When should I apply for a long-stay visa to visit my French second home?
Visa applications are often made through third parties
To apply for a visa, you need to go through the French embassy or consulate in your country, or through a third-party service responsible for visa applications such as TLSContact
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Reader Question: I know that to visit our second home in France for more than three months we need a long-stay visa, but how far in advance can we apply for this? We would like to lock in our plans as soon as possible.
The advice as to how long in advance you can apply for a long-stay visa for France is three months from most countries, though official French sources were updated to say six months is possible from the UK.
This includes when applying for the six-month Visa de long séjour temporaire which you would require for an extended visit to your second home.
As applicants choose the desired start date of their visa during the application, they can ensure themselves that they adhere to this rule by picking an appropriate date.
To apply for a visa, you need to go through the French embassy or consulate in your country, or through a third-party service responsible for visa applications such as TLSContact.
This will require an in-person appointment to which you will need to bring supporting documents.
Use the France-Visas website to check the steps required for your situation, and begin your application – it will also tell you the service you need to contact to continue your application.
Note there can be limitations on when long-stay visas can be made.
For example, in previous years a rule was in place whereby a six-month Visa de long séjour temporaire visa could only start at least six months after the last visa of this type expired.
We have heard this may have changed to a rule of one such visa per calendar year, but are checking the point with the French consular services.
Once your visa has been granted, you will not usually be able to change the given start and end dates, though there is no obligation to go to France on the precise named start day.
In theory, time on such a visa can also be combined with days on the EU’s 90/180 days rule, which runs separately, though with the introduction of the new EES digital borders systems, this may create an additional complication and require explanations at the border in some cases.
