France Long-Stay Visa Process (Aug-Sept 2018)
My family and I just received our official long-stay Visa’s for France last week! Here are the materials needed and the process that we followed.
A. Required Documents:
1. Copies of Long-Stay Visa Application (with application number from the on-line submittal.) One copy per person. I filled out one application on-line. Then we printed 3 blank applications and filled one out for each person (using the same app number that I had received on my on-line app) – for my husband and two children. So, each person in the family has to have their own paper application. to take to the interview. Only one adult filled out and submitted the application on-line.
2. Copies of OFII forms – one copy per person. (Fill out only the top part – the bottom part will be filled out by French officials once you get to France.) (https://washington.consulfrance.org/IMG/pdf/ofii_ENG-3.pdf)
3. Passports – one per person. Plus at least 2 extra copies of the main page of the parents passports – to attach to the children’s applications. (We’ll get to that below.) The appropriate passport is put with the appropriate visa application package. (Your passport goes with the visa application package to be reviewed in DC. The passport does come back to you with or without the long-stay visa stamp, depending on the decision.)
Note: The passports need to have more than 2 blank pages in them and be valid for at least 3 months AFTER your long-stay visa expires. (“Your passport must have been issued less than 10 years ago, be valid for at least three months after your return to the US and have at least 2 blank visa pages left.” – This quote is from the Chicago consulate website – I copied it from Andi at https://andionadventure.com/2018/04/06/apply-long-stay-french-visa-not-screw/ .) You can read more about her adventures trying to get a long-stay visa at her blog.
4. Financial info – copies of last 3 months bank statements of accounts that show that you have enough money to pay for rent/subsistence during your stay. Enough copies to put with each application package. (So, we needed 4 copies of the set of 3 months of bank statements – one per application (yes, even with the children’s applications.)
5. International Health Insurance Visa Letter – This one is mandatory and needs to be exact – the coverage has to start at least no earlier than 90 days from the interview and no later than your expected arrival date in France. The companies that provide these letters know what to put in the letter – provision for emergency evacuation up to $1M, return of mortal remains up to $50K, health coverage benefits up to a max of $50K for the period of coverage, and $0 deductible. (And the price is not that bad – about $1800 for my family of four for 8 months.) Each person had their very own int’l health insurance visa letter to put in their visa application package.
Note: We used Insubuy – (https://www.insubuy.com) – another big shout-out this time to Amber at Insubuy who was able to add 3 days to our insurance time frame and re-email the Visa Letters in a matter an hour so we could complete the whole application package process that same day!!
6. Proof of Residence – we had a confirmation email from a hotel for first 2 weeks of stay and an AirBnb apartment listing printout of an apartment that we will probably use in the neighborhood right by the children’s school (I didn’t want to put the non-refundable deposit down until AFTER I knew for sure that we had received the visas.) A copy of the above to put with each person’s application (even the children’s packages.)
7. Letters – a letter signed by my husband and myself stating that we would not work for any French company while we were in France. (Copy for each adult’s application). A letter signed by my husband and myself stating why we wanted to go live in France. (Copy for each adult’s application.)
8. Children specific stuff –
Schools – we included copies of emails from a bi-lingual school in Paris showing that my husband had visited the school and that the school admissions officer stated that there was room in each grade. (I didn’t want to send in the actual applications plus non-refundable application fees until AFTER I knew for sure that we had received the visas.) Note: I did receive a follow-up question from the France Visa office about where was the actual acceptance letter? I emailed them back a letter in which I stated that I had not done the actual application submittal plus the non-refundable fee because I was waiting to see if we would actually get the visas. I also stated that I would submit the applications if it was required.
Birth certificates – official. VFSGlobal folks wanted to see the official birth certificates that listed my husband and myself as the parents of the children. We put the official copies of the birth certificates plus copies of my husbands and my passport id-pages in each child’s application package. (We had requested and received additional official stamped birth certificate copies from the state where the children were born.)
*Note: We also have official stamped/embossed birth certificates (long form – “apostille”) for each person that will be used in France when we go to do the OFII stuff.
B. Process:
1. Fill out application on-line(https://www.welcometofrance.com/en/long-stay-visa-equivalent-to-a-residence-permit)
(Long-stay visa application form (https://www.formulaires.modernisation.gouv.fr/gf/cerfa_14571.do)
2. Schedule an appointment on-line with VFSGlobal – one appointment per one adult (For us, the appointment was in Atlanta, Ga.) (http://www.vfsglobal.com/France/usa/English/index.html).
* Note: We had to schedule one appointment for me and one appointment for my husband. If you are taking a child that is older than 13, I was told that you have to schedule an individual appointment for that child. (Children 13 and under don’t need a separate appointment.)
3. Gather all the required documentation (list is above.)
4. Show up for appointment (WITH print-outs of appointment confirmation one per adult per appointment. You need it to enter the building) and all other documentation.
*Note: In Atlanta, the VFSGlobal office just shows the address of 100 Peachtree NW, Suite 220 <- If you are knowledgeable about Atlanta and remember that there are 71 variations of Peachtree named streets in the city, the VFSGlobal address is not quite enough to give to your Uber driver. After 2 different locations, we did locate the office at 100 Peachtree Road, NW. )
5. At VFSglobal office, the folks will go through your documentation to make sure that it is complete and get your “biometric” data (fingerprints and photograph.) Every person who would receive a visa will have their own visa request package and have their own “biometric” data collected – adults and children.
Note: Big shout-out to Atlanta VFSGlobal folks; Tye, Natalya and Donna, who were professional, knowledgeable and wonderfully warm and friendly (especially to our 13-yr-old and 11-yr-old children)!! Those three were fabulous examples of how to combine efficiency, competence and terrific customer service.
6. Once a visa package (per person!) is judged to be complete, a UPS envelope/sticker is printed out (one for each package) and attached to each package (you pay for it at the time) and the completed packages are sent on to DC to be reviewed/accepted/rejected by the actual Visa decision makers. You go on home and wait for the final decision + package to be delivered to you. Our four UPS envelopes all arrived at the same time on the same day. Someone had to be at the house to sign for the envelopes.
And, great news – inside our passports, were the long-stay Visa stamps! Now on the all the many other to-do list items to make this adventure happen….
Here are the blog pages that I read (and reread and reread) for first-hand info on the long-stay Visa process. Thank you to every one!
Victoria at https://culturepassport.co/
Stephen Heiner at https://theamericaninparis.com/2013/10/14/how-to-get-a-french-long-term-stay-visa-or-learning-to-love-bureaucracy/
Andi at https://andionadventure.com/2018/04/06/apply-long-stay-french-visa-not-screw/