Renewing A Titre de Séjour in 2022
Update January 2022: The system to renew a Titre de Séjour has become incredibly simplified. This year, for certain French visas such as a tourist visa and student visas, all of the paperwork can be uploaded. This saves time, making copies, and trying to get an appointment at the Prefecture de Police.
Wow. How incredibly easy compared to 2021.
Here is the link at the Ministère de l’Interieur to renew your Titre de Séjour in 2022. You’ll still need to have much of the paperwork mentioned below. Be sure to combine PDF’s into one file, as there is a maximum of 4 documents allowed per section of the application.
Bonne chance!
The Decision To Apply For A Titre de Séjour in 2021
A titre de séjour wasn’t really on my radar. But once you have lived in Paris for a while and France is under your skin, you have to make a decision.
Should I stay or should I go?
It never occurred to me I would stay. In fact, I had already mailed home three boxes of spring and summer clothes in September 2020.
But sometime in that same month, the part in my heart that knew I needed to stay longer stood up to get noticed.
And thus began the process to apply for a Titre de Séjour, France.
Are You Ready To Apply For A Titre de Séjour?
- make sure your current visa is validated
- make an appointment at the Prefecture de Police via the Ministère de l’Interieur -Etrangers en France. You will already have an account here if you are living on a visa in France.
The thing was…unbeknownst to me, I hadn’t fully finished validating my first visa, the long-stay visa. Somehow with Covid-19, I had missed the memo about the mandatory health checkup.
Read more: How to Validate Your Long-Stay Visa in France
And just because one is in a hurry… does not mean that the French bureaucracy responds any faster.
I made my appointment for a Titre de Séjour but there was a gap in dates between the first available appointment and the expiration of my current visa. This is where the récépissé-intercalaire comes in.
A récépissé-intercalaire is a temporary visa. The récépissé for your France visa allows you to stay in the country (and the EU) after your current visa expires. It will tide you over until the meeting date to apply for your Titre de Séjour at the Préfecture de la Police.
Read More: Getting A Recepisse For Your French Visa
Getting Ready For The Appointment
Please note: I am recounting my personal experience and am not an immigration expert.
Once you get your appointment for your Titre de Séjour, it is time to start collecting your paperwork and getting certain important documents translated into French. There is a list provided outlining what is needed “Liste de Pièces Justificatives Pour La Délivrance D’Un Titre De Séjour”
What You Need
- black pen
- Titre de Séjour Demandé: this is the application form. Fill it out in a black pen. I was prepared with this but there is a flip side that needs to be filled in which I could not find anywhere online. I was happy to have the form with me so that I could copy the info and then fill in the back while there
- Convocation: this is your summons with your date and time. Bring at least two copies. You will need to show it to get in the door.
- Passport Photos: 3 recent ones
- Copy of Passport, Long-Stay Visa and Récépissé
- Proof of Address: I brought 4 months of rent receipts and an attestation for living with a friend. Depending on your situation, bring a gas bill or water bill or your 6-month rental agreement
- Health Insurance: (translated) as with the first visa, it has to be for a year and cover repatriation, deportation, death, all medical expenses and €30 000.
- Income Statements: (translated)
- French bank account statements
- 12 months of bank account statements: I also gave Canadian bank account statements as I had only recently opened my French account for a few months
- Birth Certificate: (translated)
- Divorce Certificate: (translated)
- Offi Medical Check-Up Certificate
Tips For Getting Your Titre de Séjour:
- Get a French bank account: This is not on the list but “everyone” says it is necessary. Start the process when you arrive in France
- Gather important documents. I had to have some sent from Canada.
- Translate important documents:
You must use an official French Court of Appeal translator. I found ACS Traduction online.
Items to be translated: Birth certificate ( I translated my long-form certificate), income statements, divorce certificate (I’m not sure that this was essential but she was pleased to take it), health insurance (done by the insurance company)
- Make Copies:
Keep the originals of your newly translated documents and other official documents. If you don’t have a printer, find the closest print shop to you. You’ll be heading there more than once.
- Organize Your Documents:
I arrived with two files. One for me and one full of papers to hand over. They were organized in the same order.
My Experience At The Préfecture de Police
Tucked in behind the flower market on Ile de la Cité on Place Louis Lépine is the Préfecture de Police.
When I arrived, there was a massive line up so I showed my convocation, the summons, showing the date and time and was told to queue in a shorter line.
Once inside and scanned, I followed a long hallway to the designated room, noted on the convocation.
