How to Live in France for 6 Months: Visas and Rules

If you want to know how to live in France for 6 months and you aren’t an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, you have two legal routes: apply for a temporary long-stay visa (the VLS-T “visiteur”) for one continuous stay of three to six months, or split the time into two 90-day visa-free blocks under the Schengen 90/180 rule. Anything longer than six months moves you into a different visa, and anything close to six months puts you right on the line where France can treat you as a tax resident.

The rules that matter sit in French ministerial answers to Parliament, the EU’s border regulations and the French tax code. This guide takes them one at a time.

How to Live in France for 6 Months: The Three Legal Options

There are three lawful ways for a non-EU national to live in France for 6 months. You can use two separate 90-day visa-free stays a year, apply for a VLS-T visitor visa covering one stay of three to six months, or apply for a VLS-TS visitor visa if you might stay longer than six months. Each comes with different paperwork and tax exposure.

Which one fits depends on two questions. Do you need the six months in one unbroken stretch? And might you want to stay longer next year, or turn the stay into French residency later?

Sources: French Ministry of the Interior long-stay visa page, ministerial answers of June 2024 and June 2025, France-Visas fee schedule. Fees as of October 2026.

Option 1: Two 90-Day Blocks Under the France 90/180 Rule

Visa-exempt nationals such as Americans, Britons, Canadians and Australians can spend up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period in the Schengen Area without a visa. Spend 90 days in France, leave the Schengen Area for 90 days, and you can return for another 90. That gives you roughly six months a year in France, in two blocks.

The 180-day window looks backwards from every single day of your stay. It isn’t a calendar half-year, and it doesn’t reset on 1 January. We built the schedule below by running the rule day by day, the same way the European Commission’s own short-stay calculator does.

Read that schedule carefully. Every day in Spain, Italy or Switzerland counts against the same 90, because the limit covers the whole Schengen Area. A long weekend in Barcelona during your “out” months pushes your return to France back by the same number of days.

Since 10 April 2026 the EU’s Entry/Exit System has been fully operational and has replaced passport stamping. It records every entry and exit along with your fingerprints and facial image. Overstays that border guards once missed in a passport full of smudged stamps now show up on a screen.

Option 2: The VLS-T Visa for a Single 3-to-6-Month Stay

The VLS-T, or visa de long séjour temporaire, is the French visa for one continuous stay of three to six months. As a “visiteur” it covers retirees, second-home owners and anyone living on their own means. It costs €99, can’t be renewed or changed once issued, and doesn’t allow any work in France.

France’s foreign ministry spelled this out in a written answer to the Senate published on 19 June 2025: stays between three and six months need a VLS-T visiteur, stays over six months need a VLS-TS, and the VLS-T “n’est ni renouvelable ni modifiable”. You file a fresh application for every trip.

What you get in return is simplicity. A VLS-T holder doesn’t need a residence card and skips the immigration office (OFII) formalities entirely, according to the Ministry of the Interior. You arrive, you live there, you leave when the visa ends.

VLS-T visa requirements

France-Visas doesn’t publish a fixed income figure for the VLS-T. The consulate judges whether your money covers the stay. In our experience the files that sail through show regular monthly income in plain view, and the ones that stall rely on a single large balance with no explanation of where it came from.

The 183-day ceiling on back-to-back VLS-Ts

There’s a hard cap built into the system. The same ministerial answer states that two successive VLS-Ts won’t be issued if the result is more than 183 days in France in a calendar year. So you can’t stack a five-month VLS-T in spring and another in autumn. The French state has drawn its line at half a year, and it lines up with the tax test further down.

How to Apply for a VLS-T Visa: Step by Step

Timing is better than its reputation. In a June 2025 answer to the National Assembly, the government put London’s average wait at 3.5 days for a long-stay appointment and 8 days for processing. Where people get burned is the passport. It sits with the consulate during processing, so anyone who also needs it for other trips should apply in a quiet month.

Option 3: The VLS-TS Visitor Visa If You Want More Than Six Months

If there’s any chance you’ll want to stay in France beyond six months, apply for a VLS-TS visitor visa instead of a VLS-T. It’s valid for up to 12 months, works as a residence permit once validated online after arrival, and can be followed by a residence card from the préfecture, filed in the two months before the visa expires.

