You bought the stone cottage in the Dordogne before Brexit, or the flat near the coast afterwards, and you imagined long spring stays, the whole summer, perhaps Christmas with the grandchildren. Since the United Kingdom left the European Union, that picture has a hard legal frame around it. British citizens are now third-country nationals in France: people who, unlike EU citizens, need a visa or a residence permit as soon as their stay goes beyond a short visit. The single rule that catches out more British second-home owners than any other is the 90-day limit. Spend more than 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area without the right visa, and you are staying unlawfully, with removal and a ban on returning as the possible price. The good news is that French law offers a purpose-built way out: the long-stay visitor visa and the visitor residence card that follows it, designed exactly for people who live on their own resources and want to spend months in France without working there. This article explains how the 90 days are counted, what an overstay costs, how to secure a visitor visa from Britain with the right file, and how to challenge a refusal, drawing on the exact texts and on two recent French court decisions that show how judges reason.

I. The 90-day limit that now frames every British stay in France

A. How British visitors count their 90 days in any 180-day period

Start with the basic position. To enter France, a foreign national must hold the documents the law requires, and the first article of the relevant chapter says so in plain terms: “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)” (article L311-1 of the Code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile, the French code governing entry and residence of foreign nationals, known as the CESEDA). British citizens are exempt from the visa requirement for short visits, which is why so many owners cross the Channel with nothing but a passport, but the exemption only covers short stays. The same code provides: “Tout étranger souhaitant entrer en France en vue d’y séjourner pour une durée n’excédant pas trois mois doit solliciter auprès des autorités diplomatiques et consulaires françaises un visa de court séjour, dans les conditions prévues à l’article 6 du règlement 2016/399 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 9 mars 2016.” (article L312-1 of the CESEDA). In practice, a British passport holder is admitted for a short stay without applying for that short-stay visa, but the three-month ceiling applies exactly the same.

Three months here does not mean three calendar months per trip. It means a maximum of 90 days within any rolling 180-day window, counted across the whole Schengen area and not per country. Every day you are present in France, Spain, Italy or any other Schengen state counts towards the same pot. The window rolls: on any given day, you look backwards over the previous 180 days and add up the days of presence. If the total is already 90, you must leave. Days out of the Schengen area, for example back in Britain, do not count, but they only release allowance as old days of presence slide out of the 180-day window. A common and expensive mistake is to believe the clock resets each time you cross the border. It does not. Spending 90 days in your French house, hopping back to Dover for a weekend, then returning for another month is an overstay, because the weekend in Kent removes only two or three days from the count.

Border control has also become harder to bluff. Entries and exits are now recorded electronically at the external Schengen border, so the old game of relying on faint passport stamps is over; the mechanics of those electronic checks are described in our companion piece on how the new Entry/Exit System records British travellers at the French border. Keep your own records as well: boarding passes, Eurotunnel bookings and bank statements showing where you were can all matter if an officer questions your count. Owning a house in France changes nothing in this calculation. French law treats the British owner of a second home exactly like any other British visitor for short stays. The house gives you somewhere to sleep; it does not give you a right to stay.

Two practical consequences follow. First, couples and families must count separately. If you spent April and May in France while your partner stayed in Britain, your partner still has their full allowance and you do not. Second, time spent in France under a long-stay visa or residence permit, the route described in Part II below, sits outside the 90-day pot for the period it covers. That is the whole point of the visitor strategy: once you hold the right long-stay document, the rolling count stops governing your French stays, because your presence is authorised on a different legal basis. Until then, count every day, count all Schengen countries together, and never assume a short trip home resets anything.

B. What an overstay costs: removal orders, re-entry bans and closed doors later

The mirror image of the 90-day rule is the sanction. French law draws a bright line at three months: “Sous réserve des engagements internationaux de la France ou du livre II, tout étranger âgé de plus de dix-huit ans qui souhaite séjourner en France pour une durée supérieure à trois mois doit être titulaire de l’un des documents de séjour suivants : 1° Un visa de long séjour” (article L411-1 of the CESEDA, which then lists the residence cards that also qualify). A British owner who stays beyond 90 days without one of those documents is in an unlawful situation, and the prefect, the State representative in each département, has a tailor-made tool for it. The statute says: “L’autorité administrative peut obliger un étranger à quitter le territoire français lorsqu’il se trouve dans les cas suivants : 1° L’étranger, ne pouvant justifier être entré régulièrement sur le territoire français, s’y est maintenu sans être titulaire d’un titre de séjour en cours de validité ; 2° 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” (article L611-1 of the CESEDA). The second case is written for the British second-home owner who entered lawfully without a visa and simply stayed too long.

The resulting order has a name you should know: the obligation de quitter le territoire français, usually shortened to OQTF, meaning an order to leave French territory. It can set a voluntary departure period and, depending on the case, bar the person from returning to France for a time, the interdiction de retour, or ban on return. Courts apply this machinery routinely. In a decision of 11 September 2025, the Toulouse administrative court of appeal examined an OQTF built expressly on article L611-1 against a person who had remained in France without a valid residence document, working through the statutory cases one by one before ruling on each plea (CAA de Toulouse, 11 September 2025, no. 23TL02957, full text on Légifrance). The lesson for British owners is direct: once the 90 days are exhausted, every extra week in the house is not a grey area but one of the named situations in which the administration may order you out.

