How I got my visa for France

I have been in love with France since my first trip to Bordeaux in 2010. Friends I met in Thailand showed me around and introduced me to French culture. It was my first time in France and I loved the food, the wine and the people.

But that love became an obsession when, after Bordeaux, I left the Paris metro and entered the Champs-Elysées. The lights, the energy, the mystique! There was magic in the air. I felt like I had known the city my entire life and I was just coming home.

Since then, Paris has a firm grip on my heart. Over the years, I made countless visits exploring France and Paris in particular. I toured the city and spent a few months living there in 2019.

Last August, after another stay, I thought, “What if I came back?”

I was getting a little tired of the New York dating scene, of the rising cost of living, and I felt like, creatively, I was stuck. With AI coming to creators like me and the industry changing, I was a little lost as to what would come next, career-wise.

In short, I needed a change.

And Paris seemed like the best place to go.

It’s cheaper than New York, I already had friends there, I always wanted to learn French, it would be a great base for exploring Europe and I could start writing my next book there. There’s nothing like a change of scenery to get the creative juices flowing!

But the question remained: how do Are you moving to France?

After all, they don’t have a digital nomad visa and you are limited to three months if you visit on your regular Schengen tourist visa.

Well, it turns out that’s not really the case. that hard. (And while I can only speak for Americans, I suspect the criteria are similar for Canadians, Australians, Kiwis, and other “developed” nations.)

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

• student visa
• Long-term visitor visa
• Entrepreneur
• Talent visa

The student visa is quite simple. You must enroll in a full-time university program and prove that you have sufficient funds to support yourself (around 600 euros per month). There is currently a friend on this visa, as she is doing a nine-month intensive French program to become fluent. You still have to apply for the visa, but if you are enrolled in an accredited school, you will likely be approved. Another benefit of this visa is that you can work part-time!

But this visa depends on being in school, so if you drop out or drop out, it becomes void. However, when you’re done, you can change this to a “jobseeker” visa, which can give you up to another six months in France (or more depending on the length of your program).

I thought about applying for the entrepreneur visa, but the application process is quite complex and can take months to be approved. You have to establish your business in France, and that involves a lot of paperwork. You have to prove that your business makes money, has clients (at least one of them is French) and can support you full time (you have to earn at least the French minimum wage). Your assets and finances will be heavily scrutinized and you will need to register your company in France and pay French taxes.

Additionally, France offers a talent visa. If you are an expert in your field (with verifiable accreditations and recognitions), this could be a good visa to apply for, especially if you plan to stay in France for a long time and want to physically work there. But again, you will need to have some source of income and plan to do physical business in France. If you are not an academic but someone in the arts, you have to demonstrate how you are going to contribute to the “culture of France” in some way.

While I would qualify for both visas, the process for either visa would have taken a long time, and since I’m not sure France is going to be my forever home, I decided not to go through that process.

So I opted for the long-term visitor visa, officially called VLS-TS visitaur. This allows me to stay up to 12 months in France and is renewable in the country. However, this comes with many restrictions: I cannot physically work here and I am not allowed to access the French social assistance system.

It is also the visa that many Americans (and most retirees) are applying for. If you have passive income or retirement savings and just want to live in France, this is a good option for you. It allows you to set up a bank account and can be renewed virtually indefinitely.

The paperwork for this visa (which I’ll talk about later) essentially comes down to whether you can support yourself or not. The French authorities want to make sure that you are not a burden on the system.

My biggest question centered on whether or not I could “work” on this visa. Many creators and digital nomads are applying for (and obtaining) this visa.

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

Let me take a moment to talk about “work” from a legal standpoint.

As I mentioned, there is no digital nomad visa that allows you to work in France. And the French tax office said last July that remote work is considered taxable, but there are no official laws on the matter. That is just their opinion and there has been no progress in codifying that opinion. In fact, my visa doesn’t even come with a tax number, making it impossible for me to pay taxes. I couldn’t pay taxes even if I wanted to.

The visa office asks how you will support yourself when you are in France and one of the sources of income they accept is “earned income”. I was very open that my livelihood would be income from this blog and my books.

The system there hasn’t really caught up with remote work. It still defines “work” as something that is physically done and that could take a Frenchman’s job away.

So, could you take walking tours in Paris? No. Could you work in a coffee shop? No.

But does writing this blog post count as work? After all, no one pays for it. It is a free resource. Does going to a cafe to work on the next great American novel count? What about my weekly newsletter that has affiliate links (which generate income)? Is writing that considered work?

The gray area is considerable, so it is best to speak with an attorney. I recommend Daniel Tostado (yes, that’s his real name), one of the leading French-American immigration lawyers in Paris. He has a huge law firm and regularly meets with government officials to clarify the rules on the matter. He gave me some solid advice.

For this long-term visitor visa, the application process is quite simple. You go to the French government website.fill out your application, bring the application number to TLScontact websiteand make an appointment. (France outsources the appointment process to this company, which then sends everything to the French consulate for approval.)

The main thing you will want to show is that you have housing for 90 days on your application and enough income to support yourself. They just want to make sure that you are not a burden on the system. I overdid it. This is what I brought to my appointment:

• The application (you need to bring a printed copy)
• A confirmation of the appointment.
• Additional passport photos
• Proof of accommodation (this can be Airbnb, hotels, or someone’s home – if it’s the latter, make sure they own it!)
• A letter stating that I will not work.
• A financial summary letter explaining why I am moving there and my source of income.
• Health insurance that meets French legal requirements (I used Mondassur.)
• Three months of bank statements showing regular deposits.
• A second bank account, my tax returns and my W-2

I didn’t need the second bank account, tax returns or W-2’s (they weren’t necessary), but the woman at the appointment said the more proof I had the better and it wouldn’t hurt. And another friend who obtained this visa did not contribute beyond what was requested on the application form. But I didn’t want to take risks!

At the appointment, staff re-verify your documentation, take your biometrics, collect fees, and then send your passport to the embassy for processing. Officially, it takes up to 15 days to process your visa, but everyone I know seems to get it back within a week.

The worst part was not knowing if you are approved until you get your passport back. While you can track the progress of your application, you won’t know the verdict until your passport is back in your hands. While I was waiting (and anxiously), I searched Reddit and discovered that most denials were due to lack of income or issues with housing, which seem to be the two most important things to get perfect in your application.

Once you get your visa back, you will be able to enter France at any time after your start date. After entering, you have 90 days to register your visa with the state (they give you a small QR code with instructions). This allows you to “officially” have this long-term visa. (It’s more of a paperwork issue.)

Once this is done, there is nothing else to do and you can stay in France (and Europe) until your visa expires!

So if you’re considering moving to France, these are your options. But, as always, I am not a lawyer and this is not a legal development. Regarding employment and other matters or questions, it is important that you seek legal advice and get their expert opinion!

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