France’s Working Holiday Visa for Australians
If you’re an Australian aged between 18 and 35 years old, you could be eligible for a French working holiday visa!
This visa lets you live in France for up to a year and work in the country to help fund your stay. Studying that is “incidental to the holiday” (such as taking some French language courses) is also permitted.
This page contains information about the French working holiday (young traveller) visa for Australian citizens. It was last updated on 3 January 2025.
Key facts about France
- Population: Approx. 68 million
- Official language: French (“français” in French)
- Capital city: Paris
- Largest cities: Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice
- Currency: Euro
France Working Holiday Visa requirements for Australians
France offers Working Holiday visas to citizens of Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Taiwan & Uruguay. See the France Visas website for more information.
This information is only applicable to Australian citizens. Please note that while the maximum age to apply for this visa is 35 for Australians, Argentinians & Canadians, the maximum age for other nationalities is 30.
To apply for a France working holiday visa as an Australian citizen, you must meet the following requirements:
- Aged between 18-35 years old (inclusive) at the time of application
- Have a return plane ticket from your country of residence to France (or an affidavit promising you will leave France before your visa expires)
- Have enough funds to support yourself during the initial period of your stay (as a rough guide, you should have at least AUD5,000 in savings)
You cannot apply for this visa if you:
- Are accompanied by dependent children
- Have already held a French working holiday visa
The official France Visas website contains limited information about this visa. But this PDF document from the French embassy in Australia contains some more information about the French working holiday visa agreement with Australia that may also be useful, including the prerequisites and rights that come with the visa.
You can also read the terms of the reciprocal agreement between Australia and France (in French) on the French government’s website.
The French government advises applicants to contact VFS Global if they have questions. The Consulate General specifically states that they do not provide information about visa procedures, required documents, visa appointments or processing times.
Documents needed to apply for this visa
When applying for a Working Holiday Visa for France as an Australian citizen, the France-Visas website says you will need to provide the following documents:
- Long stay visa application form
- A valid passport with at least two blank pages and that will be valid for at least 3 months after the end of your intended stay in France (you need to scan all passport pages which are not blank)
- Two recent passport-sized photographs (ICAO standard)
- Proof of a return flight booking to/from France, or an affidavit confirming that you will leave France before your visa expires
- Adequate travel insurance covering (at a minimum) medical, hospital and repatriation costs for the entire stay in France
- Proof of sufficient funds to support yourself during the initial period of stay in France (e.g. a bank statement showing that you have had at least AUD5,000 in your account for the past 3 months)
- Proof of initial accommodation (e.g. a hostel booking/offer of free accommodation for when you arrive in France)
Please note that this information is subject to change. When you start your visa application, a full list of up-to-date document requirements will be provided to you. If you have recently applied for this visa and the required documents were different to those on this list, please let us know in the comments below!
The French working holiday visa is classified as a long-stay visa, which has a fee of €99 (approx. AUD163). There may also be fees payable to VFS Global (approx. €40-75, or AUD65-123).
How to apply for a French Working Holiday Visa in Australia
You can apply for a Working Holiday Visa between 3 months and 15 days before your intended arrival date in France. (Note that it is not possible to apply more than three months in advance.)
You can no longer apply for this visa directly with the French Consulate General in Sydney. Since January 2021, French visa applications in Australia must be submitted to VFS Global. You’ll need to visit a VFS Global office to provide the required documentation and provide biometrics, but the French consulate is still responsible for processing visas.
Start your visa application on the France-Visas website. Once you’ve submitted the application form, you can make an appointment to attend a VFS Global visa application centre to provide biometrics (fingerprints & photo taken) and pay the applicable fees.
VFS Global offices are available in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, however the Adelaide office is temporarily not processing French visas.
If you’re having trouble finding an appointment on the VFS Global website, keep checking regularly as new appointments are released. You could also try clearing your cache or using an incognito window in Google Chrome to access the appointments page.
Once your visa is processed, you can return to the VFS Global office to collect your passport. Or if you provided a prepaid envelope/paid an additional fee, it will be mailed to you.
Visit the VFS Global website for more information.
We recommend that you begin your visa application and make an appointment well in advance. According to the French consulate, the average visa processing time is 15 days. It could take longer in some cases.
Applying outside of Australia
According to the France-Visas website:
Nationals of countries that have signed a “Vacances-travail” (Working holiday) agreement with France must file their application with the competent visa center in their country or territory of nationality, with the exception of Australian, Canadian and Colombian nationals residing abroad who may file their visa application with the competent French consular service in their country of residence.
