You own a house in France, you spend a few months a year there, and on your last trip a border officer told you that you had exceeded your allowance — or a letter from the prefecture ordered you to leave. Since the end of the Brexit transition period, British citizens are third-country nationals in European Union law: you may visit France and the rest of the Schengen Area without a visa, but only for short stays of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period. Every extra day counts, the count follows you across all Schengen countries, and since the Entry/Exit System, the system that digitally records the entries and exits of non-EU visitors, became operational, the count is increasingly automatic. An overstay can mean a refusal of entry stamped into your passport, a night in a waiting zone at the airport, an order to leave French territory, a ban on returning, and an alert in the Schengen Information System that every border post in Europe will see. This guide answers the two questions British second-home owners ask the firm in this situation. First, how does France actually count your 90 days, what happens at the border when the officer says the limit is exceeded, and which rights protect you on the spot. Second, which remedies exist once a refusal, a waiting-zone placement or a removal order has been issued, and how do you organise your future trips — or a long-stay visa — so the next arrival does not end the same way. Every rule below is quoted word for word from the official text, and the court decision cited is the one by which the Conseil d’Etat, the supreme court for French administrative cases, settled how refusals of entry work. One clarification before we start: this guide concerns British visitors without a French residence card. If you were lawfully living in France before the end of the transition period, you fall under the Withdrawal Agreement and a different regime, which the firm explains in its guide to the EES and British Withdrawal Agreement residents treated as 90-day visitors.

I. How does France count my 90 visa-free days, and what happens at the border when the officer says I have overstayed?

A. How is the rolling 90/180-day period actually calculated, and who proves what?

The 90-day rule is not 90 days per trip and not 90 days per calendar year. Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/399, the Schengen Borders Code, the European regulation that sets the rules for crossing the external borders of the Schengen Area, allows intended stays of “90 days in any 180-day period”. The official text is published in the Official Journal of the European Union as Regulation (EU) 2016/399. The decisive point is that the 180-day window is counted backwards from each day of stay: on every single day you are in France, the officer looks backwards over the previous 180 days and adds up all the days you spent in any Schengen country. Days in Spain, Italy, Greece or Germany count exactly as much as days in France. A pattern the firm sees constantly — 60 days in the Dordogne in spring, 40 days split between France and Spain in summer — already exceeds the allowance on the fortieth day of the summer trip, even though no single trip reached 90 days. Both the day of entry and the day of exit count as days of stay, and the allowance is consumed by presence, not by nights: a day trip counts.

The British government’s own travel advice confirms that visits to other Schengen countries in the previous 180 days count towards the 90 days, and warns that overstayers may face exclusion from Schengen countries for several years. That guidance is published on gov.uk, France entry requirements. The three-year ban is not imposed by the border officer on the spot; it takes the form of an entry ban attached to a removal order or an alert for refusal of entry entered in the Schengen Information System, the shared European database of alerts used at border checks, known as the SIS. Once that alert exists, any Schengen border post can refuse you. French law reflects this directly. Article L. 311-2 of the CESEDA, the code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile, the French code governing the entry and residence of foreign nationals, lists the situations in which a foreign national fails the entry conditions, including where “Il fait l’objet d’un signalement aux fins de non-admission sur le territoire français introduit dans le système d’information Schengen”, meaning the person is the subject of an alert for non-admission on French territory entered in the Schengen Information System. The official text is on Legifrance, Article L. 311-2 CESEDA. An overstay therefore does not end when you fly home; recorded once, it can block the next ten arrivals.

Until recently the count was proved by passport stamps, and the absence of a stamp created a legal presumption against the traveller. Where the passport bears no entry stamp, the Schengen Borders Code lets the authorities presume that the duration conditions are no longer met. But that presumption can be rebutted “by any means” with “credible evidence”, such as transport tickets or proof of presence outside the Member States showing that the short-stay conditions were respected. In practice this means boarding passes, Eurotunnel and ferry bookings, bank statements showing spending in the United Kingdom, employer letters and dated medical appointments: anything that credibly places you outside Schengen on the disputed days. Keep these documents for every trip, because the burden of rebutting the presumption rests on you. Since 12 October 2025 this stamp-based system has been progressively replaced by the Entry/Exit System. The Council of the European Union announced that the new Entry/Exit digital border system became operational in October 2025 across 29 European countries, digitally recording entries, exits and biometric data of non-EU short-stay travellers. That announcement is published on Consilium, EES start of operations, 11 October 2025. With the EES, the officer no longer needs to decipher faded stamps: the computer shows your days, and refusal decisions that used to depend on an officer’s arithmetic are increasingly generated from the central record. The practical consequence for a second-home owner is simple: from now on, assume every entry and exit is recorded, count your own days before travelling, and carry the evidence that proves them.

