Red tape and visas
France > Paris > Basics > Formalities
Citizens of EU (European Union) countries, and thirty-one other countries, including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, do not need any sort of visa to enter France, and can stay for up to ninety days. All other passport holders must obtain a visa before arrival.Visa application procedures vary from embassy to embassy, so it's best to phone or consult their website first; with the French embassy in London, for example, you have to make an appointment. Three types of visa are currently issued: a transit visa, valid for two months; a short-stay (court séjour) visa, valid for ninety days after the date of issue and good for multiple entries; and a long-stay (long séjour) visa, which allows for multiple stays of ninety days over three years, but which is issued only after an examination of an individual's circumstances. EU citizens (or other non-visa citizens) who stay longer than three months are officially supposed to apply for a Carte de Séjour, for which you'll have to show proof of adequate funds to support a long stay in France. However, EU passports are rarely stamped, so there is no evidence of how long you've been in the country. If your passport does get stamped, you can cross the border – to Belgium or Germany, for example – and re-enter for another ninety days legitimately.
Pages in section ‘Formalities’: French embassies.
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