If you would prefer not to apply for a French working holiday visa in Australia, you can apply from another country where you are legally residing. However, you cannot apply while already in France. You also cannot apply in another country where you are simply visiting as a tourist.
It would generally be easier for most Australians to apply from within Australia. French embassies/visa centres in other countries may be less familiar with this type of visa. But if you can’t or don’t want to apply in Australia, check the Visa Wizard on the France-Visas website for a list of visa application centres in the country where you want to apply.
In your Visa Wizard search, select:
- The “place of submission of application” as the country where you want to apply from,
- Your visa type as “Long-stay (>90 days)”,
- Your plans as “Other”, and
- Main purpose of stay as “Working holiday”.
Arriving in France
After arriving in France, you would normally need to validate a VLS-TS long-stay visa within 3 months on the French interior ministry website.
However, there is an exception for working holiday visa holders. If you have a “vacances travail” (working holiday) visa, you do not need to validate this after arrival. (The exceptions are listed in French only on this webpage.)
After arriving, to connect with other Australians living in France, you may wish to join the “Aussies In France” Facebook group.
Working in France
After being issued with a working holiday visa, arriving in France and validating the visa (as per above), you’ll automatically receive authorisation to work in the country. There were some issues with this affecting Australian citizens from late 2022 until May 2023, but this situation has been resolved.
While best efforts are made to keep this information updated, we do not guarantee its accuracy.
If you spot an error, would like to suggest new information to be added or simply have a question, please let us know in the comments and we’ll endeavour to respond or update the article as quickly as possible!
Before asking a question, please read through the previous comments to check if your query has already been answered.
Hi Matt,
I just got to France on a WHV and have ‘vacances travail’ on my visa. I am still a bit confused if I need to validate it on the France long stay visa website? Or I don’t have to as I am on a working holiday? Just confirming.
Cheers
Kayla
Hi Kalya, this is covered in the guide: “If you have a “vacances travail” (working holiday) visa, you do not need to validate this after arrival.”
Hi!
Bit of a situation atm and looking into options..I have just done a WHV for Hungary (in Hungary, since they only just opened applications for the year and it was my plan to use the time in Hungary to give me more time to arrange things and better french comprehension before moving to Framce) however they just only afterwards mentioned it could take 3 months for a decision. I am looking into the French WHV instead if they are taking this long. However you mention here we can only apply from places not in Aus whilst a resident, if we aren’t a resident anywhere atm (as my last WHV finished during the time Hungary wasn’t open for applications) there is no other way to apply unless going back to Aus? Could it be possible to explain the unusual circumstances at a French Embassy overseas and hope?
I can’t give you personal advice on this – you may wish to contact the French embassy in Hungary (or wherever you wish to apply from) and ask them directly.
The French government does say you need to be legally residing in the place where you’re applying from, so if you’re not currently a resident in Hungary, you might consider returning to Australia to apply for a French visa from there. Alternatively, you could wait out the time for Hungary to process your visa application (either in Hungary if you have enough Schengen days left, or perhaps elsewhere such as the UK) and then apply from Hungary once that visa comes through.
Hey guys just got a question
My travel insurance is unlimited for hospital and medical expenses but only covers 15000$ for repatriation expenses will that be enough cover to get my visa approved? Thanks
Many of the other European countries insist that you need to have at least €30,000 (approx. AUD50,000) worth of coverage for repatriation expenses. I’m not 100% sure about France, but I can’t see any specific reference to this amount on the official info provided by the French government or VFS Global regarding travel insurance, so you might be OK. The main thing is that the insurance needs to be valid for an entire year from when you travel to France.
Hi can you tell me if this was okay during your visa interview ?
Hi everyone
Just wanted people to know that I applied at the Frankfurt German embassy for my WHV and it got approved within 4 days of applying. The lady asked me if I was under 30 when I went there and I said yes. I also said that I was an Australian and had been staying between France and Germany (so had an address in Germany I could use if necessary)- not sure if this made a difference but given that Australians can say there for ongoing 90day periods in Germany (without a visa or working in the country) it seemed to give some baring that I was almost residing in Germany.
Not promise that it will definitely work but the lady at the consulate (red brown hair) was very nice and helpful!
Good luck!
Great to know, thanks for sharing your experience Bella 🙂
Thanks everyone for the tips!
I’ve been able to secure an appointment at VFS in Sydney (I’m based in Melbourne however). In my original application on the official France-Visas site, I selected Melbourne as the ‘City of Application Submission’.
