Preparing for the visa appointment

In-person appointments are held at one of the TLScontact offices.

You should bring your appointment notification form and application form and receipt, supporting documents and your passport plus photocopies of these including key passport pages. The application fee is generally paid online when making the application, however if this was not done you will be asked to pay it at the appointment.

The service will check the paperwork and scan your fingerprints (not under-12s, who should not come with you) and retain your passport and document copies for forwarding to the consulate. It takes about 20 minutes.

It is possible to track the progress of your application online. If there are queries or requests for extra documents, this will be made by email. When the visa is ready you will receive an email and a text message. 

It will be returned to you by courier, which costs a further $40 (alternatively, you may collect it in person from the TLScontact office in Washington DC). 

It is also possible for another person to collect the passport for you if they bring the original tracking form that was given to you when you submitted your application, a copy of your ID document, the original and a copy of the representative’s own identity document, and a letter of proxy signed by you.

What documents are needed?

All applicants need a passport photograph and their passport, which must have been issued less than 10 years ago and be valid for at least three months after the date on which the visa you are applying for would expire. It must have two blank pages.

You need to show a certain salary level for some kinds of work visa. This may be expressed as salaire net or brut (gross).

The French convention is that net salary is what is left in your pocket after social charges but before income tax. Gross refers to the salary including the employee’s part of French social charges which will be deducted before the worker receives it.

For work you will also have to show a job offer and having obtained authorization to work, or detailed information about qualifications/experience and plans to support yourself if you aim to live from self-employed work. 

You will need proof of accommodation arranged such as a rental contract for three months or more, or deeds, or a signed statement by a host confirming that they live in France and are inviting you to stay at their address. 

If you own a home, you could supply a copy of the attestation de vente that notaires supply on completion of a sale.

Another element is evidence of healthcare. If you will not be working in France, you will be asked to take out comprehensive private healthcare covering at least the first full year (it should cover up to €30,000 of expenses).

During this time, you can apply to join the French system on the basis of settled residency in France with evidence of three months of living in France. 

It may be possible to find an insurance deal that allows for early cancellation if your French healthcare rights are processed efficiently. 

People with substantial ‘capital’ income (over an allowance of €23,550) pay an annual charge to be part of the French system, for most others it has up until now been ‘free’. The fee – subject to a maximum cap – is equal to 6.5% of income over the allowance.

Capital income refers to, for example, unfurnished rents and non-professional furnished rental, income from shares and bank accounts and capital gains from the sale of property.

However, the 2026 social security finance law included wording setting up a new healthcare fee aimed at people who live in France without working and without paying French social charges on their incomes due to living from kinds that are exempt from these, such as US pensions.

Further details on this, including the level of the fee, are still awaited, however many Americans in France said such a fee was fair as long as it was set at a reasonable amount.