You are British, your husband, wife or partner is French or settled in France, and you want to live together in France after Brexit. Since 1 January 2021 this is an immigration file like any other third-country file, and the French system sorts couples into very different boxes: the spouse of a French citizen, the unmarried or civil-partnered companion, the British parent of a French child, and the British resident who wants to bring a husband or wife over from the United Kingdom. Each box has its own visa, its own residence card, its own proofs and its own appeal route, and choosing the wrong box is the most common reason files fail. A marriage celebrated in London, Gretna Green or Las Vegas has no effect in France until it is transcribed onto the French civil registers. A decade of life together with no marriage certificate gives no automatic right to stay. And a refusal stamped by a consulate or a préfecture, the local office of the French State that issues residence permits, is never the end of the road: short-stay and long-stay visa refusals go through a compulsory administrative appeal before the administrative tribunal in Nantes, while residence-permit refusals go to the local administrative tribunal, and judges regularly annul refusals that strike family life disproportionately. This article sets out the complete method: which route fits your couple, which papers prove it, why fraud findings and housing or income findings are the two great refusal grounds, and how to challenge each decision within its time limit. Every decisive statement below is tied to the exact statutory text or court decision quoted beside it, and every French term is explained the first time it appears.

I. Married to a French Citizen After Brexit: the Spouse Visa and the Vie Privée et Familiale Card

A. How does a British husband or wife obtain the long-stay spouse visa?

Since Brexit, any stay in France longer than three months requires a visa followed by a residence document. Article L411-1 of the CESEDA, the Code on the entry and residence of foreigners and the right of asylum, states the rule plainly: “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”. The British spouse therefore starts at the French consulate covering the United Kingdom with a long-stay visa application as the husband or wife of a French citizen, and the British government’s own guidance confirms the route: its Living in France guide lists “live with family in France” among the visa purposes and points applicants to France-Visas, the official French visa portal. Prepare this consular stage as carefully as the later préfecture stage, because a refusal here costs months.

The good news is that the spouse visa is a right, not a favour. Article L312-3 of the CESEDA provides: “Le visa de long séjour est délivré de plein droit au conjoint de ressortissant français. Il ne peut être refusé qu’en cas de fraude, d’annulation du mariage ou de menace à l’ordre public.” Only three refusal grounds exist: fraud, annulment of the marriage, or a threat to public order. The consulate cannot refuse because it doubts the couple’s feelings in the abstract, because the British spouse speaks no French, or because the French spouse earns little. And when the administration alleges fraud, it is the administration that must prove it. The Administrative Court of Appeal of Nantes stated the principle in plain terms on 1 October 2024 (23NT01353): “Il appartient en principe aux autorités consulaires de délivrer au conjoint étranger d’un ressortissant français dont le mariage n’a pas été contesté par l’autorité judiciaire le visa nécessaire pour que les époux puissent mener une vie familiale normale.” The court continued: “Pour y faire obstacle, il appartient à l’administration, si elle allègue une fraude, de l’établir, la seule circonstance que l’intention matrimoniale d’un seul des deux époux ne soit pas contestée n’y faisant pas obstacle.” In that case the marriage had not been challenged before the courts, yet the administration refused the visa as fraudulent; the court examined the file and upheld the refusal only because the evidence of any meeting or shared life was missing. The lesson for British couples is practical: prove the relationship with documents that show a shared life, not a romance. Joint tenancy agreements or hotel records showing both names side by side, boarding passes and passport stamps for the same journeys, bank transfers between the spouses, and detailed attestations from relatives who have actually seen the couple together carry weight. In the Nantes case, the court noted that the file contained only a few photographs and copies of messaging conversations, which did not prove that the applicants had ever met or lived together, while detailed statements from the French spouse’s own children warned of manipulation. Photographs and chat logs alone do not win; converging records of time spent together do.