The damage does not stop at the border. An OQTF goes on your immigration record and colours every later application. The same article L611-1 adds a further case covering the person who has been refused a residence document, or has had one withdrawn, and stays on regardless: that person may also be ordered to leave. So a refused residence application can itself trigger removal if you stay on regardless. For an owner, that can mean being ordered out of the country where your own house stands, then having to explain the OQTF in every future visa interview. A refusal plus an overstay is the worst combination: it suggests to the next decision-maker that you do not respect the conditions you are given. Far better to organise the long stay in advance, from Britain, with the visitor visa described below, than to stretch a summer until it snaps.

II. Staying longer lawfully: the long-stay visitor route and how to fight a refusal

A. The visitor visa and visitor card: living on your own resources, insured, without working

French law provides a route shaped for exactly your situation. The statute states: “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.” (article L312-2 of the CESEDA). Note where the application goes: to the French diplomatic and consular authorities, which for a British resident means the French consulate network in the United Kingdom, before travel. You cannot arrive for a short stay and convert it into a long stay from inside France; the long-stay visa is applied for from home, then you travel. The same article continues: “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.” For a retired owner or anyone living on savings, pensions or rental income, the relevant flavour is the stay as a visiteur, a visitor, often issued as a visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour, a long-stay visa that itself acts as a residence permit for its duration, known by its initials VLS-TS.

The visitor concept then continues into residence. Once admitted, the owner who wants to settle into French life for the year applies for the temporary residence card marked visiteur. The conditions are set by a single demanding article: “L’étranger qui apporte la preuve qu’il peut vivre de ses seules ressources, dont le montant doit être au moins égal au salaire minimum de croissance net annuel, indépendamment de l’allocation aux adultes handicapés mentionnée à l’article L. 821-1 du code de la sécurité sociale et de l’allocation supplémentaire mentionnée à l’article L. 815-24 du même code, se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention ” visiteur ” d’une durée d’un an.” (article L426-20 of the CESEDA). Three points in that sentence decide most files. First, the resources must be your own: pensions, savings, investment and rental income in your name. Second, the floor is the annual net minimum wage, the salaire minimum de croissance, universally called the SMIC. The figure moves most years, so check the current amount rather than relying on an old blog post, and evidence it across the full year, not just one good month. Third, the card lasts one year and is renewable for as long as you keep meeting the conditions. Renewal is not automatic: “L’étranger qui sollicite le renouvellement d’une carte de séjour temporaire présente à l’appui de sa demande les pièces prévues pour une première délivrance et justifiant qu’il continue de satisfaire aux conditions requises pour celle-ci ainsi, le cas échéant, que les pièces particulières requises à l’occasion du renouvellement du titre conformément à la liste fixée par arrêté annexé au présent code.” (article R433-1 of the CESEDA). Treat every renewal like a fresh application.

The same article L426-20 then imposes the two other pillars of the visitor bargain: proof of health cover for the whole of the stay, and a signed promise not to take any professional activity in France. Health cover for the whole stay is therefore not advice but a statutory condition. As a visitor you have no French employer to affiliate you, so budget for comprehensive private medical insurance that genuinely covers the full period, and keep the certificates: prefectures read them closely. The promise not to work is equally serious. The visitor card does not authorise any professional activity, employed or self-employed, in France. That rules out topping up the pension with local work, managing a French holiday let as an on-site business, or invoicing French clients from the cottage. Remote work for a British employer while sitting in France sits in a debated zone beyond this article; be aware that the engagement you sign covers France, and take advice on your exact pattern rather than assuming a laptop makes you invisible.

A recent court decision shows how strictly judges read the resources condition, and it is worth studying because the fact pattern resembles many British files. A woman applied for a long-stay visitor visa to join her partner in France. The consular authorities refused, and the minister defended the refusal on three grounds: the reality of the reason for the request was not established, the applicant did not show why she needed more than three months in France, and she lacked sufficient resources. The court of appeal agreed with the administration on the decisive points, finding that the applicant “ne justifie pas de la nécessité d’un séjour en France de plus de trois mois” and, crucially, that on the evidence she “ne dispose pas de ressources propres suffisantes pour lui permettre de s’installer en France sans y exercer une activité professionnelle”, before concluding: “Le jugement du 15 juillet 2024 du tribunal administratif de Nantes est annulé.” (CAA de Nantes, 20 June 2025, no. 24NT02425, full text on Légifrance). The lower court had annulled the refusal and ordered the visa; the appeal court reversed that, rejected the applicant’s case and refused to order the State to issue anything. Two lessons for British owners. First, explain in the file itself why you need more than three months: maintaining the house year-round, renovation works, family reasons. Second, prove resources in your own name. In that case the partner’s signed undertaking to house and support the applicant did not cure the shortfall, because the statute asks what you yourself can live on. A British owner who relies on a partner’s income, on promises of help, or on the value of the house itself rather than on income and savings in their own name is making the same mistake.

