Getting a French Visa the Long Way Round

We introduce you to Jack Brown, who had every reason to celebrate as he and his French wife Chantal marked their first Thanksgiving in France. His route to a French visa ran through three countries, one uncooperative website and a visa desk in London that turned out to want far less paperwork than he had brought.

A house in France and a house to sell

Jack and Chantal had bought a house in France with the intention of moving back to Chantal’s homeland after years of living in the United States. Chantal, being French, needed no visa of any kind, so she moved over in January to settle in and oversee some renovations ahead of Jack’s arrival. Jack stayed behind to sell their house in New Mexico and apply for his visa.

That is where it all started to go wrong.

“We had a problem with selling our house, so I came over to France under the 90/180 visitor scheme to help install us in our new home, then headed back to the States to sell our American house and apply for my visa. Following the rules, I applied for a visa from within the USA, but straight away I encountered a technical difficulty. When I tried to arrange the obligatory meeting online, it just simply said ‘Your mobile phone is not recognised’.”

“Your mobile phone is not recognised”

After several frustrating attempts, Jack contacted technical support at the visa centre.

“Frankly, they were not very helpful at all! They said it was my problem, must be my browser, it’s this, it’s that, anything but the actual issue. I explained that it seemed to be the mobile that was causing the problem and could they please check from their end. They said no.”

Jack can laugh about it now, but he remembers how it felt at the time. “I told them, that’s what we call a Catch 22 in the USA. I can’t check it, you can’t check it, you won’t let me make an appointment for the visa, so what do I do?”

Their advice was for Jack to start his application again.

“I pointed out that if there was a problem with my mobile phone not being recognised, it still wasn’t going to work. They assured me it would be fine, and of course it wasn’t. Within minutes I had the exact same problem.”

The rule that opened a second door

Back in France, Chantal was frustrated enough to look for expert help, and she contacted our founder Richard.

“We had a chat with Richard who, on hearing that I am a British passport holder, suggested that I could make an application for a French visa through the United Kingdom.”

This was not a loophole. France-Visas, the official portal, requires you to apply through the French consulate (or its appointed visa centre) in the country where you legally reside, which need not be the country of your passport. Jack had applied from the United States because that was where he lived. As a British citizen he was free to live in the UK, and once the New Mexico house was sold and he had moved in with his adult children there, the UK was his country of residence and the consulate in London the correct place to apply. Nothing about the application changed except the queue he was standing in. Our guide to the French long-stay visa from the USA sets out the standard route most American movers follow.

A stroke of luck in New Mexico

Around that time, Jack’s luck turned on the house.

“The housing market was plummeting in many US cities with a few exceptions, one of them being the city where we lived… The realtor placed our home on the market for more than the average price and we actually got $14k more than we asked for. So all the things that went wrong technically eventually worked in our favour. We can laugh now but at the time it was quite stressful, obviously.”

The appointment in London

With the house sold, Jack joined his adult children in the UK and made his application with the help of Juliette from our visa team.

“Juliette at French Connections HCB was magnificent,” says Jack. “She helped me through all the documentation and put the application in. Lo and behold, I got an appointment date! My daughter offered to come with me to that appointment. I was nervous, but Juliette and Richard were very reassuring. On the appointment day, my daughter and I headed with some anxiety from Southampton to London and arrived about an hour early. We went straight into the visa centre and were registered, pleasantly and quickly. We got passed through to the French visa desk and we could see my number on the monitor. Expecting a long wait, we watched it rise up the list but within 15 minutes or so it was our turn!”

“Well, we don’t need all that”

Things did not turn out quite as Jack expected.

“I was applying for a one year visa, so I arrived at the visa desk with a tonne of paperwork, bank statements, the works. The agent took one look and said, ‘Are you trying to join your wife?’ I said yes, I had been trying to do that for some considerable time! She simply handed the paperwork back to me and said, ‘Well, we don’t need all that.’ She asked me for a copy of Chantal’s passport, which I had, and a certificate of marriage, then she said, ‘That’s it, Mr Brown.’ I couldn’t believe my ears! I asked about the rest of the paperwork but she said that her advice was not to complicate my application and that she was absolutely sure the documents she had were all that she needed.”

The agent was right. Jack had prepared the dossier for a one-year visitor-style visa, but as the husband of a French citizen he was entitled to a different long-stay visa altogether, the one for the spouse of a French national, which is assessed on the marriage itself: proof that you are married, that your spouse is French and that you live together as a couple, rather than on bank statements or income.

From there, Jack headed to the biometrics desk to have his photo and fingerprints taken.

“The first thing the biometrics guy said was, ‘I believe there’s paperwork missing’ and I thought, ‘Here we go again’! But he went back to the visa agent to double check.”

The next thing Jack knew, there was quite a crowd around him. The biometrics officer, the agent he had spoken to and one of her colleagues were all reassuring him that they had everything they needed and he could relax. For the first time in many months, Jack did just that.

A Champagne Kir lunch

“We got the biometrics done and left the building before our actual appointment time! 7 days later we got the message that everything was fine and I could pick up my passport. I took my daughter for a Champagne Kir lunch to celebrate!”

Jack is quick to thank the team for the advice and support he received.

“When we met Richard, we felt fortunate that we found somebody who had serious experience in overcoming some of the difficulties we were facing, because it’s not an easy process. Juliette was an enormous help too. She is a very thorough and detailed person. I have a contract with French Connections HCB team to help us with French administration moving forward. I would certainly recommend them to other people.”

What has changed since

The rule at the heart of Jack’s story has not moved: you still apply in the country where you legally live, and the spouse of a French citizen still has a long-stay visa route of their own. The border has changed. The EU’s Entry/Exit System, phased in from 12 October 2025 and fully operational since 10 April 2026, replaced passport stamps with an electronic record, so the visitor days Jack used while helping Chantal settle in would now be counted automatically under the 90/180 rule.

Planning your own move to France

If you are joining a French spouse, moving as a family or simply not sure which visa applies to you, our free visa route checker is a good first step, and our team can then handle the application from documents to appointment. To talk through your own situation, book a consultation. We would be glad to help you find the shortest way round.