A visa refusal is challenged in two compulsory stages, and the first stage cannot be skipped. Article D312-3 of the CESEDA provides: “Une commission placée auprès du ministre des affaires étrangères et du ministre de l’intérieur est chargée d’examiner les recours administratifs contre les décisions de refus de visa de long séjour prises par les autorités diplomatiques ou consulaires. Le sous-directeur des visas, au sein de la direction générale des étrangers en France du ministère de l’intérieur, est chargé d’examiner les recours administratifs contre les décisions de refus de visa de court séjour prises par les autorités diplomatiques ou consulaires. La saisine de l’une ou l’autre de ces autorités, selon la nature du visa sollicité, est un préalable obligatoire à l’exercice d’un recours contentieux, à peine d’irrecevabilité de ce dernier.” For a British spouse refused a long-stay visa, that means a written appeal to the appeals commission against visa refusals, the commission de recours contre les refus de visa, within two months of the refusal, attaching every missing or misunderstood proof with a translation where needed. Silence for two months counts as an implied rejection, and only then can the case go to the administrative tribunal, which for all visa litigation sits in Nantes. The Nantes judgment recalled above shows exactly how that tribunal and the appeal court reason: they check the reasoning of the refusal, then whether the fraud is actually established, then whether the refusal strikes family life disproportionately under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 8 protects private and family life in these terms: “1. Toute personne a droit au respect de sa vie privée et familiale, de son domicile et de sa correspondance. 2. Il ne peut y avoir ingérence d’une autorité publique dans l’exercice de ce droit que pour autant que cette ingérence est prévue par la loi et qu’elle constitue une mesure qui, dans une société démocratique, est nécessaire à la sécurité nationale, à la sûreté publique, au bien-être économique du pays, à la défense de l’ordre et à la prévention des infractions pénales, à la protection de la santé ou de la morale, ou à la protection des droits et libertés d’autrui. ” A British spouse whose marriage is genuine and unannulled, and who presents an orderly file, therefore faces the consulate from a position of legal strength, and a refusal built on suspicion alone can be overturned.

B. How does the British spouse obtain and renew the vie privée et familiale residence card?

Once in France on the spouse visa, the British husband or wife applies to the préfecture of the place of residence for a temporary residence card marked vie privée et familiale, literally private and family life. The application is filed online through the ANEF portal, the administration’s digital service for foreigners in France, listed on service-public.fr, and the supporting documents include the full copy of the marriage certificate or, for a marriage celebrated abroad, proof of its transcription, as the official service-public guide to the vie privée et familiale card confirms. Article L423-1 of the CESEDA sets three cumulative conditions: “L’étranger marié avec un ressortissant français, se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention ” vie privée et familiale ” d’une durée d’un an lorsque les conditions suivantes sont réunies : 1° La communauté de vie n’a pas cessé depuis le mariage ; 2° Le conjoint a conservé la nationalité française ; 3° Lorsque le mariage a été célébré à l’étranger, il a été transcrit préalablement sur les registres de l’état civil français.” Each condition deserves attention. First, the shared life, the communauté de vie, must still exist on the day the préfecture decides: joint address proofs, joint tax notices, and children born of the marriage all help. Second, the French spouse must still be French. Third, and most overlooked by British couples married in the United Kingdom, the marriage must have been transcribed onto the French civil registers before the card is issued. Transcription is requested from the central civil-registry service in Nantes with the British marriage certificate, proof of the French spouse’s nationality, and the supporting documents listed by the consulate; while it is pending, the préfecture may issue only a receipt, the récépissé, or ask the applicant to wait. Start the transcription months before the move, because without it the file is incomplete by law.

Couples married in France itself benefit from a gentler rule. Article L423-2 of the CESEDA provides: “L’étranger, entré régulièrement et marié en France avec un ressortissant français avec lequel il justifie d’une vie commune et effective de six mois en France, se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention ” vie privée et familiale ” d’une durée d’un an. La condition prévue à l’article L. 412-1 n’est pas opposable.” Two points matter here. Six months of real shared life in France with the French spouse opens the right, and the long-stay visa condition is expressly lifted: even a British spouse who entered visa-free for a short stay and then married in France can obtain the card without returning to London for a visa. The general visa condition itself sits in article L412-1 of the CESEDA: “Sous réserve des engagements internationaux de la France et des exceptions prévues aux articles L. 412-2 et L. 412-3, la première délivrance d’une carte de séjour temporaire ou d’une carte de séjour pluriannuelle est subordonnée à la production par l’étranger du visa de long séjour mentionné aux 1° ou 2° de l’article L. 411-1.” Spouses married abroad remain subject to it, which is why the consular visa stage described above is indispensable for them, while spouses married in France after six months of shared life are exempt.

Renewal each year re-tests the shared life, so keep building the paper trail from year one: joint lease or ownership deed, joint energy and insurance bills, joint tax assessments, and evidence of daily life together. If the couple separates, renewal is immediately at risk, so separated spouses should take advice at once rather than filing a doomed renewal alone. And a préfecture refusal is fully challengeable: an informal appeal to the prefect, a higher appeal to the Minister of the Interior, and above all an appeal to the administrative tribunal within two months, asking the judge to annul the refusal and order the card to be issued. Judges apply the same Article 8 proportionality test as in visa cases, and they do not hesitate to order the administration to deliver the card. On 12 October 2022 the Administrative Court of Appeal of Paris (21PA05895) annulled a Paris police prefect’s refusal together with the accompanying removal order, holding: “Ainsi, dans les circonstances de l’espèce, l’arrêté par lequel le préfet de police a refusé de délivrer au requérant un titre de séjour a porté à son droit au respect de sa vie privée et familiale une atteinte disproportionnée par rapport aux buts en vue desquels il a été pris.” The couple had married in France, proved nearly three years of shared life, and were engaged in a medically assisted reproduction programme; the court ordered the prefect to deliver a one-year vie privée et familiale card within two months. For British spouses with a genuine shared life, this decision is the template: document the life together thoroughly, and a refusal built on thin reasoning will not survive judicial review.