One related point for owners who host rather than settle: family and friends who come to stay with you for up to three months may need an attestation d’accueil, a validated hosting certificate signed by you. The law says: “Tout étranger qui déclare vouloir séjourner en France pour une durée n’excédant pas trois mois dans le cadre d’une visite familiale ou privée doit présenter un justificatif d’hébergement qui prend la forme d’une attestation d’accueil, signée par la personne qui se propose d’assurer le logement de l’étranger, ou son représentant légal.” (article L313-1 of the CESEDA). It is obtained from your mairie, the town hall, before the guests travel. It is a small formality, but border officers do ask for it, and having it ready protects your visitors from the same short-stay scrutiny described in Part I.

B. Refused at the consulate: how a British applicant challenges the decision

Refusals happen, even to owners with a genuine house and genuine means: thin bank statements, insurance that does not cover the full period, a vague motive letter, or an officer unconvinced that you will not work. The first step is to read the refusal itself carefully, because it states the remedies available and the authority to approach. In the French system, the first challenge to a visa refusal goes to a dedicated body, the commission de recours contre les décisions de refus de visa d’entrée en France, the appeals commission for entry-visa refusals, usually shortened to CRRV. The Nantes case above travelled exactly that path: the consular refusal was first contested before that commission, which rejected the appeal, and only then did the dispute reach the courts. Act within the period printed on your refusal papers and keep proof of posting; a late or misdirected challenge fails before anyone reads the merits.

If the commission maintains the refusal, the dispute moves to the administrative court, and visa litigation has its own geography: challenges to visa refusals are concentrated before the Nantes administrative court, which is why both decisions cited in this article come from that circuit. The judge reviews the refusal for legal error, factual error and manifest error in assessing your situation. That review is real but narrow. The court does not re-decide whether you deserve the visa; it checks whether the administration’s reasons hold up. In the June 2025 case, the appeal judges found the three stated reasons coherent with the file and reversed a first judgment that had been too generous. To survive that review, your file must answer each likely reason in advance. Show twelve months of resources at or above the SMIC floor in accounts in your name, with pension award letters, tax returns and savings statements to match. Show health insurance covering the entire requested stay, with the schedule of cover attached, not just a one-page certificate. State plainly why the stay must exceed three months, tying the reason to dated facts: works contracts on the house, medical treatment booked, family events. And evidence your accommodation: title deeds for your house, recent taxe foncière bill, utility bills. An owner who produces the deeds but no income proof has proved where they will sleep, not how they will live, and the statute cares about the second question.

Mind also the refusal ground that has nothing to do with money. A residence document may be refused by reasoned decision where the applicant’s presence would threaten public order: “La délivrance d’une carte de séjour temporaire ou pluriannuelle ou d’une carte de résident peut, par une décision motivée, être refusée à tout étranger dont la présence en France constitue une menace pour l’ordre public.” (article L432-1 of the CESEDA). For most owners this is a formality, but disclose what must be disclosed and do not leave the administration to discover an old conviction or an undisclosed prior removal. A file that hides something invites the one refusal ground no bank statement can fix. And remember the link back to Part I: if you are already in France when the refusal arrives, staying on regardless exposes you to removal on the refusal ground itself, under the third case of article L611-1 cited above. The safe rhythm is therefore: apply from Britain, wait for the answer in Britain, travel once the visa is in the passport. If the answer is no, challenge it through the commission and then the court while remaining outside France, and use the waiting time to rebuild the weak part of the file rather than testing the border.

A final word on what a longer stay can trigger beyond immigration law. Spending most of the year in your French house can move your tax residence to France. The tax code treats as fiscally domiciled in France, among others: “Les personnes qui ont en France leur foyer ou le lieu de leur séjour principal” (article 4 B of the Code général des impôts). The visitor visa solves the right to stay; it does not settle where you pay tax on pensions, rents and capital gains. Owners who cross from three months to six or more should map the tax position under the France-United Kingdom double tax treaty before the first long stay, not after, and the related questions on selling up later are examined in our guide to leaving France and selling the former French home.

Conclusion

The 90-day limit is not negotiable, and owning the roof over your head does not stretch it by a single day. Count every Schengen day together in the rolling 180-day window, and treat any overstay as what the statute says it is: one of the named cases for an order to leave, with the record and the return ban that can follow. The lawful alternative is built for your profile: a long-stay visitor visa applied for from Britain, then a one-year visitor card founded on resources in your own name at least equal to the annual net minimum wage, full-period health cover, and a signed promise not to work. The courts enforce each of those conditions to the letter, as the Nantes reversal of June 2025 demonstrates, and no partner’s undertaking or property deed compensates for missing income proof. Prepare the file as if it will be read by a sceptical judge, challenge a refusal through the stated remedies from outside France, and check the tax residence consequences before you settle in. Done in that order, the second home becomes what it should be: a house you enjoy for months at a time, on papers no border officer can question.