying in France

Visa applications involve paperwork. There is no getting around that.

But I don't think prospective buyers should allow the apparent complexity of the system to frighten them away from the idea of living in France.

Break the process into its component parts, establish which visa applies to your circumstances, and work through the requirements one at a time.

And importantly, check the current rules rather than relying on a YouTube video, Facebook post or blog article that may have been published several years ago.

Including this one.

Visa rules can and do change, which is precisely why I've updated this article from the information contained in the original video.

If you're considering buying a property in France, the visa is one part of the project. Finding the right house, in the right area, at the right price, is another.

And that's the part where, as a French estate agent, I can certainly help.