According to the Conseil d’Etat, the applicant for a French long-stay visa « visiteur » has to prove that he needs to settle permanently in France

Any non-French national living abroad can apply for a French long-stay visa bearing the mention « visiteur » provided he complies with certain conditions :

• Having purchased a medical insurance in France
• Promising not to work in France (i.e. for a French employer)
• Having sufficient financial means to live in France

This category of visas entails a huge variety of situations, from a couple of pensioners to young freelance workers wishing to do remote working in France, foreign priests who, legally, do not work in France in regards to labor law, or even the partner of a French citizen who does not yet fill the conditions for obtaining a family visa.

But there is a crucial distinction to make in terms of procedure. On the one hand for applicants living in France who apply for a French residence card « visiteur », the prefectures retain a rather limited margin of appreciation, and have to take favorable decisions if the applicant meets the aforementioned conditions set out in article L. 426-20 of the French immigration code (ceseda).

On the other hand for applicants living abroad who apply for a visa « visiteur » at the local French consulate, there are no such regulations and the consulate is free to take into account a wide variety of circumstances.

As indicated by the Conseil d’Etat, « the French authorities, when presented with such a request, have broad discretionary powers, (…) and may base their decision not only on grounds of public order, such as misuse of a visa, but also on any consideration of general interest.« 

In this case, an Algerian national applied for a visa « visiteur » in Algeria but failed to provide sufficient explanation as to why he had to immigrate to France. Before French judges he argued that he had family members in France he wanted to visit. To which the Conseil d’Etat replied that he was already the holder of a short-term visa allowing him to enter the Schengen area for up to 90 days at a time, and that therefore he could already visit his family whenever he wanted without having to immigrate permanently.

The Conseil d’Etat is France’s highest administrative court, and its decisions should always be kept in mind.

Therefore, even if French consulates tend to have varying practices from one country to the other, applicants for a visa « visiteur » should always be careful to fully explain the details and context of their project of immigration by answering the following questions : Why ? Why France ? Why now ?

CE 07 novembre 2022 n°449990, publié au Lebon