This doesn’t appear on the hardcopy visa application itself, but I’m wondering if it will matter? Or should I delete my current application and create a new one with Sydney as the ‘City of Application Submission’.
I don’t know the answer to this, sorry. But I think you’ll probably be OK. Good luck!
Hi Matt,
My partner and I are Australian (21 and 22 yo) and looking to travel with friends before hoping to live and work/volunteer in Spain later this year for a period of around 3-6 months. However, we may need to apply for a different working holiday visa such as France or Germany, due to the language and education criteria for the Spanish visa, so that we may extend our stay in Europe past the 90 day Schengen rule.
We are concerned that if we were to follow through with this plan, that we would not be able to work in Spain as we would not hold a valid Spanish working visa. However, an alternative may be to instead volunteer in exchange for accommodation & meals using Worldpackers. Do you think this is a risky approach if we decide to take the train from country to country within the Schengen region?
The main thing to keep in mind is that you only have the right to live and work in the country that issued your visa. If you have a working holiday visa from France or Germany, that doesn’t give you the right to work (including volunteering) in Spain. You can however visit Spain as a tourist while you’re in Europe (just as you could as an Australian for up to 90/180 days without a visa).
You may also find this article useful: https://workingholiday.au/europe-working-holiday-visa/
Hi! Would I be able to intern during this time as a part of work? Or do I need a specific student visa. My university can offer an internship agreement.
If the internship is a job placement, the working holiday visa allows you to work in France, so I don’t personally see an issue with this. But you should check with the French authorities if in doubt.
Hey there,
I have my WGV interview next Wednesday and just need to know if i need to provide a medical certificate and Police check ?
Getting conflicting views, websites say yes, comments on this page say no…
Would love to get some clarity.
Cheers!
I would use this as a guide: https://workingholiday.au/france-working-holiday-visa/#comment-13170
As far as I’m aware, Aussies are not currently required to show a medical certificate or police check. But VFS Global and/or the French embassy would have the final say on that.
Hello,
Like most people on here, I found this article while looking for more information as the current information can be unclear or sometimes contradict itself. I applied for a French WHV in August 2024 and here is what I had to do.
I booked an appointment at the VFS Sydney office. It will display the next, soonest available appointment when you first search, if this one does not suit your timetable, continue with the process and it will allow you to select available appointments in the future as well. When I was booking there were quite a few appointments available a month in advance.
You will need to complete the visa application form. I found the questions quite awkward when translated into english but this step is not hard and even with little knowledge of french you should be fine. You you will need to complete this and bring it to the VFS appointment.
What I had to being to the appointment:
– VFS appointment confirmation
– Completed visa application form
– Proof of airline ticket entering France
– 3 bank statements proving I had more than 5,000 AUD in my bank account (the form asks for complete bank statements. However, I submitted just the first pages of the statements which showed my personal details and the opening and closing balances)
– Proof of insurance for the complete 12 months of my stay (I went with Freely as they had a 21 day cool off, in case the visa is not approved, and it was cheap and flexible)
– a recent passport sized photo of you (mine was over 3 months old and was not accepted but they are able to take new ones during your appointment for a fee – approx. $17)
– I also submitted an attestation from a family friend who had offered to host me during my stay. This was not at all requested but I had read previously that people had been asked for proof of accommodation
I did not have a return ticket out of France but was supplied with an attestation to sign stating that I intend to leave France once my visa runs out. They have these available during the appointment and will witness you signing it.
If you are an Australian citizen, you do not need to submit a medical certificate or criminal history check. I checked with VFS and the consulate prior to my appointment, both confirming it is not needed if you are an Australian passport holder. These were not requested of me at the appointment either.
During the appointment, the clerk will go through your documentation and application, ensuring all the correct paperwork is supplied and appropriate. This is largely an administrative process rather than an interview or anything else. Here they will check on your supplied photos and other documents. If there are any changes that need to be made on your visa application, they are able to do this on the spot and print out a new one.
Once the documents have been checked off and you sign the declaration, you will then be asked to wait to get your biometric information recorded. This again is just administrative where they will scan your fingerprints and take photos for your visa.
Once the biometrics have been recorded, you will receive a bunch of receipts for lodging the documents and biometrics, and you will be asked to pay the lodgement fee plus any additional services used at the appointment (new photos taken, printing extra documents, express postage for the passports return, etc.).