II. Not Married to a French Citizen: Unmarried Partners, British Parents and Regroupement Familial

A. What route exists for a British civil partner, PACS partner or cohabiting companion?

Many British-French couples are not married: civil partners under English law, partners bound by a PACS, the French civil solidarity pact, or long-term cohabitants, concubins. The hard truth must come first: none of these statuses gives an automatic right to a visa or a residence card equivalent to the spouse’s. There is no provision mirroring article L312-3 for partners, and no de plein droit, as-of-right, card for them. The route is the exceptional admission to residence, the admission exceptionnelle au séjour. Article L435-1 of the CESEDA provides: “L’étranger dont l’admission au séjour répond à des considérations humanitaires ou se justifie au regard des motifs exceptionnels qu’il fait valoir peut se voir délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention ” salarié “, ” travailleur temporaire ” ou ” vie privée et familiale “, sans que soit opposable la condition prévue à l’article L. 412-1.” The same article adds a procedural guarantee for long-settled applicants: “Lorsqu’elle envisage de refuser la demande d’admission exceptionnelle au séjour formée par un étranger qui justifie par tout moyen résider habituellement en France depuis plus de dix ans, l’autorité administrative est tenue de soumettre cette demande pour avis à la commission du titre de séjour prévue à l’article L. 432-14.” Three consequences follow for a British partner. First, the long-stay visa condition can be lifted, so even a partner already living in France can apply. Second, everything turns on proof: length of the relationship, stability and duration of shared life in France, integration, and the intensity of family ties on French soil. Third, after ten years of proven habitual residence by any means, the préfecture must seek the opinion of the residence-permit commission, the commission du titre de séjour, before refusing, which is a real procedural shield. Build the file accordingly: dated proof of shared address year by year, joint bills and accounts, evidence of French language learning and community ties, and witness statements describing the shared life in concrete detail.

British parents of a French child stand on firmer ground, whether married or not. Article L423-7 of the CESEDA provides: “L’étranger qui est père ou mère d’un enfant français mineur résidant en France et qui établit contribuer effectivement à l’entretien et à l’éducation de l’enfant dans les conditions prévues par l’article 371-2 du code civil, depuis la naissance de celui-ci ou depuis au moins deux ans, se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention ” vie privée et familiale ” d’une durée d’un an, sans que soit opposable la condition prévue à l’article L. 412-1.” The card is therefore a right when three facts coincide: a French minor child living in France, a real contribution to the child’s upkeep and education as article 371-2 of the Civil Code defines parental duties, maintained since birth or for at least two years, and again the visa condition is lifted. School certificates naming the British parent, payment records for school, health and daily expenses, and evidence of daily care prove the effective contribution far better than assertions. For unmarried couples with a French child, this route often succeeds where the partner route alone would struggle, and it should be pleaded expressly and separately in every application and every appeal. Where neither the partner route nor the parent route fits, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights remains the backstop: tribunals weigh the reality and depth of the family life in France against the aims of the refusal, and the Paris decision of 12 October 2022 quoted above shows how a documented shared life defeats a refusal built on suspicion.

B. How does regroupement familial bring a British husband, wife or child to join a settled resident?

Regroupement familial, family reunification, is the mirror image of the spouse route: it serves a foreigner already settled in France who wants to be joined by family living abroad. A British professional, student turned worker, or retiree holding a French residence permit can therefore bring a British husband or wife and minor children from the United Kingdom through this procedure, while the husband or wife of a French citizen must use the spouse route of Part I instead. Article L434-1 of the CESEDA frames the application: “Le regroupement familial est sollicité pour l’ensemble des personnes désignées aux articles L. 434-2 à L. 434-4. Un regroupement partiel peut toutefois être autorisé pour des motifs tenant à l’intérêt des enfants.” The sponsor, the demandeur, must first qualify. Article L434-2 of the CESEDA provides: “L’étranger qui séjourne régulièrement en France depuis au moins dix-huit mois, sous couvert d’un des titres d’une durée de validité d’au moins un an prévus par le présent code ou par des conventions internationales, peut demander à bénéficier de son droit à être rejoint, au titre du regroupement familial : 1° Par son conjoint, si ce dernier est âgé d’au moins dix-huit ans ; 2° Et par les enfants du couple mineurs de dix-huit ans.” Eighteen months of regular residence under a permit valid for at least one year is therefore the entry ticket, and the arriving spouse must be at least eighteen.

