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France student visa and arrival checklist for study abroad advisers

Fourteen steps for a US student who goes to France for 90 days or more, from the acceptance letter to the student card. Each step names the official page it rests on and the day we read it.

All pages read on 28 October 2026.

The four numbers to remember

90 days

Under it no visa and no Campus France file. From it a long-stay visa, asked for in the US.

$270 or $460

Campus France USA review, 3 weeks or 3 days. Paid before anything is reviewed.

877.50 euros

A month in France, left after tuition and travel. It was 615 until 1 August 2026.

3 months

From the day of entry to validate the visa online on ANEF.

The steps run in a fixed order. The Campus France confirmation email comes before the visa appointment, and the validation comes after the student has landed.

Before the file

  1. Check how long the program lasts

    When
    At program design
    Who
    Adviser

    Under 90 days a US citizen needs no visa and no Études en France file. From 90 days on, the student needs a long-stay visa, and it has to be requested in the United States before leaving.

    France-Visas says the same for American passport holders: no visa up to 90 days in any 180 days, a visa for every stay over 90 days.

    Official pages for this step

  2. Issue an acceptance letter Campus France will take

    When
    Before the student opens the file
    Who
    Adviser or program

    Campus France USA calls the letter the most important part of the file. It must be on institutional letterhead and show the student's full name, the exact start and end dates of the program in France (day, month and year, approximate dates are refused), a signature or stamp, the full address of the host institution and the contact details of the person who signs.

    If the program is run by an organization other than the student's university, the letter names the home institution in the US, the host school or program in France and the organization that runs it.

    A letter that falls short may delay the file, and the student may have to get a new one.

    Official pages for this step

The Campus France file

  1. Open the Études en France file

    When
    At least 10 to 12 weeks before departure
    Who
    Student

    The student creates an account on the Études en France platform and fills in the application for students who already have an admission letter. A study abroad or exchange student uploads a passport scan, a headshot, a statement of motivation of at most 2,500 characters and the acceptance letter.

    The platform moved on 29 September 2026 to etudesenfrance.diplomatie.gouv.fr. Campus France USA says files opened before that day kept their data.

    Official pages for this step

  2. Pay the Campus France USA fee

    When
    Right after submitting the file
    Who
    Student
    Cost
    $270 for the 3-week review or $460 for the 3-day review

    Campus France USA does not start reviewing until it has the payment. Study abroad and exchange students may pick either speed. Doctoral and non-degree students have the 3-week review only, at $460.

    Holders of some French government scholarships, of a Fulbright award, of a recent French baccalauréat or of an Erasmus Mundus scholarship can ask for an exemption from the fee. It covers the 3-week review only. The fee is not refunded after a visa refusal.

    Official pages for this step

  3. Wait for the confirmation email

    When
    3 weeks or 3 days after payment
    Who
    Student

    Once the file is processed Campus France USA sends a confirmation email and the pre-registration certificate is available in the student's account. The student prints the email for the visa appointment. It is mandatory for applicants in the US even though it may not appear on the general France-Visas checklist.

    Students in a licence, master or doctorate and holders of certain scholarships also receive an exemption letter for the TLScontact fee. The student waits for that letter before booking.

    Official pages for this step

The visa

  1. Fill in the visa application on France-Visas

    When
    After the confirmation email
    Who
    Student
    Cost
    50 euros visa fee, paid when filing

    The student answers the France-Visas questions, uploads the documents (recommended, but they must still be brought on paper) and prints the three-page application form and the receipt with the reference number.

    France-Visas lists a visa fee of 50 euros for countries on the Études en France procedure and 99 euros for the others. The United States is on the procedure.

    Official pages for this step

  2. Book the TLScontact appointment

    When
    Within 6 months before the program starts
    Who
    Student
    Cost
    220 euros service fee, waived for degree students

    Ten TLScontact centers take applications in the United States, plus one in Jamaica. Appointments are center specific, released weekly and follow a rolling schedule of 6 to 8 weeks, so summer slots go early.

