Visa Advice…

General Discussion
1

Hello all, my completion for our house is near and have been thinking about visa options. We won’t be living permanently in France for a while but will be renovating the house and maybe renting it out. But I don’t think the 90 days limit is long enough. As we will be travelling from UK to France a lot.
So if I apply for a long stay resident visa how many times can I renew it over a period of 5 years for example. (I am a UK Cit)

I would like to get a “golden” visa eventually, so I won’t have to pay the extra second home tax in France. If that how it works. So I will be taking lessons on my French :slight_smile: ready for the test. We will spend most of summers and school holidays in France which is very exciting!

Not sure how the visa system works and thought I’d ask on here as many of you have been through it all :slight_smile:

2

Hi @JayHunter
What is a “golden” visa ???
I’ve not heard of this for France, although it has been mentioned for other countries.

3

Well France don’t do a golden visa but other EU countries offer where you can buy property or invest in government bonds and they give you a 10 year visa

4

Ah… so you know that France doesn’t do that sort of thing. Phew… I thought you had been misled. :roll_eyes:

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5

You can get the long stay visa VLS-TS and renew as many times as you like (subject to meeting criteria of course). If you don’t have the centre of your life in France you should not become tax resident. Some people do this endlessly, others go for a different visa on the 5th year which can have more strings attached,

There is no golden visa in France, and I doubt there ever will be. There is a visa for people who invest significantly, work and pay lots of tax, but merely having a house is irrelevant.

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6

If you are not going to live in France you cannot get a resident visa.
You should apply for a 6 month VLS-T visa, which you can renew annually, plus you can add on your 90 days either side.

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7

A visitors visa is one thing. A visa to work/make an income is another. The former is not difficult to get, though tedious and expensive. The latter will involve income tax somewhere or other so will probably be more problematical.

Note that if you do work on house yourself you cannot offset your costs against capital gains when it is sold on.

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8

Yes, sadly London doesn’t seem to give the 12 months VLS-T which would be more convenient. But even with a TS you can come and go,

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