After that, it is complete and you just need to wait for approval. I received my passport back 13 days after the appointment. I had paid extra for the VFS offices to notify me of the visa approval and postage of my passport however, I never received any information and still haven’t 2 weeks later. My recommendation would be to take a picture of the tracking number on the postage envelope during your appointment and periodically check that around 10 days after your appointment to see if it has been posted yet.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I’m sure lots of other people will find this information useful! 🙂
Hey Matt,
If submitting the documents to a French consulate outside of Australia, do they hold on to your passport during the process or do they just look at it on the day of submission and hold onto the scans?
Cheers mate.
Yes, they hold onto your passport while the visa is getting processed. Some of the other comments in this comment thread have more details about the process.
Ive gotten myself an appointment for the start of November my only problem is I have a job that starts the 29th Im just wondering what processing times are like and if anyones been able to change an appointment if ones become available?
Hey Otto,
You are able to change appointments if an earlier one becomes available. You will need to manually check the portal for available appointments, ie if someone cancels theirs. Booking a new one and then cancelling yours after a new one is secured.
Processing times are 15 days from lodgement, when I went they would not promise any sooner than that. However, they did mention that visas are processed in order of leaving date so they may process yours faster if you are already close to your departure date.
Hi, I have my interview with VFS in a week for a French WHV and have booked Southern Cross one year insurance. I have added multiple countries – should I ask Southern Cross for this to be amended as I have read it should say for just France only. Additionally, my travel insurance begins the day I fly out from Sydney (14th Jan), while my date of entry to France is 15th Jan, will this be fine?
Lastly, I am starting to get worried about repatriation costs. My medical and evacuation benefit is unlimited, however, under the sublimit, my repatriation benefit is $5,000 per person, is this something I can be denied for? The funeral expenses or return of mortal remains are $50,000 per person on the other hand. I am considering changing to Freely for this reason.
Additionally, if I were to purchase Freely, I would have to put France as my country I assume, but after my interview, can I change the cover to all of Europe – or could I buy the travel insurance for my interview showing my cover to be Europe
Hi Emily,
Sorry that it’s taken so long for me to reply. I realise that you’ve probably already had your interview by now and I hope it went well.
Just in case other people are reading this in the future, I don’t think it would be a problem that your travel insurance also covers you in countries other than France. It’s normal that you arrive in your destination country on a date that’s later than when you leave Australia, and you’re also free to travel in & out of France during the year. It would be impractical to not let you get an insurance policy that does not provide coverage in any other countries.
The minimum coverage for medical, evacuation and repatriation costs is likely to be important, though. In general, for Schengen visas, you need at least €30,000 (or AUD equivalent) coverage for each of these items. Having AUD50,000 of coverage for return of mortal remains meets this requirement. If the maximum coverage for evacuation costs was only AUD5,000 that would be a problem. HOWEVER, I just checked the PDS for the Southern Cross Travel Insurance working overseas policy, and this provides unlimited coverage for evacuation costs. The “repatriation benefit” is something different and is not required for your visa.
In other words, you should be fine. 🙂
Please see our guide to working holiday travel insurance for more details: https://workingholiday.au/travel-insurance/
Hi there,
Thank you so much for this useful information.
I’m a NZ/Australian dual citizen residing in Australia for the past ten years. I have a current NZ passport but not an Australian one, as it hasn’t been necessary. Do I need to have an Australian passport in order to apply for the WHV as an Australian citizen? Or can I apply using my NZ one?
Thank you so much,
Chloe
France also has a working holiday visa with New Zealand, so it is possible for you to apply with your New Zealand passport instead. You can read more info about the agreement between France and New Zealand here: https://nz.ambafrance.org/Working-holidays-visas
Hi Matt,
Do you know if it’s possible to register for a French Tax File Number on the working holiday visa? And if not, how employment and tax requirments may be managed without one?
Thanks.
If you are working in France and/or have an obligation to pay tax in France, then yes, you should be issued with a tax file number (SPI).
You do also need to get a social security number, according to this document from the French embassy: https://au.ambafrance.org/IMG/pdf/fiche_information_pvt-_cej_-anglais.pdf?11002/75b64c03392591ac481f0e8c50233510e1524fdc
I would just like to write this here if anyone else is curious about working in France. I’ve read online that you can only work “part time” or for a certain period of time with on employer. This is not true. I am currently here as an Australian on a Working Holiday Visa in Paris and now have a full 39 hour CDI contract. I also know other people who have done this too and worked in Paris for their entire working holiday visa on a CDI contract.
