12 Month Visa for France?

[Fragle]

I can't find this anywhere on the forum or may have not looked properly in the correct area.

The question is has anybody looked into the visa or applied for the extended 12 month travel visa yet. We are booked for 3 months from June but would have liked to have a longer tour possibly with a few other EU countries thrown in. Rather than leaving the Shengen area (not that adventurous yet) and then returning 90 days later, we would prefer to go early March until mid October.

There is a visa wizard on the French website that you answer a few questions about your requirement and it has come back saying €99 and need to fill out the application form.
I haven't yet tried filling the form out just yet, just wondered if it was a simple exercise. Does the €99 cover both of us?. Can you leave France and return freely within the 12 months? Then there's the problem of not having a fixed address in France as touring in motorhome.

I can't believe we'd be the first on here to try this route to stay longer legally without an EU passport. I don't think €99 would be bad to extend the stay any information would be helpful

 

[Kups]

I think you will find that it is not for tourists but for people working in France.
Have a look a this website: https://www.welcometofrance.com/en/fiche/long-stay-visa-equivalent-to-a-residence-permit-vls-ts

 

[pagey]

Long stay visa for France (180 days)​

An interesting article Here It is now possible for UK passport holders to apply for a 6 month 'VLS-T Visiteur' non-working visa to France (Which means in reality, you could be in Spain, for example, for 90 of those days) Quite a few hoops to jump through, including a personal visit to the...

• Brains
• Thread
• Wednesday at 12:50 PM
• Replies: 35
• Forum: France

 

[Brains]

As far as I'm aware, the only EU country currently offering over 90 days for non-working people is France.

The French visa is limited to 180 days
Link in post #3 for the rules and discussion.

Most (All ?) other EU countries do offer longer visa's 12, 24, 36 months, but they are all for workers. So unless you are a Forward Agreements Trader or some other profession which the EU is desperate to employ, and you fancy doing some real work for a real company, you won't be getting a visa over the 90 (or 180) days.

We all presume that at some point some countries, particularly Spain will come up with a longer stay holiday visa, but that will be years off.

 

[gpat]

Interesting stuff. The key fact is that if you have this visa you basically can go anywhere in the Schengen area as there are no borders so you would have the same rights as a French person (only for 12 months of course)

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[Fragle]

Interesting stuff. The key fact is that if you have this visa you basically can go anywhere in the Schengen area as there are no borders so you would have the same rights as a French person (only for 12 months of course)

I have called the phone number on the website today and asked and it is possible to get a tourist visa beyond the 90 days. (Not for work reasons)

The person I spoke with was not extremely clear but he did say 7 months so maybe that is the tourist one. To be honest that would be fine but he wasn't very easy to understand.

 

[Westbarn1]

Interesting stuff. The key fact is that if you have this visa you basically can go anywhere in the Schengen area as there are no borders so you would have the same rights as a French person (only for 12 months of course)

I think you will find it’s for 6 months, at 12 months there would be tax implications.
Dont think it should be a negative issue for motorhome travellers, but suspect you would have to supply a 6 month itinerary for your travels, though don’t imagine anyone would be checking you are sticking to it

 

[Brains]

I think you will find it’s for 6 months, at 12 months there would be tax implications.
Dont think it should be a negative issue for motorhome travellers, but suspect you would have to supply a 6 month itinerary for your travels, though don’t imagine anyone would be checking you are sticking to it

Yes, you do need an itinerary for your 180 day (6 month) visa.
But I would have thought with a bit of arranging you could have an address at either a campsite or a holiday home owned by a UK resident.

That way you don't have to book one night with 179 French campsites!

Anything over 180 days, in any country, starts to have residency, tax, vehicle registration issues and implications.
So nothing to do with the UK leaving the EU, you could not do that legally before, and if you do it now you are liable to be caught upon exit/re-entry.

 

[mapman]

Interesting stuff. The key fact is that if you have this visa you basically can go anywhere in the Schengen area as there are no borders so you would have the same rights as a French person (only for 12 months of course)

I think it is 6 months (180) days . Also passport will be stamped as day 1 on arrival in France, so if you cross into say Spain in the next 90 days you would, I assume be ok if stopped and asked for passport during routine check but if you ventured beyond France after 90 days then you could have a problem if asked to show passport. I know there are no regular border checks but random checks do occur. We were stuck for hours a few years ago on A8 leaving Spain near Irun. They were checking all documents.

 

[frwjd]

I think you will find it’s for 6 months, at 12 months there would be tax implications.
Dont think it should be a negative issue for motorhome travellers, but suspect you would have to supply a 6 month itinerary for your travels, though don’t imagine anyone would be checking you are sticking to it

I believe it is for 12 months but the tax implications effectively make it 6 months.

