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The Journey of you French Visas & Residence Permits


If you already arrived in France and reading this article, Bienvenue..!! If you haven’t, you can check how to apply for a student visa of France.

Visa is one of the most important things that you will have to take care of as your life progresses in France.

  1. Upon arriving in France as a student, you will have a one-year student visa (VLS-TS). The next step that you will have to do is get the OFII done within three months, in order to validate the first Visa. Once the OFII process is done, you are now eligible to explore the Schengen area, so let the adventures begin.
  2. You got busy in your studies, making friends, enjoying the European lifestyle and are now realizing that the Student Visa is up for a renewal. Renewing your Student Visa is a simple process. Once you applied for a renewal, you will receive a Recepisse valid for 3 months. Now you can go and collect your renewed Student Visa (Titre de Séjour) which will be valid for one year (in some exceptions 2 years) from the application of renewal.
  3. Now your studies are coming to an end, you are critically busy in writing your thesis. In midst of that you will have to take care of renewing your Visa. This time things will be a little bit different. When you will go for a renewal, you will not receive a one-year validity. Instead you will get a short period varying from 3-6 months. This can either be a Recepisse / temporary APS (Autorisation Provisoire de Séjour).
  4. After a long wait comes a day when you receive an email from your Ecole congratulating you on successfully graduating. This marks a stage in your life where you are promoted from being a student to become a professional. Before the Recepisse / temporary APS (Autorisation Provisoire de Séjour) expires, you will have to apply for an APS (Autorisation Provisoire de Séjour) that will be valid for one year and can be renewed for one extra year. You can stay, travel and start working full-time in France.
  5. Voila, you secured a job in France. Felicitations..!! You can start working on your APS Visa but will have to change the type depending upon the job contract:
    1. CDD (contrat à durée déterminée):
      1. 6 months and less: You don’t have to do changes to your visa type in this scenario.
      2. More than 6 months: In this scenario, you will have to apply for “Changement de Statut -  Etudiant a Salarie”.
    2. CDI (Contrat à durée indéterminée):
      1. You secured a CDI and your salary is more than € 27,381.84, you will have to apply for “Changement de Statut - Etudiant a Salarie”. This visa will be valid for one year from the date of application.
      2. You secured a CDI and your salary is more than € 36,509.20, you become eligible to apply for “Changement de Statut - Etudiant a Passeport Talent”. This visa is valid for 4 years from the date of application.
      3. You secured a CDI and your salary is more than € 53,836.50, you become eligible to apply for “La Carte Bleue Européenne (EU Blue Card” upon satisfying certain criteria. This visa is valid for 4 years from the date of application (renewable) and an added advantage i.e. after working for 2 years in France, you get access to work anywhere in EU without applying for a work visa of that country.
  6. The last step that you can go for is getting the “French Citizenship” once you finish 5 years of living here in France and satisfy all the required criteria.
Author : Monesh Raut

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