I checked in at the waiting room, showing my convocation once again. This is where I discovered that there was indeed a backside of the Titre de Séjour Demandé that needed to be filled out. Judging from the others in the waiting room, I was not alone in having to fill this out.
My number was called before I was finished so I found my appointment booth and continued to fill in my form. Once done, the officer started asking for my documents. I slid them under the plexiglass as she asked for them.
Although I had already created and written a form pledging not to work, she slid a paper with the appropriate wording under the divider, I signed it and slipped it back.
Meanwhile, she was trimming my passport photos.
Not going to lie, I was kind of nervous.
I had heard that once the photocopy machine starts humming that it is a good sign. Sure enough, it started running.
Within about 15 minutes, all was said and done and suddenly I had a Titre de Séjour to last me another year.
The identification paper given out at this meeting is also a récépissé. It is a Récépissé De Demande De Carte De Sejour that is valid for about three months. Yup, coming up, another meeting at the Prefecture de Police in about six weeks.
I was thrilled on this day in early March of 2021 to know I could stay another year in France. I knew I just wasn’t done with France yet!
Until next time,
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Your story, in addition to providing useful information, is totally charming and oh-so French. Would having a bank account in another EU country be sufficient or does one have to have a bank account with a French bank? Not that I am at all near making any decisions about living long-term in France or any other EU country, but, this information is very useful should I decide that I have the energy to tackle the charming bureaucratic maze of the French or Italian procedures.
Hi Peggy, I really am not sure about your bank question. I do think having a French bank account is important. I need to write a post about how to go about that as it is not that easy. Nowhere on the list of required items does it mention a French bank account but… 😉 So glad you enjoyed the article. It’s worth all the rigamarole to live here!
As someone who’s currently applying for a titre de séjour now and got word back about my visa, they responded – “Merci de fournir un document bancaire en France et en euros.”I had submitted my local bank in the USA where all my funds are as I only need one more year in France and didn’t feel like transferring all my money overseas just for one year.
Alas, now it seems I have 29 more days to get a French phone number and a French bank account while wiring all that money overseas 🙁 If anyone knows if they’ll accept a Revolut or Transferwise bank account since they can produce a statement in euros, let me know.
Hi Seth, Thanks for sharing here. Obviously, the French bank account is needed and the phone number. I do not know for sure but everyone I talked to (so probably 8 people) all said “Get a French bank account.” Bon courage..
Hi Alison,
Do you know the process of extending the titre de sejour? I can’t find any blogs on how to extend it’s validity.. Mine will expire next year Oct so I have time but just want to be prepared. 🙂
Thank you for the blog. Very informative.
Hi there! I have not had to extend it yet but a friend of mine did. I do believe that the process to extend the Titre de Séjour is exactly as I have described. It is the same as applying the first time. Hope that helps.
Hi Alison, thank you so much for the information, it’s so useful and welcoming to see someone else going through the same situation.
I will be in the process early next year to renew my Titre De Sejour but plan to stop working for my company in October.
Do you know if I need to be employed by a French company in order to receive the visa? I assumed it was a requirement but after seeing your post, perhaps I was wrong.
Thank you!
Hi Joana, My experience of applying and receiving the Titre de Sejour, was as an individual not employed with a company. So, yes, you can apply and hopefully receive a titre de Sejour as an individual as long as you provide all the necessary paperwork and follow all the steps.
Hi Alison,
Thanks for a thorough article. You can’t work on a long-stay visa in France which is understandable but aren’t you allowed to work after you receive your Titre De Séjour aka Resident permit. Or Am I missing anything since you’ve mentioned ” Although I had already created and written a form pledging not to work, she slid a paper with the appropriate wording under the divider, I signed it and slipped it back.”
Hi, In my experience, I had to sign the form pledging not to work. I actually don’t know about the Titre de Sejour where you can work. In trying to find out how the visa process works, I often end up with a lot of questions! I am really not an expert here but am pleased to share my experience. Good luck!!
Hi Allison
I got my Récépissé and my long stay visa, how do i actually start up the titre de sejour procedure, some people tell me i need to wait the prefecture to summon me, some tell me i need to send a 3×4 photo, so they’ll send the card. My question is, to actually get the card, do i need to mark an appointment with those documents you listed, or will the prefecture call me to mark said appointment?
Hi Karlan, As far as I know, the Prefecture never calls! I am not 100% clear on your question but recently I found a Facebook group that may be very helpful! It’s called Applying for a French CdS (Carte de Séjour) and/or visa. There’s a lot of good information and someone is sure to know the answer! Good luck!