How to Get Around the 90 Day Rule in France

Ninety days sounds generous until you actually try to live within it. If France has become a serious part of your life, whether through a second home, a property search or family across the water, sooner or later the Schengen clock runs out on you. The good news: there are entirely legal ways around it.

First, a quick recap. As a visa-exempt traveller, which includes both US and UK passport holders, you can spend up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period in the Schengen area without a visa. The count covers 29 countries, partial days count in full, and since the EU’s Entry/Exit System went fully live the tally is computed automatically at the border. If any of that is news to you, start with our simple guide to the 90/180 rule, then come back here for the ways past it.

Who feels the pinch

For a two-week holiday, the rule is invisible. It starts to bite when France is more than a holiday:

• Second-home owners who want to spend the whole summer at the house, or winter somewhere warmer than Manchester or Minneapolis, and find that 90 days barely covers June to August.
• House hunters partway through a purchase. French property transactions routinely take three to four months from offer to completion, which means the clock can run out between signing the compromis and getting the keys.
• Family visitors and long-stay guests, such as grandparents who want a season with the grandchildren rather than a fortnight.
• Remote workers and semi-retired couples testing whether a life in France would actually suit them before committing to a permanent move.

For British readers there is an extra sting: before 2021 none of this applied to you, so the restriction still feels like a rule that arrived overnight. American readers have simply always lived with it. Either way, the solutions below are the same.

The real workaround: the temporary long-stay visitor visa (VLS-T)

You may have seen older articles, including an earlier version of this one, praising a “six-month short-stay visa”. That label has caused no end of confusion, so let us be precise. The instrument that actually exists is the visa de long séjour temporaire, or VLS-T “visiteur”: a temporary long-stay visa allowing a stay in France of four to six months.

Here is what it genuinely offers in 2026:

• Up to six months in France in one stretch. Crucially, time spent in France on a long-stay visa does not consume your Schengen 90/180 allowance, which is precisely why it works. Days spent in other Schengen countries during your stay still count against your 90, so a side trip to Italy uses allowance even while the visa covers France.
• Multi-entry. You can leave and re-enter France during the visa’s validity, so it suits a season built around the second home rather than one unbroken stay.
• No formalities on arrival. Unlike the full long-stay visa, the VLS-T needs no validation once you are in France. It simply runs its course, and you head home before it expires.
• A predictable timetable. You can apply up to three months before your travel date, and validity starts on the date you gave in your application, which makes planning straightforward.

Now the honest requirements, because the older accounts glossed over them:

• Health insurance is required. You will need travel medical insurance covering the full stay, including hospitalisation and repatriation. British applicants have one genuine concession here: for this particular visa, a valid GHIC is accepted as proof of cover, though many people take out a private policy on top for peace of mind. American applicants need a qualifying private policy, full stop.
• Proof of means and accommodation. Expect to show financial resources for the stay and where you will be living, whether that is your own French property or rented accommodation.
• No working. The visitor visa comes with a sworn undertaking not to carry out professional activity in France.
• An application, not a formality. It means a France-Visas online application and an appointment at a visa centre in your home country, with biometrics and supporting documents. It is thoroughly achievable, but it is paperwork, and you should apply from home well before you intend to travel.

Not sure whether this is the right visa for your circumstances? Our free visa checker will point you at the correct route in a couple of minutes.

What about the “second-home owner exemption”?

British owners of French property may remember the headlines. In December 2023, the French parliament passed an immigration law containing an amendment that would have let British second-home owners visit without a visa, effectively restoring pre-Brexit freedom for that group. In January 2024, France’s Constitutional Council struck the provision down, on procedural grounds rather than on its merits: it was judged unrelated to the rest of the bill.

Sympathetic senators and MPs have revived the idea since, and it may yet return in some form. But as of 2026, no such exemption exists in French law. If you own a home in France and hold a British passport, you are subject to the same 90/180 rule as every other non-EU visitor, and the VLS-T above is your legitimate route to a longer season. Any site telling you the waiver is in force is out of date.

If France is becoming permanent: the full long-stay route

Plenty of people take a VLS-T “trial season” and come home having quietly made the decision. If that is you, the next step is the standard long-stay visa, the VLS-TS, which covers up to a year and doubles as your first residence permit once you validate it online, paying the €300 validation tax, within three months of arrival. From there you renew in France with a carte de séjour rather than reapplying from scratch.

The requirements are a step up from the VLS-T, particularly on income and insurance, and the right category depends on your situation. Our visitor visa vs long-stay visa guide explains the fork in the road, American readers will want our US long-stay visa guide, and British readers planning retirement should read our post-Brexit UK retirement visa guide.

What is not a workaround

A final word, because the internet is full of bad ideas on this subject. Quietly staying past your 90 days is not a loophole; it is an overstay. Since the Entry/Exit System replaced passport stamps, every entry and exit is recorded digitally and an overstay is flagged automatically, with consequences ranging from refused entry next time to a Schengen-wide ban, plus a black mark against any future visa application. Nipping across a border and back does not reset anything either: the 180-day window is rolling, and it follows you. We spell out the consequences in our guide to what happens if you overstay.

The rule has real, legal ways around it. Use those.

Stay longer in France with French Connections HCB

Whether you need one glorious six-month season or a permanent move, the route past the 90 day rule starts with the right visa application, done properly, from home. Our relocation services cover visa support alongside everything else a move to France involves, and the easiest first step is to book a consultation: we will map your plans against the rules and tell you honestly which route fits.

We look forward to talking to you.