Hi Matt,
I was on French working holiday visa for a year that expired on January 14. I left the schengen area on January 13. I have been in Asia since then and plan on going back for some traveling on March 10. Just double checking that my stay during the working holiday in France doesn’t count towards my 90/180 day visa free rule? I can still enter visa free for 90 days right? The research seems to say so but just checking.
This is not official advice, but my understanding is that you can re-enter the Schengen Area as a tourist. However, it would be a good idea to have a copy/photo of your French working holiday visa or ID card, just in case you need to prove that you had a visa covering your previous trip.
Hi All,
This page has been a great resource for me as I had a really specific situation and wasn’t finding answers anywhere. Even the consulate haven’t been great. I have been in France on a tourist 90-day stay, then a student visa for six months, and then I wanted to get a WHV to stay even longer, as I have been enjoying learning the language, have friends in Paris and also am living in a great place that I don’t want to give up. As I was already in France, I didn’t want to go back to Australia to apply for my WHV, and luckily I am a dual Brit with a UK passport, so I booked an appointment at the London TLS Contact for my appointment, as I maintain an address with extended family in the UK and technically live there (have been back and forth a bit while in France, don’t really live in Australia anymore, you have to declare all this if you’re an Australian who wants to apply in London). I got all the usual documents described in other comments here together, then attended the appointment.
It was a bit disorganised and took a long time. They told me I couldn’t apply for a WHV and asked me to leave at one point because I am 33, and they thought the cut off was 30, and I had to pull up the France-Visas website and argue with them. They brought out their own rule book and pointed to a highlighted section stating Australians over 30 were ineligible for a WHV. I stood my ground (because I had done my research!). They eventually called the consulate which took two hours, and then apologised and agreed I was indeed able to apply(!). Then everything was smoothly, but a week later my application was refused as I didn’t attach all the info for my medical insurance. I was running out of time on my Student Visa at this point, and going back and forth etc. from Paris to London is tiring and expensive, and so I decided to just go into overdrive on my next application so it would for sure get approved. Here’s what I organised and submitted:
– Health Insurance with Globelink International, including certificate of purchase with addendum of repatriation back to Australia, and full policy document with highlighting on these relevant sections. The health insurance was annoying, as I had to declare in my cover letter to TLS that I lived in the UK to apply in London, therefore was automatically disqualified from the normal Australian insurance providers listed everywhere, and I couldn’t apply for British citizen medical insurance because it didn’t cover repatriation back to Australia. This was days of research and frustration, but then I found Globelink International, who have a specific plan for Aussies living in the UK, so it worked out, but is about double the price of other plans in Australia I had been looking at.
– Police checks for UK and Australia (not necessary BUT as I said, I had such a negative experience the first application that I just wanted this application to go through smoothly) in my first appointment the agent asked for bank and criminal records from both countries, and was sceptical when I only had them for Australia UGH I think they make these mistakes because they don’t often process WHVs for Aussies and so are unaware of the rules?
– Medical check stating I was fit for work from my French doctor (in French)
– Official bank statements from the past three months for UK and Australia and France, totalling about $10kAUD. I also attached a screenshot with the exchange/conversions and a special cover letter just for my finances detailing what I had, how much the exchange was, etc.
– Tickets to AND from France, the leaving ticket was a month before my visa was due to end in 2026. I needed both as I wanted to change the entry date I had originally put on my application form (they can change most stuff on application forms, just not pport number, name, nationality, visa type, all the essential stuff, but do check this if you find you’ve made a mistake somewhere).
– An affidavit stating I would leave France before my WHV end date from a lawyer in London I booked the morning before the appointment and got in about 20 minutes. This was 96 pounds, and I got it because I really had not enough tying me to returning to the UK, beyond stating I lived with family in my cover letter, and that I wanted to return to the UK to resume my career. I was worried I might get rejected because they might see how much I’d been staying in France and think I was going to overstay my visa. I didn’t give them the original affadavit, but I should have I think? Anyway, they accepted a photocopy.
– A letter from the girl I’m subletting from with no specific framework from anywhere, just saying she was going to let me stay for free until my visa end date. She also gave me a copy of her passport, her lease and an electricity bill. This is all necessary if you’re going to stay with someone for a bit.
– I was worried they wouldn’t accept this, so I also booked 10 days in a hotel in Paris, flexible, refundable. Attached the booking confirmation stating it was paid for.
– Copies of both my passports and all entry/exit stamps in them.
– Everything printed in colour except the letters.
– ID photos (I realised they were from my student visa application five months before, really should have submitted new ones but in the end it was fine)
– VFS appointment confirmation
– Completed visa application form
– A rigorous but short cover letter explaining what each document was, and outlining I did intend to leave France before my visa end date.
