by This feels like a very anticlimactic announcement after the dramatic post of “I’m leaving Switzerland”, because it turns out all I did was hop over the border to the next country. But yeah, I guess I live in France now.
There are some personal details I won’t get into on this public blog because of how “up in the air” much of my life feels. All I’ll say at this point is that I’m not in Paris. I am not in France because of my new job; I am also not going to be based here 100% of the time. The main point of this post is to share the process behind getting a long-stay visa for France, and exactly what I had to do as an American to get it.
Step 1: Research
I had vaguely heard about the long-stay visa for France at some point in the past, but never looked into it since I’d always assumed that it would be this bureaucratic nightmare that involved hiring an immigration lawyer. Turns out — not true.
In October last year, I began researching the visa in earnest when I decided to accept a new job and leave Switzerland, while still keeping one foot in Europe. My goal was to set up a home base where I was already familiar with the culture, where I could continue to work on improving my French, and that would allow me to stay close to my friends and professional network in Switzerland. France was the obvious choice.
I paid 99 euros to have a half-hour consultation call with a French relocation advisor. Now, I don’t actually think it’s necessary to pay for a service like this; I mainly did it because my situation was a bit more unusual/messy compared to, say, someone who wanted to move to France to retire or who wanted to keep running their web design business from home. After speaking with the advisor and bombarding him with questions, I felt confident about navigating the visa process and decided to move forward without outside assistance.
Step 2: Book an appointment with the French consulate
This part was slightly annoying. Since I lived in Geneva, I had to book an appointment with the French consulate in Geneva, and I had NO idea how long the wait would be. The day I decided to apply for the visa, I went on their website all naive, like, oh, maybe I can get an appointment for next week. There were no open slots on their calendar at all. Not for the next week, not for the next month, not for ever. I was shocked. How the heck were there so many people in Geneva, this tiny-ass town of 200k people who are mostly already European citizens, trying to apply for visas to move to France? It didn’t make sense!
After doing a little more research, I found out that the consulate releases a batch of new appointments every morning at 8:30. I set an alarm for the next morning and snatched up the earliest appointment I could find. It was an entire month away.
Step 3: Complete and submit an application form online
The form is a pretty straightforward thing on the government website that you can fill out in either French or English. My understanding is that while you can start working on the form as a draft, you’re not supposed to hit the submit button until you’ve already booked the visa appointment. After you do that, the completed form is generated as a PDF, which you then have to download, print and bring to the visa appointment.
Step 4: Assemble documents for the visa appointment
Below is a list of documents I had to print and bring to the visa appointment.
The visa application form
The receipt that was generated when I submitted the application form online
A visa photo in the EU standard size (35x45mm)
Scanned copy of every page of my passport (I even scanned the front and back cover just to avoid any bureaucratic nonsense, lmao)
Scanned copy of my residency permit for Switzerland
Statement of my Swiss bank checking account balance
Last three pay slips from my employer
A signed letter from me in French, explaining why I want to move to France, and promising that I won’t try to look for local employment
An attestation from my employer that I have global health insurance coverage through them
A signed letter from my friend, S, stating that I was welcome to stay with him in France while I looked for housing, using this template provided by the French government
What I didn’t know was that I was also supposed to provide a copy of S’s passport bio page and his proof of domicile in France (such as a deed, lease or utility bill). At the visa appointment, the officer told me to just have S email the documents directly to the consulate. S did so that night, and the consulate replied to confirm receipt, which I thought was surprisingly professional.
Looking at this list in hindsight, it’s extremely obvious how incredibly privileged someone has to be to get a visa for France (or any European country, or the United States, and so on). I got really, really fucking lucky.
Step 5: Attend the visa appointment
The French consulate in Geneva is located right next to the beautiful Parc des Bastions and the University of Geneva. I arrived about 20 minutes early for my appointment and thought I would just stand outside the building and loiter a little bit before going in. But seconds after I showed up, a security guard popped out from behind the door. “How can I help you?” he asked.
I showed him a piece of ID, and the guy checked my name off a list on a clipboard and let me inside. The waiting room was fairly small, with only about 10 chairs, but there were already three or four other people waiting on their appointments. Also in the waiting room were two photo booths, which was convenient. It was a very low-key place, just a regular office building.
After a few minutes, a guy who I assume was the French equivalent of a foreign service officer called me into his office. He asked if I preferred to do the interview in French or English, and I said French, since I’m at an intermediate level. It actually went very well at first — he was very calm and approachable, and I felt super at ease and could speak with him quite fluently. We talked about my job, why I was trying to move to France, etc. The guy told me to have S email the two missing documents to the consulate, but said that otherwise the file looked good. “You can go upstairs to the counter and pay them 99 euro for the visa,” he said.
I went upstairs, paid the lady at the counter, and left the consulate.
I was on the bus a few minutes later when my phone started to ring with a call from an unknown number. I ignored it, thinking it was spam. It rang again. I ignored it again. Then it occurred to me to Google the number, and I did. The number was from the French consulate in Geneva.
I called back immediately, and it was the same guy. “Where are you?” he asked, sounding irritated. “Why did you leave the consulate?”
The question confused me. “I thought the appointment was over,” I said. “I paid at the counter.”
“It wasn’t over!” he said. “I told you, you were supposed to come back after you paid so that I could take your fingerprints. I also need to give you back your passport and residency card!”
Fuuuuuuuuck!
I swear to God, I still don’t know what happened. I really, really don’t remember the guy saying this stuff to me. Like, my French is good enough that if he had told me to come back, I would have gotten that for sure. But maybe I was distracted? Maybe I didn’t hear him? Maybe I went temporarily insane? I am still confused!
Either way, the guy was very nice and allowed me to come back that same day to do the fingerprints. He seemed slightly grumpier when I returned, but that was understandable. We wrapped things up, and he told me to expect to hear back within two weeks.
Step 6: Pick up the visa
Less than three business days after the interview, I got an email from the French consulate. Your visa has been issued, it said. Come pick it up!
Now, I had been initially a little nervous because after taking my fingerprints, they had returned my passport and residency permit to me. Everything I’d read online indicated that the consulate was supposed to hold on to your passport and not give it back until the visa had been issued and pasted inside. Did this mean I didn’t get the visa? I wondered.
When I got the email, there was a link to make an appointment to pick up the visa, and I made one immediately for the next day. At the consulate, I was greeted by the same guy from the week before. He asked for my passport, then spent a few minutes putting on the visa sticker and explaining the administrative steps that come next. For instance, I had to register with the government to validate the visa within three months of “arriving” in France. I also have the option to renew the visa after a year.
Here is a timeline.
October 19 – Booked a visa appointment at the French consulate for a month out
Nov 19 – Visa appointment interview at consulate
Nov 25 – Notified that visa was issued
Nov 26 – Picked up visa from consulate
(Had a ton of administrative stuff in December that put things on hold)
Jan 3 – Started looking for an apartment in France
Jan 7 – Applied to an apartment
Jan 9 – Approved for the apartment
Jan 15 – Formally “arrived” in France by crossing the border from Switzerland and validated my visa on the government website
Jan 17 – Moved into new apartment, electricity set up
Jan 18 – Got a French phone number at a store and made an appointment for fiber internet to be set up at home
Jan 22 – Internet set up at home
