The visitor residence permit is both a residence permit evidenced by a temporary residence permit but also by a visa on the passport of the foreign national. The visitor’s residence permit is provided for by article L313-6 of the CESEDA. It is a kind of somewhat hybrid right of residence halfway between a temporary “private and family life” residence permit and a type C short-stay visa. It can be applied for both at the Consulate and at the Prefecture by a foreigner who would already be living in France and who would like to change their status. It should not be confused with the residence permit provided for in Article 7a of the Franco-Algerian Agreement, which is a little different.
The conditions to have this visitor residence permit are the same whether you are abroad or in France. They are rather easy to fill if we compare to other visas much more complicated to obtain for example that for the ascendants of dependent French. We will explain the two conditions and after the interest to benefit from a visitor’s residence permit in France to go to a residence card or French nationality.
Conditions for obtaining a visitor residence permit
The first condition for obtaining a visitor’s residence permit is to justify being able to live on your own. This means that those who request it must be able to demonstrate to the administration that they have their own financial resources. If he does not do so, the visitor’s residence permit will be refused. There are several ways to demonstrate that this condition is met, but the administration will verify both the source of its resources and the amount. This amount is a precise figure and the foreigner must hold the sum in question on a bank account in his country or in France. The fact that the account is in France is always more reassuring for the administration.
The second condition for obtaining a visitor’s residence permit is to make a commitment not to work in France. So this residence permit does not allow to exercise a job. Nor does it create a business or a company. The logic of this obligation is that the foreigner who resides on the territory with this residence permit does not need to work. It goes hand in hand with the first condition and the two are cumulative. You must therefore either have a job in your country of origin or in another or have your own and sufficient resources.
The visitor’s residence permit is a real residence permit that allows years spent in the territory to be counted as private and family life. These years will also be counted for the five years of residence to obtain a resident card provided for in article L314-8 of the CESEDA. It is renewable directly at the Prefecture and it suffices to justify always meeting the two conditions.
Foreigners affected by the visitor’s residence permit
It will generally be refused for one and only reason: the absence of proof of being able to live on its own resources. The foreigner who has no resources or too few will, therefore, be excluded from the issuance of the visitor’s residence permit. In addition, if you are in France under cover of a short stay visa you cannot apply for a visitor’s residence permit and you will have to return to the French consulate in the country of origin to apply.
Who is this visitor’s residence permit for? To several categories of people. Firstly, it targets foreigners who work and whose functions can lead them to spend a lot of time in France and for whom a short-stay visa is not sufficient. These people can easily prove the income condition and work abroad. Second, retirees who want to spend their retirement in France. It is again a question of foreigners who will satisfy the conditions requested since on the one hand they receive a pension (if the amount of it is sufficient) and on the other hand they are no longer of age to work and that doesn’t interest them. In third place,
The visitor’s residence permit covers a fairly large foreign population. It is often overlooked by consulates when in reality it meets a real need and has a real use. In addition, the criteria to be fulfilled remain simple and subject to a precise assessment, making it more difficult for the administration to take an arbitrary refusal decision.