    Campus France USA says the appointment cannot be earlier than 180 days before the start of the program. France-Visas says to book at least a month before departure for a long stay. The two pages do not give the same outer limit, see the differences below.

    Official pages for this step

  3. File in person with the full document set

    When
    On the appointment day
    Who
    Student

    Eight items for a US citizen: the signed application form, the France-Visas receipt, an ID photo (3.5 cm by 4.5 cm, not taken by the student), the passport, the Campus France confirmation email, the pre-registration certificate, proof of accommodation and proof of funds. A passport must be valid three months after the planned return and have two facing blank visa pages plus a third.

    Funds: 877.50 euros for each month in France, left over after tuition and program fees at both universities and after travel. Accommodation: proof for the first three months, or for at least the first week with a letter explaining the plans. The checklist France-Visas generates for the student takes priority if it asks for more.

    The consulate keeps the passport while it decides.

    Official pages for this step

  4. Wait for the decision

    When
    2 to 4 weeks after the appointment
    Who
    Consulate

    The visa service of the French Consulate in Washington DC decides. There is no expedited service and the student cannot leave the country while the passport is with the consulate.

    Campus France USA gives a processing time of 2 to 4 weeks from the appointment, 3 weeks on average for a complete file. A student who is past 3 weeks writes to visas.washington-fslt@diplomatie.gouv.fr. France-Visas says passports come back by registered mail except in Washington DC.

    Official pages for this step

  5. Read the visa when the passport comes back

    When
    Before booking anything non refundable
    Who
    Student and adviser

    A VLS-TS étudiant lasts 4 months to 1 year and acts as the residence permit after online validation. A temporary long-stay visa (VLS-T) lasts more than 3 months and up to 12, replaces the card and ends with a return home. It does not allow work or benefits.

    Campus France USA says visas follow the official dates of the program, usually with a grace period of about ten days to two weeks on each side. A student who wants to arrive earlier visa-free must leave the Schengen Area and enter again once the visa has begun.

    Official pages for this step

Arrival

  1. Register with French social security

    When
    Before leaving according to ameli
    Who
    Student

    ameli tells foreign students to apply for membership on etudiant-etranger.ameli.fr before coming to France. The site asks for the French address, the proof of enrollment, a bank detail and a civil status document such as a full copy of the birth certificate.

    Campus France USA words it differently: soon after arrival and after the visa is validated. Advisers can tell students to prepare the documents before departure.

    Official pages for this step

  2. Validate the VLS-TS on the ANEF portal

    When
    Within 3 months of the date of entry
    Who
    Student
    Cost
    100 euros tax, paid on the portal

    The validation is an online step on the ANEF portal of the Interior Ministry. It is not an OFII step. The student gives an email address, the visa number, the date of entry into France, an address in France and pays by card.

    Past three months the student is no longer a legal resident and cannot re-enter the Schengen Area. A visa not validated before it ends is handled at the prefecture, says the ANEF FAQ. The portal lists the visas that do not need validation: minors, visas marked card to be applied for within two months, working holiday visas and short-stay visas.

    ANEF's own FAQ table shows 50 euros for a student. The law and Service-Public show 100. See the differences below.

    Official pages for this step

Staying on

  1. Tell students what work the visa allows

    When
    At the arrival session
    Who
    Adviser

    A student with a VLS-TS étudiant may work up to 964 hours a year without asking for a work authorization. The year starts on the day the card is issued or the VLS-TS is validated. Going over exposes the student to withdrawal or refusal to renew the permit.

    Service-Public has a separate case for a student who comes for 6 months: the work authorization must be requested and obtained before the job starts, and the hours allowed are proportional to the studies, for example 482 hours for six months. The page does not say whether a semester VLS-TS étudiant falls under that case, so a student on a short stay should ask before accepting a job.

    Official pages for this step

  2. File for the student card if the stay goes on

    When
    4 to 2 months before the visa ends
    Who
    Student
    Cost
    100 euros for a one-year card and 150 euros for a multi-year card

    A student who stays beyond the visa applies online for the student residence card between 4 months and 2 months before the visa expires. A late application adds a 180 euro regularization fee. The student shows enrollment, grades of the past year and resources of 877.50 euros a month.