My second application was accepted which was a massive relief. I picked up my visa yesterday. TLS contact are basically incompetent and I will leave them really honest feedback on this. They have massively outdated regulation books (Australians over 30 and up to 35 have been allowed to apply for a WHV since 2018, so for SIX YEARS) and their employees each time took and rejected different documents, so it wasn’t consistent. I just did my research, overprepared like crazy, then was slightly less stressed the morning of the appointment. Luckily, they have lots of appointments at the moment, but quotas for WHVs are usually reached between Aus/France by the second half of the year, so anyone thinking of applying should do so in the first half of the year if possible.
Good luck to everyone trying to do anything with TLS anywhere in the UK. I have found them unnecessarily rude, incompetent and inconsistent.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us! I’m sure this will be useful to other people who want to apply for a French working holiday visa from the UK in the future. 🙂
Enjoy the rest of your time in France!
Hi Matt,
When you show proof of funds, is there a minimum amount you need to show that you have in each month of the three months or do you just need the AUD5,000 in savings by the time you apply?
I’ll have well over the AUD5,000 in savings when I come to apply but, I may not have AUD5,000 in savings each month up to that in the 3 month window.
Hi Lyndon, the exact wording on the France-Visas website is that you need “Detailed transactions list for the last three months and featuring a minimum balance of 5 000 AUD.”
Whether this means you need to have had at least AUD5,000 in the account for three consecutive months is open to interpretation, and I unfortunately can’t predict how VFS/the French government will read this. It seems that if you have at least $5k in the account now, show the full transaction list from the past 3 months, and didn’t add/remove large amounts over that period, it might be OK. To be safe though, I would want to show that I had $5k for the whole 3-month period.
Please let us know how you go!
Hi Matt,
I am applying for a French working VISA and this post has been super helpful! I just have a few questions.
How in the world do I select the working holiday option when applying on the French government website? I know you had screen-shots but when doing it I can’t seem to find the option anywhere.
If I am planning to stay with friends, what do I need to provide as proof of accommodation?
Do I need to provide proof of a return flight? I haven’t booked that yet.
If I apply and happen to be rejected, can I/when can I re-apply?
Thank you in advance! Once again this post has been more helpful than most info I could find on the internet so thank you!
Hi Claire,
Glad you’ve found this post and the comments helpful! Hope your working holiday goes well. To answer your questions:
I haven’t looked at the visa application website lately, but you used to have to select “Other” and then “Working Holiday” from that list.
If you’re staying with friends, I think a letter from your friends stating the address and that they will accommodate you *should* be OK (but I’m not 100% sure).
If you don’t yet have a return flight booked (departing from France), you should show that you have enough money to book one and sign an affidavit stating that you will leave France before your visa expires.
If you are rejected (or VFS won’t process your application because you don’t all have the right documents), I think you can re-apply whenever you can get another appointment.
Salut.
I am planning on travelling in Europe and the schengen zone before getting to Frace for a few weeks. On the visa application form for the question “Intended date of entry into France or the Schengen Area” I put the date I plan to get into France. Shoud I change it to the day I enter the Schengen area or leave it for the date I get into France?
Thanks in advance!
I can’t give you a definitive answer on this because I’m not sure what the intention of the question is. But I think it’s OK for you to spend a few weeks in other Schengen countries before you arrive in France, so I would probably leave the application as is.
For confirmation, you might want to contact VFS Global’s French visa department or the French embassy.
Hi Matt and community,
Thank you for all your help as always. In a month my French Working Holiday visa will run out.
I can’t seem to find a clear answer (please feel free to link me to an existing comment if I’ve missed it), re whether I need to leave the EU/Schengen region to then commence my 3 month Schengen tourist visa. The French immigration office told me to contact the regional province? Strange. They did actually respond but I can’t make heads or tails of their answer:
“Australia is on the list of third countries whose nationals are exempt from the visa requirement when crossing the external borders of member states for stays not exceeding 90 days in any 180-day period.”
I’ve asked for clarification, but in the meantime if anyone has any insights, that would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Holly,
Yeah, I’m unfortunately not surprised by the unhelpful responses you’ve received from the French authorities. 🙁
To the best of my understanding, you will need to leave the Schengen Area before your working holiday visa expires and remain out of the Schengen Area for at least 24 hours.
After you return to the Schengen Area, you can then stay 90/180 days as a regular tourist. Obviously you won’t have the right to work, etc., once your WHV expires.