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Student Procedures
by David Applefield
A student falls into a slightly different category than a foreigner coming to work or reside in France.
Non-EU (European Union) students can be in France on either short or long term basis, and the visa they solicit reflects the length of their stay. Students who are nationals of one of the EU countries (with the exception of Spain and Portugal) do not require student visas, but must still follow French requirements to obtain the temporary resident permit or carte de séjour.
Nationals from Andorra and Switzerland fall under the requirements for EU nationals. Spanish and Portuguese students must first solicit a student visa in their home countries and then obtain the carte de séjour. If you hold non EU passports but you have parents or grandparents who were born in an EU country, you might qualify for a passport from that country. Cases of this are known concerning Ireland, Italy, France and Portugal. Then your legal presence in France is virtually assured.
EU students as well as Andorran, Austrian, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, and Swiss nationals do not need a visa in their passports, but ALL students except French nationals need a carte de séjour.
Most students who are planning to pursue university-level studies in France are required to obtain a student visa (not a tourist visa) before leaving their country of residence. Visas are a strict requirement of French law and may be issued to you only in your country of residence. The French police refuse to "normalize" students who enter France without visas. Once you have arrived in Paris, your university may assist you in completing the necessary formalities which allow you to reside legally in France, although with immigration laws tightening up even sympathetic university administrators may not be able to help. It is not possible to obtain a visa after arriving in France.
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