What You Need to Know About Visas in France

If you’re rounding out your first or second year in France, “what you need to know about visas in France” is a hot topic y’all. Especially for Americans in France – hardly anyone wants to go back to the dumpster fire that is Trump’s America right now. Unfortunately, the end of summer often signals the end of a visa, meaning that a whole lot of people are in a tailspin right now over how to either renew or change their visa – and often aren’t even sure what, exactly, visa protocol is.

First, let me explain why I need to change my visa – and important details you need to know

When I first came to France in 2018, I came to work as an au pair in Paris. At the time, foreigners were eligible to apply for either a student visa or an au pair visa. I applied for the student visa because I also enrolled in French language classes, something au pairs are encouraged to do (and that I think everyone who isn’t already fluent should do).

The course was six hours a week for the duration of the 2018-2019 school year and was specifically designed for au pairs so that our family obligations weren’t impeded. Normally, that would have been nowhere near enough hours to qualify me for a student visa, but because I was applying as an au pair, I got the student visa. I couldn’t have known this at the time, but having the “student” status would actually make it easier for me to stay.

Psst. If you’re thinking about applying for a student visa by taking French language classes, you might want to check out this post.

Let me explain

In March 2019, the French government announced that it was consolidating the visa application structure for au pairs. Since then, au pairs could only arrive on an au pair visa, which, unlike the student visa, is only eligible for a one-time renewal. So now, after two years as an au pair, a person needs to apply to change their visa status, a process that is much more stressful than a simple renewal largely because it can be very difficult for non-EU foreigners to receive a job offer in the first place. Thus, since March 2019, the French government has added an extra hoop for au pairs looking to extend their time in France to jump through – and it was purely by chance that I ended up being part of the last cohort of au pairs to arrive in France on a student visa.

That doesn’t mean it’s been a walk in the park, though

France is notoriously ulcer-inducing when it comes to navigating paperwork, and that’s true for both citizens and foreigners alike. When I decided to stay in France, I also decided to move to Strasbourg. What I didn’t know was that if you move, you need to take an appointment to renew or change your visa at the prefecture in your new city of residence. For me, this meant that when I showed up at the Paris Prefecture at Cite and haltingly tried to explain my situation in A2 French, I was ultimately sent away.

Didn’t I just need to renew my visa?

Yes, but every year, a co-morbid issue crops up too: the need for a récépissé. A récépissé is an extremely French response to the fact that they know it takes them forever to process all the paperwork required to do literally anything official here; it’s a sort of official document that means that there is some sort of discrepancy between the day your visa expires and the day you officially get or apply for a new one, and allows you to legally stay in the country while your situation is being processed.

For example, last year, my visa expired August 25, but I wasn’t able to get an appointment until early September. After weeks of staying up until midnight to refresh the appointments page, waking up at 6 a.m., wondering if there was some sort of sacrificial ceremony I was supposed to be doing, all in the attempt to take an appointment online to no avail, I showed up on the doorstep of the prefecture in Strasbourg a day or two my visa was due to expire. It was there that I was informed that the prefecture welcomes in-person questions in the morning, but to be sure to arrive at least an hour before opening to ensure my place in line. (Nowhere online was this information posted.)

This was also when I learned that every prefecture has their own system of doing things

Note: The larger ones are generally more difficult to get appointments and answers to questions. Covid-19 has only exacerbated this. If you have a question, go in person, and go early. If you’re nervous about your French, but can bring a native French speaker with you, even better. Just make sure to profusely thank them and buy them a drink later.

Anyway, back to prefectures. Because they all do things a little bit differently, each one may require slightly different documents for the same type of appointment. Therefore, it’s imperative that when you’re searching for the list of things to bring to your appointment, you go to the correct prefecture’s website. In Strasbourg, for example, that website is the Prefecture Bas Rhin, but your prefecture depends on where you live (and don’t forget, if you’re moving, you take the appointment to change your visa at the prefecture for the department you’ll be living in).  

Bas Rhin Prefecture: http://www.bas-rhin.gouv.fr/

The simplest way to find your prefecture’s website is to identify which region you’re living in (if you don’t know already) and visit the government website that will tell you the address of your prefecture.

Find your prefecture here: https://www.prefectures-regions.gouv.fr/

Once you’ve identified your prefecture, you can click around the site to try and find the list of documents (called “pieces à fournir” in French) that you will need to bring for your particular category of appointment. If you’re not finding what you need, you can try to Google: “pieces à fournir pour (insert appointment category) (insert name of your prefecture).”

For example, when I was looking for the list of documents to change my visa, I searched for “pieces à fournir changement de statut bas rhin.”

Visas in France are nearly always a stressful point of conversation, but having been through the ringer once, I’m a bit calmer heading into the second round.

This year, instead of renewing my student visa, I’m in the process of changing my visa (changement de statut) from student to full time worker

Once again, I’ve gotten lucky in that my visa falls into the category eligible for a change, but even that luck is only a little in the grand scheme of things – I still need to wait for work authorization before I can request the appointment at the prefecture, which, if you go to the Bas Rhin website, currently isn’t even accepting those requests. And, even though I don’t start work till October, I’ve been reading on the expat Facebook groups that some work authorizations are still pending from months ago.

FUN STUFF, y’all.

I’ll definitely be letting you know how this all turns out.