French Visas

18/04/2026

ANEF : An on-going administrative crisis
The French public service responsible for foreign nationals has been considered to be dysfunctional for years. Typically, the ANEF site, which is where a large part of the renewals, and other residency related business, previously carried out at the local préfecture, is now carried out, has been described as “extremely hard to access”, “overwhelmed” and “technically unreliable”. In fact, many of the complaints about the French public services for immigration, that previously existed when everything was done by appointment at the préfecture, have followed it on-line. The on-line system has alleviated the work-load of prefecture employees, because it is the applicant that has to do time consuming “office work” (scanning and uploading) but the processing of a dossier is still carried out at the local préfecture. Préfectures have also had to content with malfunctions of the ANEF site on their side of the system, such as being unable to download documents.
The situation reached crisis point in 2024 leading to a large increase in the number of applicants using Défenseurs des Droits (a government organisation for the defence of private individuals against administrations) to accelerate or to obtain an outcome for immigration applications. For people who need to work in France, long time scales for processing work permits and renewing cards can lead to job loss. Long processing times can also lead to problems with housing and access to health care.
The Défenseur des Droits produced a report listing over 40 failings of the present on-line system for the processing of residency applications.
On 10th April the Conseil d’Etat examined a case filed by a coalition of organisations promoting the rights of immigrants and it is expected that this will be the first step in improvements in the system, particularly as regards the processing times.
The French government has also announced that it will be moving all its systems over to Linux from Windows. I have been advised that this is likely to lead to an improvement in on-line government services in the long term. The move over to Linux has already been successfully pioneered by the Gendarmerie. However, in the short term, I would say that there are likely to be some “rough patches” before we see any permanent improvement. And it does not address the human component of application processing, which requires an increase in trained staff.

11/04/2026

This year is the period where all the 5 year WARP card holders (WARP = Withdrawal Agreement Residency Permit) renew their card. The majority of the prefectures are doing renewals via a site called www.demarches.numeriques.gouv.fr. If that’s the case in your département, create an account and follow the instructions. The link is below.
Other départements are doing this via in-person appointments, so you need to go onto the website of your local prefecture and book an appointment to take your dossier along. If you are not sure, go to the Contact page on the website of your prefecture and send them an email.
The Ministry of the Interior seems to have overhauled their websites lately, so many préfecture websites have changed and you have to be quite persistent to find the appropriate information and/or link. Suggested avenues of research on the home page of prefecture websites are “Etrangers”, “Accueil des Etrangers”, “Renouvellement”.
La Mayenne and Manche are using démarches.numeriques.gouv.fr. Orne is using, as far as I can tell, in-person appointments.
Here’s the link : Renouvellement des titres de séjour « Article 50 TUE/Article 18(1) Accord de retrait du Royaume-Uni de l’UE » valables 5 ans arrivant à expiration · demarche.numerique.gouv.fr

07/04/2026

FED UP WITH WAITING AROUND FOR YOUR CARTE DE SEJOUR? HELP IS ON ITS WAY
Most non EU foreigners living in France are familiar with the long waits that accompany carte de séjour requests or renewals. Although waiting times for visa based residency renewals and for the spouses of EU passport holders are 4 and 6 months respectively processing times often overshoot leaving applicants confused as to their real status, and also causing considerable inconvenience and even expense.
The fact is French prefectures are overloaded and cannot keep up, leaving many people in immigration limbo. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez recently announced a “massive plan” to reduce these delays involving hiring 500 full time temporary staff and aiming to increase the resources devoted to residency application by 20%.

Hope you all had a lovely Easter break.

28/03/2026

Carte de séjour cost increase in 2026
France’s latest Loi de Finances has led to an increase in the fees applied to immigration procedures. These increases—set to take effect on 1st May 2026—impact almost all categories of residency permits.
For my clients, here are the details about the increases in Cartes de Séjour that are most likely to affect you.
A request for a visitor’s visa validation, and for the validation of other VLS-TS visas (this includes, among others, the VLS-TS Entrepreneur/Profession Libérale and the VLS-TS Salarié), will increase from 200 to 300 euros.
For the renewal of VLS-TS or their equivalent cards (visitor, salarié, entrepreneur/profession libérale), there will be an increase from 225 euros to 250 euros.
Seasonal worker’s visas will increase from 75 euros to 150 euros.
No one with a Withdrawal Agreement card or a card as the spouse or family member of an EU citizen is affected by this increase.

19/03/2026

France has taken a first step toward requiring wealthier foreign retirees to contribute to its public healthcare system. On 9th November, the National Assembly approved an amendment to the 2026 social security budget introducing a contribution for holders of long-stay visitor visas, the visa most frequently used by third country nationals who are not in France for professional reasons.

Currently, these residents can access France’s universal healthcare system (Puma) after three months residence, without direct contributing. François Gernigon, who proposed the measure, described this as an “anomaly,” pointing out that France is sometimes marketed abroad as offering free high-quality healthcare to visitor visa holders.

The exact cost of contribution has not yet been decided, but it is likely to be flat annual fee. Previous arrangements already in place concerning retirees from countries with existing social security agreements with France, such as the UK and other EU countries, will not be affected.

This measure has been described as being "anti-American" but in fact the free access to Puma is open to any nationality on a visitor visa and American residents are not being especially targeted or victimised by this measure. And whilst nothing yet has been decided, since the amendment has still to be approved by the Senate, it may still represent a relatively good deal in relation to the price of health care in the US or a private health care package for immigration purposes.

Watch this space for further developments.

19/03/2026

In case any of you are presently being driven mad by TLS Contact's UK website (more than usual, I mean) please know that (i) if you make a group booking, it looks like only the group leader gets a confirmation of the appointment in their name. However, a receipt for payment with the names of all the members of the party should be sent to the group leader, and this should suffice to gain entry to the office.
There are no appointments available on line atm up to the end of June.

19/01/2026

For an in-depth guide to the new ETIAS & EES entry systems introduced in 2026, read our blog article: https://frenchvisas.fr/2026/01/13/etias-ees-explained-new-schengen-travel-rules/

British Embassy Paris: 🚄🚢✈️ Travelling to the UK without a visa?
From 25 February 2026, without an ETA, you will not be able to board your transport or legally travel to the UK.
An ETA permits multiple journeys to the UK for stays of up to six months at a time over two years or until the holder’s passport expires – whichever is sooner.
British and Irish citizens do not need an ETA, including dual citizens. Dual British citizens must have a valid British passport or certificate of entitlement when travelling to the UK.
Visit GOV.UK/ETA for more information.

05/01/2026

If you are trying to log on to the ANEF site and are getting a site maintenance message, this is because on 2nd January there was a massive cyber attack on the OFII platform that is affecting the ANEF site as well. This is why ANEF has been off-line for the last few days. Apparently the website of LaPoste has also been the victim of a cyber attack and is also down.

04/01/2026

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25/12/2025