French long-stay visa: which one to apply for, and what you pay next
The type D visa opens a stay of more than three months. Its type decides what you do on arrival: validate online, go to the prefecture or leave at the end.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Long-stay visa: what you pay once in France
VLS-TS validation tax
€300
| First card (year 2) | €350 |
| First two years | €650 |
| Visa fee at the consulate | depends on country |
To stay in France for more than three months, a foreign adult needs a long-stay visa, known as a D visa, from the French consulate in the country where they live, even if their nationality is exempt from visas for short trips. EU citizens are exempt. There are several D visas: the visa that serves as a residence permit (VLS-TS), valid for 4 to 12 months, for students, employees on permanent contracts, spouses of French nationals and talent-card holders; the visa marked "residence card to be requested within 2 months"; the one-year working-holiday visa; the visa for a minor at school; and the temporary visa of 3 to 12 months, which does not allow work. The application goes in at the earliest three months before departure. The visa fee paid at the consulate varies by country; once in France, the VLS-TS must be validated within 3 months with a tax of €300, or €100 at the reduced rate. Over two years, a student therefore pays €250 in France and an employee €650.
One long-stay visa per plan
The official long-stay visa page, checked on 9 October 2026, describes the following categories. All allow entry and a stay of more than three months; they differ in what happens on arrival.
| Visa | Length | For whom | On arrival |
|---|---|---|---|
| VLS-TS (serves as a permit) | 4 to 12 months | students, employees on permanent contracts, spouses of French nationals, talent | online validation and tax |
| "Residence card to be requested within 2 months" | depends on the ground | French nationals’ families, self-employed, Blue Card, seasonal, retirees, artists | card application at the prefecture |
| Working holiday | up to 1 year | young people from countries with an agreement | no card, leave at the end |
| Minor at school | up to 11 months | school pupils under 18 | no card |
| Temporary visa | 3 to 12 months | short courses, artists, visitors | no card, no work |
The VLS-TS spares you the prefecture (the local state office) in year one. For a French national's spouse it is issued with no further condition, unless the marriage is fraudulent or annulled or there is a threat to public order. The temporary visa leads to no card at all: at its end you must go home, and it allows neither work nor social benefits. The working-holiday visa, reserved for young people from countries with a bilateral agreement with France (and Taiwanese nationals without one), cannot be extended beyond a year, save for exceptions in the agreement.
Who does not need a D visa
An EU citizen never needs one; the official page on Europeans living in France sets out their own conditions. Also exempt are family members of an EU citizen holding the matching card issued by another member state, EU long-term residents of another country and their families, intra-corporate transferees on long-term mobility, holders of another state's EU Blue Card for at least a year and their families, and nationals of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Holy See. Holders of a French retiree card can come at any time for stays under a year; holders of a seasonal-worker card can come to work up to six months in total per year.
Applying
You apply online on France-Visas, the official visa portal, then at the consulate of the country where you live, at the earliest three months before departure. Documents depend on the ground; the France-Visas assistant lists them. Your passport must remain valid at least three months beyond the visa's end, have two blank pages and be less than ten years old. Your fingerprints and photo are stored in the Visabio database, except fingerprints of children under twelve. You cannot object to this record, but you have the right to access and correct it. Allow for the consulate's processing time, which is not published in any uniform way: filing at the start of the three-month window leaves room for a missing document.
A visa is refused to anyone under an order to leave France (OQTF) issued less than five years earlier who cannot prove they complied, to anyone under a ban or expulsion order, and, except for French nationals' spouses, to nationals of countries that cooperate poorly on readmissions. The legal basis is article L312-2 of the CESEDA and articles L412-1 onwards.
What you pay, and where
There are two separate payments. At the consulate, the visa fee, whose amount depends on the country and appears in the Tarif section of France-Visas; it falls under the decree of 13 August 1981 on consular fees. In France, for a VLS-TS, the validation tax: €300 at the standard rate, €100 at the reduced rate, since 1 May 2026 according to the official Service-Public.fr notice. The mini-calculator above gives the tax and next year's first card for each ground.
Example: a student who arrives on 1 September 2026 with a VLS-TS valid until 31 August 2027 must validate it by 1 December 2026 and pay €100. To stay a second year, she applies for her card between 30 April 2027 and 30 June 2027.
Refusal and withdrawal
Every refusal gives reasons. You may still ask the consulate to reconsider, but the appeal to the visa refusal appeals board (Commission de recours contre les décisions de refus de visa, CRRV) is compulsory before going to court: by post, in French, with reasons, within 30 days of the written refusal or of the implicit refusal arising from two months of silence from the consulate. If the board rejects the appeal, or stays silent for two months, the administrative court in Nantes can be seized within two months. Once you are in France, the prefect may withdraw a VLS-TS obtained by fraud, used for another purpose than its ground, or where there is a disturbance to public order.
When the visa ends
To stay longer you need a residence card, requested at the prefecture or on the ANEF portal depending on the ground. The timing depends on the permit: the talent card is requested within two months of entry on a three-month visa, the card that follows a VLS-TS at the latest two months before the visa ends. The validation calculator gives these dates for your visa. General information, not legal advice.