France Long Stay Visa with a Child
- Who we are and why we moved to France
-Background of prior experiences in France which initiated the move long term.
- Passports: Start early, really early to renew or apply for a passport! It took almost six months to renew Thad’s passport. Thad managed to contact the state department and change the service to expedited. Yvette’s was a special children’s passport and only took 5 weeks
- After receiving the passport we quickly booked our apartment and our airfare. We had purchased our travel insurance prior because you can postdate and change the start and end dates.
- We rented our apartment through https://www.longtermrentalsinfrance.com/ and found this beautiful apartment: apartmentinfrance.ca
And booked our flights directly through the Delta this time around. .
- What kind of Long Stay Visa we applied for
Long Stay Visitor Visa – Type D
- We were able to book a visa appointment a week out.
- Fill out an application for each person on the French Consulate website https://france-visas.gouv.fr/web/france-visas/ and then it redirects you to the VFS website to book the group appointment.
- Most time consuming part of the process was gathering all the documents, making 2 copies of each for each of us and putting them in order.
- The entire appointment took about 2 hours. Asked what our purpose was in applying for the visa and why we wanted to move to France. They went through all the documents and took out what they needed, barely asked any questions, and then took our fingerprints and a picture of our face, and we were done.
- We will discuss what documents they did end up taking, how we proved income, and special requirements for applying with a child. We took more documents than was necessary.
- It took 9 days to receive our passports back with the visas.
- The updates from VFS and the consulate were very slow in updating so don’t rely on them. Thad received them all at once a couple of days before the visa showed up and Sarala sporadically.
- Our proof of vaccination (or negative COVID test) was required at the airport while checking in.
- We also applied for our French Pass Sanitaire about a week prior which took about 3 days to receive.
- According to the French Immigration online, you need to report and verify your visa online within 2-3 months of entering the country.
- It was surprisingly easy to verify our visas. There is no trip to the prefecture required anymore.
- You complete the verification online and pay 200 Euro per visa applicant which was an unexpected expense!.
- After the verification is complete, a confirmation is sent to you with documents that have a stamp or QR code which prove you paid.
- At the end of the process the final confirmation will give you a long number which will serve as your resident permit number or your French Social Security number.
- The visa you received will serve as the resident permit for the first year on the Long Stay Visa. You can apply for the full resident permit 2 months prior to the visa expiration.
- The French government will contact you with a medical appointment to get a checkup. After the medical appointment is when you will receive the stamp on your visa proving your approved residency status for all further residency processes.