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Renewing your student visa (Titre de Sejour - étudiante)


It is almost a year you are living in France, you are enjoying the studies, those all-night parties, having a time of your life. Now comes a time when you have to renew your student visa. Don’t stress out, we have made a simple and effective list for you to make this process go smoothly.

Here’s what you would need to renew your student visa:

  1. A document from your school stating that you are still a student enrolled in the school.
  2. Photocopy (Xerox) of your first-year transcript (marksheet).
  3. Photocopy (Xerox) of your School ID.
  4. Photocopy (Xerox) of your passport (all pages that are stamped).
  5. Passport size photo (you can get it at any machine named “Photomaton”).
  6. Address proof:
    1. If you are living in a colocation, ask your landlord/landlady to provide you with attestation d'hébergement (proof of residency), ID of the landlord/landlady, electricity bill/internet bill
    2. If you are renting a place all by yourself, a recent electricity bill (in your name) and quittance de loyer (rent receipts) of the last 3 months.
  7. Document of Funds/Financial proof.

Note: Sometimes the visa office whether ISSO/Prefecture might ask for some additional documents, so it is always helpful to have the full file handy along with the photocopies of the documents.


Once your file is submitted, you will receive a Recepisse (receipt) valid for 3 months. This is provided since you will receive a card titled “Titre de Sejour – Etudiant” which needs around 2-3 months to be ready. This card will be valid for one year (in some exceptions people receive them with a validity of two years) from the date of application for renewal.

For example: If you applied for renewal on 25th Feb 2019, you will receive a Recepisse valid till 24th May 2019 & Titre de Sejour valid till 24th Feb 2019.

Note: If your « Titre de Sejour – Etudiant » is not ready within 3 months, you can request for the renewal of your Recepisse. This does not happen regularly, but there are some cases of the card not ready before expiry of the Recepisse. The documents required for the renewal are the same as mentioned above.

Author : Monesh Raut

Digital Advertiser by profession. Worked & lived in Paris for more than 2 years. Movie enthusiast, foodie, city explorer.