By Sasha Smit-Marcadier and Sarah Vincent
You may be visiting France this summer and thinking of relocating this winter!
There is a variety of visas to choose from and making the right decision will depend on your situation.
Following our previous article, this one is about residency and will focus on the Visitor visa (retiree, early retiree, inactive, etc.).
First, please be aware that you must apply for your visa:
•from the UK or your country of residence if different
•maximum 3 months before your arrival in France
A visa application for France is entirely online. You will need to:
•fill out a form on the dedicated French government website
•book an appointment – if you live in the UK this appointment will be with TLS (a handling agent called TLS Contact, which has centres in London, Manchester and Edinburgh)
Once you have submitted your online visa application, you will receive – via the French government website – the full and detailed list of supporting documents which you will need to hand over during your appointment.
In general, you will be asked to provide the following information:
•Passport
•Sufficient funds
•Accommodation in France
•Healthcare cover
As each application is unique, we cannot include further explanation about supporting documents in this article. A tip! We strongly advise you include a covering letter explaining your situation and reasons for applying. The aim of this letter would be to provide essential information to make your application self-explanatory.