How do I get a French visa

i have fallen in love France since the first time i went Bordeaux 2010. Friends I met in Thailand showed me around the area and introduced me to French culture. This was my first time in France and I loved the food, wine and people.

But once I left Bordeaux, stepped out of the Paris Metro and walked onto the Champs Elysées, this love turned into an obsession. Light, energy, mystery! There is magic in the air. I feel like I've known this city my whole life and I'm just back home.

since then, Paris has a firm hold on my heart. Over the years I have made countless trips to explore France, and Paris in particular. I did a tour group in the city I lived there for a few months in 2019.

Last August, after moving away again, I thought to myself, “What if I move back?”

I was getting a little tired of the New York dating scene and rising cost of living, and felt like I was stuck creatively. With the advent of artificial intelligence, creators like me and the industry are changingI was a little lost about the rest of my career.

In short, I needed a change.

Paris seemed like the best place to go.

It's cheaper than New York, I already have friends there, I've always wanted to learn French which would give me a good foundation for exploring Europe, and I can start writing my next book there. Nothing inspires creativity like a change of scenery!

But the question remains: how Do Have you moved to France?

After all, they don’t have a digital nomad visa, and if you visit on a regular Schengen tourist visa, it’s only for three months.

Well, it turns out it's actually not That Difficult. (While I can only speak for Americans, I suspect the standards are similar for Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and other “developed” countries.)

If you want to move to France, you have four main options:

• student visa
• long term visitor visa
• entrepreneur
• Talent visa

Student visa is very simple. You need to enroll in a full-time university course and prove that you have sufficient funds to support yourself (approximately €600 per month). A friend currently holds this visa and is taking a nine-month intensive French course to improve her French. You still need to apply for a visa, but if you attend an accredited school, you'll likely be approved. Another benefit of this visa is that you can work part-time!

But this visa depends on whether you are in school, so it will expire if you leave or drop out. However, once completed, you can change this to a “job seeker” visa, which allows you to stay in France for an additional six months (or more, depending on the duration of your program).

I considered applying for an Entrepreneur Visa, but the application process is quite complicated and can take several months to get approved. You have to do business in France – which requires a lot of paperwork. You must prove that your business makes money, has customers (at least one of them is French), and can support you full-time (you must earn at least the French minimum wage). They will carefully review your assets and financial situation, and you will need to register your business in France and pay French taxes.

In addition, France also provides talent visas. If you are an expert in your field (with verifiable certifications and honors), this may be a good visa to apply for, especially if you plan to stay in France for a long time and want to work there. But, again, you need to have some source of income and plan to start a physical business in France. If you are not an academic but someone from the arts, you must show how you will contribute to “French culture” in some way.

While I would have met the requirements for both visas, the process for either would have been very time-consuming, and, since I wasn't sure if France would be my forever home, I decided not to go through the process.

So I chose the Long Term Visitor Visa, officially known as VLS-TS Visitor. This allows me to stay in France for up to 12 months and can be renewed in the country. However, it does come with a lot of restrictions: I can't actually work here, and I'm not allowed to enter France's social welfare system.

This is also the visa that many Americans (and most retirees) apply for. If you have passive income or retirement savings and just want to live in France, this is a great option for you. It allows you to set up a bank account and renew it almost indefinitely.

The paperwork for this visa (which I'll get to in a moment) basically depends on whether you can support yourself. French authorities want to make sure you don't become a burden on the system.

My biggest question is whether I can “work” with this visa. Many creators and digital nomads are applying for and receiving this visa.

But remember: you can't work on this visa, so if you can't work, how are you going to work?

So let me take a moment to talk about “work” from a legal perspective.

As I mentioned, there is no digital nomad visa that allows you to work in France. France's tax agency said last July that remote working was considered taxable – but there is no formal legal provision yet. This is simply their opinion and no progress has been made in codifying that opinion. In fact, my visa doesn't even have a tax ID number, so there's no way I'm being taxed. Even if I wanted to pay taxes, I couldn't.

The visa office asks you how you will support yourself while in France and one of the sources of income they accept is “income from work”. I'm very open about how my support will be through income from this blog and my books.

The systems out there really haven’t caught up with remote working yet. It still defines “work” as something you physically do, potentially taking jobs away from the French.

So can I go on a walking tour in Paris? No. Can you work in a cafe? No.

But does writing this blog post count as work? After all, no one pays for it. This is a free resource. Does going to a coffee shop and writing the next great American novel count? How about including affiliate links (which generate revenue) in my weekly newsletter? Is writing considered work?

The gray area is quite large, so your best bet is to consult an attorney. I recommend Daniel Tostado (yes, that’s his real name), one of the largest French-American immigration lawyers in Paris. He owns a large law firm and meets regularly with government officials to clarify the rules. He gave me some sound advice.

For this long-term visitor visa, the application process is very simple. You visit the French government websitefill out your application form and bring your application number to TLS contact websiteand make an appointment. (France outsources the appointment process to this company, which then sends everything to the French consulate for approval.)

The main things you need to prove on your application are that you have accommodation for 90 days and sufficient income to support yourself. They just want to make sure you don't become a burden on the system. I went too far. Here's what I bring to my appointment:

• Application form (printed copy required)
• Appointment confirmation
• Additional passport photos
• Proof of accommodation (could be an Airbnb, a hotel, or someone's home – if the latter, make sure they are the host!)
• A letter proving that I can’t work
• A financial summary letter explaining why I am moving there and my sources of income
• Health insurance that meets French legal requirements (I used Mundasur.)
• Three months of bank statements showing time deposits
• A second bank account, my tax return, and my W-2

I didn't need a second bank account, tax returns, or W-2s (none of which were required), but the lady at the appointment said the more evidence you have the better, and it couldn't hurt. Another friend who got this visa didn't bring more than what was required on the application form. But I don't want to risk it!

When making an appointment, a staff member will double-check your documents, obtain your biometric data, collect a fee, and send your passport to the embassy for processing. Officially, it can take up to 15 days to process your visa, but everyone I know seems to get their visa back within a week.

The worst part is, you won’t know if you were approved until your passport is returned. While you can track the progress of your application, you won't know the outcome until your passport is back in your hands. While I was waiting (spiraling anxiously), I looked on Reddit and saw that most rejections are due to lack of income or accommodation issues, which seem to be the two most important things to polish on your application.

Once you have your visa, you can enter France any time after your start date. After entering the country, you have 90 days to register your visa with the state government (they will give you a QR code with instructions). This allows you to “officially” obtain a long-term visa. (This is more paperwork.)

Once you've done this, you don't have to do anything else and you can stay in France (and Europe) until your visa expires!

So if you're thinking of moving to France, these are your options. But, as always, I am not a lawyer and this is not a legal advance. It is important to seek legal counsel and obtain their expert opinion regarding work and other issues or questions!

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