French domestic law incorporates the European conditions at the border. Article L. 311-1 of the CESEDA provides: “Pour entrer en France, tout étranger doit être muni : 1° Sauf s’il est exempté de cette obligation, des visas exigés par les conventions internationales et par l’article 6, paragraphe 1, points a et b, du règlement (UE) 2016/399 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 9 mars 2016 concernant un code de l’Union relatif au régime de franchissement des frontières par les personnes (code frontières Schengen) ; 2° Sous réserve des conventions internationales, et de l’article 6, paragraphe 1, point c, du code frontières Schengen, du justificatif d’hébergement prévu à l’article L. 313-1 , s’il est requis, et des autres documents prévus par décret en Conseil d’Etat relatifs à l’objet et aux conditions de son séjour et à ses moyens d’existence, à la prise en charge par un opérateur d’assurance agréé des dépenses médicales et hospitalières, y compris d’aide sociale, résultant de soins qu’il pourrait engager en France, ainsi qu’aux garanties de son rapatriement ; 3° Des documents nécessaires à l’exercice d’une activité professionnelle s’il se propose d’en exercer une.” In plain English, to enter France every foreign national must hold the required visas, the supporting documents on the purpose and conditions of the stay, means of subsistence, medical insurance covering care in France and guarantees of return, and where relevant work authorisation. The official text is on Legifrance, Article L. 311-1 CESEDA. For a British visitor this is the legal basis for the questions the officer asks at the passport booth — proof of accommodation in your own French home, proof of sufficient money, travel insurance, a return ticket — and the answers determine whether the 90-day count even becomes the issue, because failure on any of these points can ground a refusal on its own.

B. What does a refusal of entry at the French border look like, and which rights apply on the spot?

When the officer concludes that you do not meet the entry conditions — because the count shows more than 90 days in the preceding 180, because your documents are insufficient, or because an SIS alert exists — the decision is a refusal of entry, in French a refus d’entrée, a formal administrative decision with a fixed procedure. Under the Schengen Borders Code, a traveller who does not meet all the entry conditions must be refused entry, save for asylum and long-stay visa cases. The refusal must take the form of a reasoned decision on the standard refusal form, stating the precise grounds, taken by the authority empowered under national law, effective immediately and handed to you against acknowledgement of receipt. Insist on receiving that standard form: it states the exact ground ticked by the officer — overstay, insufficient means, lack of documents, SIS alert — and without it you cannot build any challenge. Refused travellers have the right to appeal under national law, with written details of where to find a representative. Read the fine print carefully: lodging the appeal does not suspend the refusal. You will still be put on the next available return transport, and the case will run while you are back in the United Kingdom. If the appeal later finds the refusal ill-founded, the refusing State must correct the cancelled entry stamp and the related endorsements, which matters because a refusal stamp left uncorrected will trigger questions at every future border.