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[Fragle]

Long stay visa for France (180 days)​

An interesting article Here It is now possible for UK passport holders to apply for a 6 month 'VLS-T Visiteur' non-working visa to France (Which means in reality, you could be in Spain, for example, for 90 of those days) Quite a few hoops to jump through, including a personal visit to the...

• Brains
• Thread
• Wednesday at 12:50 PM
• Replies: 35
• Forum: France

Thanks for the link.

It looks like 6 months then? But that's fine and allows good touring time.

Reading that thread I'm now wondering if we should wait for the longer tour in the hope as everything settles down post covid etc greater flexibility on travel 180/360 will be looked at.

 

[Minxy]

Some info here:

Long stay visa for France (180 days)

An interesting article Here It is now possible for UK passport holders to apply for a 6 month 'VLS-T Visiteur' non-working visa to France (Which means in reality, you could be in Spain, for example, for 90 of those days) Quite a few hoops to jump through, including a personal visit to the...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[gpat]

I think it is 6 months (180) days . Also passport will be stamped as day 1 on arrival in France, so if you cross into say Spain in the next 90 days you would, I assume be ok if stopped and asked for passport during routine check but if you ventured beyond France after 90 days then you could have a problem if asked to show passport. I know there are no regular border checks but random checks do occur. We were stuck for hours a few years ago on A8 leaving Spain near Irun. They were checking all documents.

I'm not sure how they would know. You could just say you came from France yesterday. Would they really be bothered anyway.

 

[Brains]

Thanks for the link.

It looks like 6 months then? But that's fine and allows good touring time.

Reading that thread I'm now wondering if we should wait for the longer tour in the hope as everything settles down post covid etc greater flexibility on travel 180/360 will be looked at.

It's 6 months officially all to be spent in France.
As has been pointed out, you could go to another EU country for slightly under the first 90 days.
You would then have to spend the next 90 days inside France.

Holiday Visa's for 180 days in other EU countries may come, but we are talking years, not months, before that happens.
Holiday Visa's for over 180 days are not even on the 'to be discussed' pile.

The days of a UK passport holder going for a multi month pootle around Europe, or for those leaving education for a summer backpacking trip to Greece to pull pints in a beach bar, have gone, probably for ever.

 

[frwjd]

A quote from connectionfrance .......

"How long can I stay in France with a temporary long-stay visa?

A visa is a sticker in your passport formally permitting you to enter France during a defined period, and it is cumulative with rights under the 90/180-day rule.

This means, for example, if you obtain a temporary long-stay visa, you could, assuming you have not already used up your visitor rights in the last 180-days, arrive in France before the start of the visa period so as to extend your stay.

You could also stay on beyond it for up to another 90 days under the ordinary visitor rules.

You could also space out your stays during the year using the 90-day rule during part of the year and the visa during another part.

Bear in mind, though, that if you stay more than six months in France in a calendar year there is a risk you could be considered to have become a French tax resident.

This was already the case for British visitors prior to Brexit but now Britons’ comings and goings to France will be under closer scrutiny than before due to passport stamps.

What if I enter France via another Schengen country?
If you enter France via another Schengen area country, France will consider that you entered France within five days of the first border stamp (there is no internal stamping in the Schengen area) for purposes of your visa permission days.

Once in France, you can also visit other Schengen area countries though you should respect the 90/180-day rule for these visits."

Article in full : https://www.connexionfrance.com/Fre...PvNAQ9ZEGSG-IIPbJtpZEu9L8INQ3lsewsPh7wov3fb48

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[Fragle]

It's 6 months officially all to be spent in France.
As has been pointed out, you could go to another EU country for slightly under the first 90 days.
You would then have to spend the next 90 days inside France.

Holiday Visa's for 180 days in other EU countries may come, but we are talking years, not months, before that happens.
Holiday Visa's for over 180 days are not even on the 'to be discussed' pile.

The days of a UK passport holder going for a multi month pootle around Europe, or for those leaving education for a summer backpacking trip to Greece to pull pints in a beach bar, have gone, probably for ever.

I think you would do say Spain/Portugal first part having driven through France to start and then return with last 90 in France. But 180 in France is still fine

In reality 90 days are very good considering apart from 5 weeks last year the most we have ever had is 2 weeks at a time. just being greedy now.

A question about the itinerary required for your stay. I assume you can just pick a load of random aires camper car parks obviously unbooked but in some form of a route. But is changeable

 

[georgio]

Yeah ., Gotta be careful these days with all the tecky stuff at borders, The days when you could bung border officials 200 fags a long gone.