Question 345 — foreigners

Summary

When leaving the European Union, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland chose to renounce the principle of free movement of people, which allowed its nationals to live, study, work and travel freely in an EU member state. This decision put an end to the legal framework for exemption from long-stay visas for the purposes of establishment in France, including United Kingdom nationals. could avail themselves of before leaving the Union. The agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union provided for the possibility for British nationals who resided in the territory of a host Member State before January 1, 2021, to continue to reside there. This provision also applied to their family members who were third-country nationals, residing with them in the territory of the host Member State. Since the end, on December 31, 2020, of this transition period during which British owners of residences in France had the possibility of asserting their right to reside in France, common law has applied. The code of entry and stay of foreigners and the right of asylum (CESEDA) offers two possibilities for long stay: For stays of between three and six months, a foreigner can request a visa for long temporary stay (VLS-T “visitor”) which is not intended to be renewed in France, exempts its holder from the residence card obligation during the period of validity and does not involve any other procedure or payment of tax. For stays longer than six months, a foreigner can apply for a long-stay visa equivalent to a residence permit (VLS-TS “visitor”), the secondary residence becoming de facto the main residence of the foreigner. This visa constitutes a residence permit for a maximum period of 12 months and allows you to request a residence permit from the prefecture two months before its expiry. Consequently, British citizens wishing to settle in France must submit their application via the France-Visas application. The conditions for submitting a visa application have been improved by the deployment of France-Visas, which allows an application to be submitted in a manner dematerialized. Added to this project is the choice made to outsource the processing of visa applications in numerous diplomatic and consular posts, including London, Manchester and Edinburgh. This organization makes it possible to cope with the increase in the overall volume of requests and to absorb seasonal peaks, while guaranteeing an excellent level of quality in the processing of requests, ensuring a better presence geographical in very large countries, to improve the reception of the public by reducing queues by making dedicated appointments, and to optimize the organization of visa services, which can refocus on the processing of files. In countries where visa services have outsourced the reception of files, like the French consular post in the United Kingdom, this system requires the visa applicant to send their online application on the France-Visas portal and to finalize it by making an appointment with the external service provider. This approach is not specific to British visa applicants but applies to all visa applicants. In 2024, the consular post in London issued 139,317 visas. In 2025, to date, 49,418 visas have been issued. Waiting times to obtain an appointment to file a long-stay visa application is 3.5 days, and the processing times for this same type of visa are 8 days. This method of organizing the services responsible for processing visa applications has enabled a better reception and greater efficiency in the management of applications. The French authorities consider that maintaining this system is the guarantee of efficient processing of visa applications, ensuring a high level of security both for applicants and in the quality of the processing of applications. Regarding a possible simplification of the procedure involving the downloading of supporting documents on France-Visas, it should be noted that a project relating to the digitization of the short-stay visa procedure was launched in December 2023 within the Council of the European Union, with the dual objective of making the procedure more efficient visa application and to improve the security of the Schengen area through the rules and principles relating to the security of electronic visas. These developments could also be applied to the issuance of national long-stay visas. In parallel with the connection of the France-Visas national tool to the EU VAP, the dematerialization of the long-stay visa procedure is being developed with a project to complete digitization of the France-Visas tool. Finally, regarding the taking of fingerprints, a provision which finds its basis in article L. 142-1 of the Code of entry and stay of foreigners and the right of asylum, this allows the certain identification of any holder of a visa and it meets general interest objectives of preventing the risk of fraud, the fight against terrorism and serious crime and contributes to the security of the Schengen area.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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