French law mirrors this procedure article by article. Article L. 332-1 of the CESEDA provides: “L’étranger qui ne satisfait pas aux conditions d’admission prévues au titre I peut faire l’objet d’une décision de refus d’entrée, sans préjudice des dispositions particulières relatives au droit d’asile et à la protection internationale ou à la délivrance de visas de long séjour.” In plain English, a foreign national who does not meet the admission conditions may be refused entry, without prejudice to asylum rules and long-stay visas. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 332-1 CESEDA. Article L. 332-3 makes the link with European law explicit: “La procédure prévue à l’article L. 332-2 est applicable à la décision de refus d’entrée prise à l’encontre de l’étranger en application de l’article 6 du règlement 2016/399 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 9 mars 2016.” In plain English, the procedural safeguards of Article L. 332-2 apply to refusals taken under Article 6 of the Schengen Borders Code — exactly your case as a British visitor. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 332-3 CESEDA. Those safeguards are substantial. Article L. 332-2 provides: “La décision de refus d’entrée, qui est écrite et motivée, est prise par un agent relevant d’une catégorie fixée par voie réglementaire. La notification de la décision de refus d’entrée mentionne le droit de l’étranger d’avertir ou de faire avertir la personne chez laquelle il a indiqué qu’il devait se rendre, son consulat ou le conseil de son choix. Elle mentionne le droit de l’étranger de refuser d’être rapatrié avant l’expiration du délai d’un jour franc dans les conditions prévues à l’article L. 333-2 . La décision et la notification des droits qui l’accompagne lui sont communiquées dans une langue qu’il comprend. Une attention particulière est accordée aux personnes vulnérables, notamment aux mineurs accompagnés ou non d’un adulte.” In plain English, the refusal must be written and reasoned, you must be told you can contact your host, your consulate or a lawyer of your choice, you can refuse to be sent back before one clear day has passed, and everything must be communicated in a language you understand. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 332-2 CESEDA. The one-clear-day rule, the délai d’un jour franc, is confirmed by Article L. 333-2: “L’étranger peut refuser d’être rapatrié avant l’expiration du délai d’un jour franc.” In plain English, the foreign national may refuse to be returned before the end of one clear day. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 333-2 CESEDA. Use that day: it is the only time you have on French soil to call a lawyer, gather your day-count evidence and have the refusal re-examined before removal. Note that the refusal can be enforced without your consent once the day has passed. Article L. 333-1 provides: “La décision de refus d’entrée sur le territoire français dont l’étranger fait l’objet peut être exécutée d’office par l’autorité administrative.” In plain English, the refusal decision may be enforced directly by the administration. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 333-1 CESEDA.

If there is no immediate return flight, ferry or train, you can be held in a waiting zone, in French a zone d’attente, the secure area at the airport, port or international station where non-admitted travellers wait for their departure. Article L. 341-1 of the CESEDA provides: “L’étranger qui arrive en France par la voie ferroviaire, maritime ou aérienne et qui n’est pas autorisé à entrer sur le territoire français peut être placé dans une zone d’attente située dans une gare ferroviaire ouverte au trafic international figurant sur une liste définie par voie réglementaire, dans un port ou à proximité du lieu de débarquement ou dans un aéroport, pendant le temps strictement nécessaire à son départ.” In plain English, a person arriving by rail, sea or air who is not authorised to enter may be placed in a waiting zone for the time strictly necessary for departure. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 341-1 CESEDA. This is not detention without rights. Article L. 343-1 provides: “L’étranger placé en zone d’attente est informé, dans les meilleurs délais, qu’il peut demander l’assistance d’un interprète et d’un médecin, communiquer avec un conseil ou toute personne de son choix et quitter à tout moment la zone d’attente pour toute destination située hors de France.” In plain English, you must be told promptly that you can have an interpreter and a doctor, contact a lawyer or anyone of your choice, and leave the zone at any time for any destination outside France. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 343-1 CESEDA. Holding you beyond 96 hours from the initial placement requires a judge. Article L. 342-1 provides: “Le maintien en zone d’attente au-delà de quatre-vingt-seize heures à compter de la décision de placement initiale peut être autorisé, par le magistrat du siège du tribunal judiciaire statuant sur l’exercice effectif des droits reconnus à l’étranger, pour une durée qui ne peut être supérieure à huit jours.” In plain English, keeping you in the waiting zone beyond 96 hours needs the authorisation of a judge of the judicial court, for no more than eight days, and the judge checks that your rights were actually respected. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 342-1 CESEDA. For a British traveller this means a refusal at Nice or Bergerac airport cannot turn into an unreviewed multi-day confinement: after four days a judge must see the file.

The highest French administrative court has confirmed how strictly this framework binds the administration. In a published decision of 2 February 2024, No 450285, the Conseil d’Etat ruled on refusals of entry and the procedure of Article L. 332-3 after the Court of Justice of the European Union answered its preliminary question in case C-143/22 on 21 September 2023. Its operative part reads: “Article 1er : La seconde phrase de l’article L. 332-3 du code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile est annulée en tant qu’elle ne limite pas l’édiction de refus d’entrée aux frontières intérieures aux cas dans lesquels ils sont pris en vue de la réadmission de l’intéressé par l’Etat membre dont il provient en application d’un accord ou d’un arrangement passé par la France avec cet Etat existant le 13 janvier 2009.” In plain English, the court annulled the second sentence of Article L. 332-3 insofar as it allowed refusals of entry at internal borders beyond cases aimed at readmitting the person to the Member State of origin under an agreement existing on 13 January 2009. The decision, with ECLI:FR:CECHR:2024:450285.20240202, is published on Légifrance, Conseil d’Etat, 2 February 2024, No 450285. The lesson for a British file is wider than internal borders: refusals of entry are hemmed in by precise statutory conditions, the judge enforces those limits even against the Minister of the Interior, and a refusal taken on a wrong legal basis — wrong day count, wrong ground on the standard form, missing notification of rights — can be annulled. Keep the form, note the exact time of notification, and write down everything the officer said about your days: that record is the raw material of the appeal.