    With no answer from the prefecture after 90 days the request is refused implicitly and can be contested. Campus France USA advises a student who applied for a card not to leave France before receiving it, because the receipt only keeps the status while the student is in the country.

    Official pages for this step

Where the official pages disagree

These are the points where two pages we read say different things. Each row says which page says what. Nothing here is our own estimate.

Who validates the visa after arrival

  • France-Visas The holder of a VLS-TS validates it within 3 months of arrival on the ANEF portal.
  • ANEF The portal has a page headed Valider mon VLS-TS with the list of visa mentions that must go through it.
  • Service-Public F2231 The validation is done online. The sheet does not mention OFII.
  • Campus France USA Register and validate at the ANEF address within three months of arrival.

Every official page we read names ANEF. We found no OFII step for validation, so a packet that sends students to OFII to validate does not match these pages.

The tax paid at validation

  • Service-Public F2231 100 euros for a student.
  • Légifrance Since 1 May 2026 the first issue of a card under articles L422-1 to L422-6 is taxed 100 euros, and a long-stay visa that replaces a permit carries the tax of that permit.
  • ANEF The FAQ table lists 50 euros for the mention ETUDIANT.

The law and Service-Public agree on 100 euros. The ANEF FAQ table has not caught up. A student who sees 50 euros there should still follow the amount the portal asks for.

How early the appointment can be

  • Campus France USA Not earlier than 180 days (6 months) before the start of the program.
  • France-Visas The United States page says both that applications cannot be submitted more than 6 months before departure for any visa and, a few lines further down, more than 3 months for a long stay. It advises booking at least a month ahead for a long stay.
  • Service-Public F16162 Apply no more than 3 months before the planned departure.

TLScontact's own page would settle it and we could not read it (see below). Until then the narrower limit is the safe one.

How long the consulate takes

Count four weeks. The consulate does not expedite and a student cannot travel without the passport.

When to register with social security

  • ameli Before coming to France for the studies.
  • Campus France USA Soon after arrival, once the visa is validated.

Preparing the documents before departure fits both.

For advisers

You can link this page from your France program page or hand the printed version to students. The page is kept as one set of dated steps, so a link stays correct when a rule changes: we update the step and the day we read it.

If a step differs from what your students see at the consulate, on Études en France or on ANEF, write to contact@easyfrancenow.com and name the step. We read the official page again before we change anything.

To cite the page:

EasyFranceNow, "France student visa checklist for study abroad advisers", https://easyfrancenow.com/study-abroad-france-checklist, read 28 October 2026.

What we could not settle

For each of these we tried a plain fetch, then a browser window, then a second and regular browser.

  • Whether a student is called to an OFII medical visit. OFII's own website answered with a maintenance page on 28 October 2026 by curl, in the built-in browser and in Brave, and no other official page we read mentions it for students.
  • The step-by-step pages of TLScontact for the United States. They sit behind a Cloudflare check that stopped curl, the built-in browser and Brave. The steps above rest on Campus France USA and France-Visas, who describe the same booking and filing.
  • Whether a VLS-TS étudiant valid for four to six months counts as the six-month case of Service-Public's student work page, which requires a work authorization before the job starts. The page does not say.

This page stops at the first residence permit. Housing aid, the CVEC student contribution, tuition and the Campus France admission calendar for students applying to a French university are not covered.

How this page was made

We opened every page listed above on 28 October 2026 and read it. Where a site refused a plain fetch, we read it in a browser, and each source says which. Every sentence in the steps rests on one of those pages. Rules around student visas changed three times in 2026 (the funds threshold on 1 August, the taxes on 1 May, the Études en France address on 29 September), so check the day beside a source before you rely on it. How we check facts in general is on how we verify.

Guides for students: the student visa for Americans, validating a VLS-TS and the 964-hour work rule. The arrival deadline calculator dates the three-month validation window from a student's entry. How many US students are enrolled in French higher education each year, from the ministry's open data, is on American students in France: the official numbers.