The application is then judged against three substantive conditions. Article L434-7 of the CESEDA provides: “L’étranger qui en fait la demande est autorisé à être rejoint au titre du regroupement familial s’il remplit les conditions suivantes : 1° Il justifie de ressources stables et suffisantes pour subvenir aux besoins de sa famille ; 2° Il dispose ou disposera à la date d’arrivée de sa famille en France d’un logement considéré comme normal pour une famille comparable vivant dans la même région géographique ; 3° Il se conforme aux principes essentiels qui, conformément aux lois de la République, régissent la vie familiale en France, pays d’accueil.” Income and housing refusals are the two great battlegrounds for British sponsors. On income, the courts measure stable resources averaged over twelve months against the minimum wage, the SMIC, increased by one tenth for a family of four or five, as the Administrative Court of Appeal of Bordeaux recalled on 21 February 2023 (22BX01053), citing the regulatory rule that “Pour l’application du 1° de l’article L. 411-5, les ressources du demandeur et de son conjoint qui alimenteront de façon stable le budget de la famille sont appréciées sur une période de douze mois par référence à la moyenne mensuelle du salaire minimum de croissance au cours de cette période.” Only stable resources count: permanent salary, established self-employed income, and pensions qualify, while casual or undeclared earnings do not, so a British sponsor with variable freelance income should present twelve full months of records and, where possible, a permanent contract. On housing, the same decision recalled that a qualifying home must meet minimum surface and decency standards: “Pour l’application du 2° de l’article L. 411-5, est considéré comme normal un logement qui : / 1° Présente une superficie habitable totale au moins égale à : (…) / – en zones B1 et B2 : 24 m² pour un ménage sans enfant ou deux personnes, augmentée de 10 m² par personne jusqu’à huit (…) ; / 2° Satisfait aux conditions de salubrité et d’équipement fixées aux articles 2 et 3 du décret n° 2002-120 du 30 janvier 2002 relatif aux caractéristiques du logement décent pris pour l’application de l’article 187 de la loi n° 2000-1208 du 13 décembre 2000 relative à la solidarité et au renouvellement urbain. (…) “ In that Bordeaux case the prefect had rejected the application over the flat’s habitability for the family, and the court reviewed the housing evidence in detail rather than deferring blindly to the administration. British sponsors should therefore commission the home inspection by the OFII, the French office for immigration and integration, with care: clear the outstanding repairs first, gather the exact surface measurements, and keep the decency certificates, because the inspection report largely decides the file. A refusal of regroupement familial is challenged before the administrative tribunal within two months, and the judge re-examines income, housing and family principles in full, annulling refusals where the prefect misread the figures or the flat. Note the third condition as well: polygamous households and forced arrangements breach the essential principles of French family life and will sink any application, a point British sponsors with complex family histories must address honestly from the start.

Conclusion

British couples reuniting in France after Brexit win when they enter through the right door with the right papers. Married to a French citizen, the British spouse holds a genuine right: a long-stay visa that can be refused only for fraud, annulment or a threat to public order, with the burden of proving fraud on the administration, then a one-year vie privée et familiale card once the shared life, the French nationality of the spouse and the transcription of any foreign marriage are established. Married in France with six months of shared life, the visa requirement itself falls away. Refused at the consulate, appeal within two months to the visa-refusal commission before taking the case to the administrative tribunal in Nantes; refused at the préfecture, appeal to the local administrative tribunal within two months and ask the judge to order the card, because disproportionate refusals are annulled. Not married, the British partner has no automatic right and must build an exceptional-admission file on the depth and duration of the shared life, while the British parent of a French child holds a direct right once the effective contribution to the child is proved. And the British resident settled for eighteen months can bring a spouse and children through regroupement familial by satisfying the income and housing tests with twelve months of stable records and a decent, correctly sized home. Across every route the same discipline decides the outcome: file early, translate everything, prove shared life with converging records rather than photographs alone, and challenge every refusal within its deadline instead of reapplying empty-handed.

Need a quick opinion on your case

A telephone consultation within 48 hours with an avocat of the firm, for British spouses, partners and parents refused a visa or residence card, threatened with removal, or blocked in a family reunification file. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write via our contact page. Our office in Paris advises British families reuniting throughout France.