II. I have overstayed, or I have been refused: which remedies exist and how do I return to France lawfully?

A. How do I challenge a refusal of entry, a waiting-zone placement or an order to leave France?

Three different measures require three different challenges, and confusing them is the most common mistake in these files. The refusal of entry is challenged before the administrative court, in French the tribunal administratif, the first-instance court for disputes with the administration. Because the appeal has no suspensive effect, you will usually litigate from the United Kingdom through a French lawyer, asking the court to annul the refusal for defective counting, wrong legal ground, missing written reasons or breach of the notification-of-rights procedure. The ordinary deadline is two months. Article R. 421-1 of the code de justice administrative, the code of administrative court procedure, provides: “La juridiction ne peut être saisie que par voie de recours formé contre une décision, et ce, dans les deux mois à partir de la notification ou de la publication de la décision attaquée.” In plain English, the court can only be seised by an application against a decision, within two months of notification of the decision. The official text is on Légifrance, Article R. 421-1 CJA. Miss that date and the refusal becomes final, with its stamp and its SIS consequences. The placement in the waiting zone is challenged before the judicial judge, who controls the 96-hour extension and verifies the effective exercise of your rights — interpreter, doctor, lawyer, contact with the outside world — as Article L. 342-1 requires. If you are still in the zone, your lawyer can also use the emergency procedure for fundamental freedoms, in French the référé-liberté, before the administrative judge. Article L. 521-2 of the code de justice administrative provides: “Saisi d’une demande en ce sens justifiée par l’urgence, le juge des référés peut ordonner toutes mesures nécessaires à la sauvegarde d’une liberté fondamentale à laquelle une personne morale de droit public ou un organisme de droit privé chargé de la gestion d’un service public aurait porté, dans l’exercice d’un de ses pouvoirs, une atteinte grave et manifestement illégale. Le juge des référés se prononce dans un délai de quarante-huit heures.” In plain English, in an emergency the urgent-applications judge can order any measure needed to protect a fundamental freedom against a serious and manifestly unlawful interference, and must rule within 48 hours. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 521-2 CJA. Forty-eight hours is slower than a removal the next morning, which is exactly why the one-clear-day rule and immediate contact with a lawyer matter more than any later procedure.

The third measure is the one that reaches second-home owners who overstay quietly inside France: the order to leave French territory, in French the obligation de quitter le territoire français, universally known by its initials OQTF. It is issued by the préfet, the State representative in the département, usually after a police check, a prefecture visit or an attempted residence application reveals the overstay. Article L. 611-1 of the CESEDA lists the cases, and its point 2 covers you exactly: “L’étranger, entré sur le territoire français sous couvert d’un visa désormais expiré ou, n’étant pas soumis à l’obligation du visa, entré en France plus de trois mois auparavant, s’est maintenu sur le territoire français sans être titulaire d’un titre de séjour ou, le cas échéant, sans demander le renouvellement du titre de séjour temporaire ou pluriannuel qui lui a été délivré”. In plain English, a foreign national who entered on a now-expired visa or, where no visa is required, entered France more than three months ago and stayed on without a residence permit can be ordered to leave. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 611-1 CESEDA. As a visa-exempt British citizen you fall under the second branch: present for more than three months with no residence permit. The OQTF normally sets a voluntary departure period, often 30 days, and it can be accompanied by a ban on returning to France, in French an interdiction de retour, which is then entered in the SIS and produces the multi-year exclusion the gov.uk guidance warns about. Challenge it fast and in full. Article L. 614-1 provides: “La décision portant obligation de quitter le territoire français ainsi que la décision relative au séjour, la décision relative au délai de départ volontaire et l’interdiction de retour sur le territoire français qui l’accompagnent, le cas échéant, peuvent être contestées devant le tribunal administratif selon la procédure prévue à l’article L. 911-1.” In plain English, the removal order, the residence decision, the voluntary-departure period and any accompanying return ban can all be challenged before the administrative court. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 614-1 CESEDA. The grounds that succeed in overstay cases are concrete: wrong day count because the administration added trips that fall outside the rolling 180-day window, failure to consider evidence of presence outside Schengen, refusal-motivated decisions that merely copy a template without addressing your documents, and breach of procedural guarantees. Raise every measure in the same application — the OQTF, the departure period and the return ban — because a return ban left unchallenged survives even if the OQTF falls. And never ignore an OQTF: staying on after notification exposes you to forced removal, a longer ban and, on any later visa or residence application, a file marked by non-compliance.