The VLS-TS is the first step toward long-term French residency, and the route our retire in France guide covers in depth. It brings more admin: online validation, a residence card if you renew, and a far stronger claim by the French tax office that France is your home. For someone who wants a half-year base and nothing more, that’s usually the wrong trade.

Will Living in France for 6 Months Make You a French Tax Resident?

It can. French law treats you as tax-domiciled in France if you meet any one of four tests: your household lives there, you stay there at least 183 days in the year, your main professional activity is there, or your centre of economic interests is there. Six months in France is right at the 183-day line, and a single extra week can tip you over.

The four tests come from Article 4 B of the French tax code and are summarised by the government’s Service-Public portal. Only one needs to be met. A spouse who stays on in the French house while you travel can make France your household’s home even if your own day count looks safe.

A tax treaty can change the answer. If you’re also resident at home, the treaty’s tie-breaker rules decide which country wins, usually by looking at your permanent home and centre of vital interests. Our guide on whether you can be a resident of two countries walks through how that plays out.

Two more points for specific readers. Britons should run the UK Statutory Residence Test separately, because leaving the UK for six months doesn’t on its own end UK residence. And US citizens owe the IRS tax on their worldwide income wherever they live. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion applies only to earned income, never to pensions, Social Security or investment returns.

Bottom line: if you plan to spend close to six months a year in France, write down your day count, keep your main home and income ties elsewhere, and get the treaty position checked before the first winter. Sorting it out after a French tax letter lands costs far more.

Can British Second-Home Owners Stay in France for 6 Months?

Yes, but only on the same terms as everyone else. British owners of French holiday homes get no special visa. To stay in France for 6 months in one go they need a VLS-T visiteur each year, and the property only helps as proof of accommodation. A 2023 attempt to grant them automatic long-stay visas was struck down.

Article 16 of France’s 2023 immigration bill would have given British second-home owners a long-stay visa as of right. The Conseil constitutionnel struck it out in Decision 2023-863 DC of 25 January 2024, along with dozens of other provisions it found unconnected to the bill. Senators have asked for an easier annual process several times since. The government’s answers so far offer the postal option and electronic document uploads, and nothing more.

I’ve watched plenty of British owners assume their deeds give them some residual right to stay. They don’t. Since 2021 a property in the Dordogne gives a UK passport holder exactly the same 90 days as a tourist in a hotel.

Mistakes That Wreck a Six-Month Stay in France

• Counting only French days. The 90/180 limit covers all Schengen countries. A side trip to Italy uses the same allowance.
• Arriving visa-free and trying to switch. A VLS-T has to be issued before you travel. You can’t convert a visa-free entry into one at a French préfecture.
• Treating the VLS-T as extendable. It isn’t. If plans change mid-stay, you leave on the visa’s end date and reapply from abroad.
• Working remotely “a little”. Both visitor visas include a written promise not to work in France. Remote work for a foreign employer is outside what the visitor category allows, and France offers separate visas for that.
• Ignoring the household test. Day counting won’t protect you if your family lives in the French house full-time.
• Forgetting insurance gaps. Cover has to run for the whole stay. Many travel policies stop at 30 or 90 days per trip.

One pattern shows up repeatedly among the people who contact us: a couple spends two good half-years in France, then decides to stay longer, and only then discovers that the VLS-T gives them no path to anything else. If you think you might want more, start with the VLS-TS or compare routes in our passive income visa guide. Some readers find that a Portugal residency permit, or one of the options in our EU residence permit after Brexit roundup, gives them free movement for short stays in France without the annual visa cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions: Living in France for 6 Months

Final Thoughts on Living in France for 6 Months

The six-month stay in France works well for people who know exactly what they want: a long spring and summer in the Luberon, a winter near family, a half-year at the family house in Brittany. Pick the route that matches the shape of your year, keep your day count honest because the EU’s computers now keep it for you, and watch the 183-day line as closely as the visa dates. If the plan grows into something more permanent, our France residency team handles the move from visitor to resident.