B. How do I come back lawfully and stop the next trip turning into a ban?

Once the immediate crisis is handled, organise the return so the same facts cannot recur. First, reconstruct your own day count before booking anything. List every entry and exit across the whole Schengen Area over the last 180 days, keep both travel days in the count, and leave a safety margin of at least a week: EES records are precise, ferry cancellations that push a return past midnight create real overstay days, and border officers do not round in your favour. Keep the underlying proof permanently — boarding passes, tunnel and ferry confirmations, hotel invoices outside Schengen, bank statements — because under Article 12(2) of the Schengen Borders Code quoted above, credible evidence “by any means” is what rebuts the presumption when the record is wrong. Second, if you are already in France and realise you cannot leave before the limit expires, do what the British guidance says and contact the nearest local prefecture in France if you cannot return before the limit expires. A prefecture cannot grant extra visa-free days, but presenting yourself before an arrest is always better than being discovered, and the visit creates the paper trail your lawyer needs. Third, if an SIS alert or a return ban now blocks you, do not attempt to travel through another Schengen country: the alert is European, the refusal will repeat, and each new refusal deepens the file. The alert and the ban must be challenged or allowed to expire first.

For second-home owners whose life no longer fits inside 90 days, the durable answer is the long-stay visitor route. Article L. 312-2 of the CESEDA provides: “Tout étranger souhaitant entrer en France en vue d’y séjourner pour une durée supérieure à trois mois doit solliciter auprès des autorités diplomatiques et consulaires françaises un visa de long séjour dont la durée de validité ne peut être supérieure à un an. Ce visa peut autoriser un séjour de plus de trois mois à caractère familial, en qualité de visiteur, d’étudiant, de stagiaire ou au titre d’une activité professionnelle, et plus généralement tout type de séjour d’une durée supérieure à trois mois conférant à son titulaire les droits attachés à une carte de séjour temporaire ou à la carte de séjour pluriannuelle prévue aux articles L. 421-9, L. 421-11 et L. 421-13-1 à L. 421-24.” In plain English, anyone wishing to stay more than three months must apply before travelling to the French consular authorities for a long-stay visa of up to one year, which can be issued as a visitor and carries the rights of a temporary or multi-year residence card. The official text is on Légifrance, Article L. 312-2 CESEDA. The visitor category suits retired owners living on pensions and savings: you must show regular sufficient resources, full-year private medical insurance and sign an undertaking not to work in France, and the application starts on the official France-Visas portal before lodging in the United Kingdom. A prior overstay does not legally bar the visa, but it will be seen, so the application must address it head-on with the corrected count and the evidence. If the consulate refuses, that refusal has its own dedicated appeal path, which the firm explains in its guide to challenging a French long-stay visa refusal. One final warning: a long-stay visa solves the immigration question, not the tax or healthcare ones — longer residence can make you French tax-resident and changes your health cover — so take advice on those consequences before applying rather than after arriving.

Conclusion

The 90-day rule is a rolling count across the whole Schengen Area, proved by records you cannot see and presumed against you when documents are missing. A refusal of entry must be written, reasoned on the standard form, notified with your rights in a language you understand, and subject to appeal; a waiting-zone placement beyond 96 hours needs a judge; an order to leave France must be challenged before the administrative court with every accompanying measure. Each of these safeguards only helps if you act within its deadline — one clear day at the border, 48 hours for emergency relief, two months for annulment — and each depends on evidence you should be collecting on every trip, not after the problem arises. Count your days before you travel, keep the proof, and if the border or the prefecture has already moved against you, have the decision reviewed before the next journey. An overstay recorded once follows you for years; an overstay challenged properly can be reduced to a single bad trip.

Need a quick opinion on your case.

If you have been refused entry, held at the border or ordered to leave France, or if you want your next stay secured before you travel, the firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write via the contact page with your refusal form or removal order attached.