You bought the stone house in the Dordogne before Brexit, or you inherited it from your parents, and for years the rhythm was simple: shuttle back and forth as you pleased, winter in Kent, spring in France, summer with the grandchildren by the pool. Since the United Kingdom left the European Union, that freedom has a meter running on it. As a British citizen you are now a third-country national, which means the Schengen 90/180-day rule decides how long you may stay, a new biometric Entry/Exit System records every crossing electronically, and an overstay can follow you for years in the form of a removal order or a re-entry ban. This guide explains the counting method that border officers actually use, the file of evidence you should carry every time you travel, what happens if you are refused entry or accused of overstaying, and the lawful route to longer stays through the long-stay visitor visa and the one-year visitor residence card. Every French legal term is explained the first time it appears, and every decisive rule is linked to its official text so you can check it yourself. Part I sets out how long you may stay and what the new border records about you. Part II deals with things going wrong and with staying longer lawfully, including how to challenge a refusal or a removal order before the French courts.
I. How Long You May Stay in France Without a Visa and What the New Border Records About You
A. Counting Your 90 Days in Any 180: the Rolling Window, the Stamps, and the Electronic File That Now Does the Arithmetic
The starting point is a European rule applied at every French border post. France admits British visitors without a visa for short stays, but the admission is capped: 90 days within any 180-day period across the whole Schengen area, not 90 days per country. The French statute that frames entry says so expressly. Article L. 311-1 of the Code on the Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum (Code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile, known as the CESEDA) provides that to enter France every foreigner must hold the documents required by international conventions and by Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/399, the Schengen Borders Code: “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)”. British citizens are exempt from the short-stay visa, which is why you can still travel with just your passport, but the 90-day ceiling in that same European regulation applies to you in full. The companion French provision confirms the shape of visa-free travel: Article L. 312-1 of the CESEDA states that any foreigner wishing to enter France for a stay not exceeding three months must apply to the French diplomatic and consular authorities for a short-stay visa, under the conditions of Article 6 of the 2016/399 Regulation: “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.” Where no visa is required, the three-month logic of that text is exactly the 90-day allowance the British government describes on its official guidance page.
The British guidance, which you should read alongside the French statutes, puts the arithmetic in plain terms. The official GOV.UK page on travelling to the EU and Schengen area confirms that you do not need a visa for short trips of 90 days or less in a 180-day period as a tourist, and that you can travel to more than one Schengen country within that period. The same page warns that visits to Schengen countries in the 180 days before you travel count towards your 90 days, and that overstaying the visa-free limit may get you banned from entering Schengen countries for up to three years. That last sentence is the one second-home owners underestimate most. The ban of up to three years is not a theoretical power; it is the standard consequence the guidance attaches to an overstay, and it would make your French house unreachable except through a long-stay visa procedure. Counting correctly is therefore not administrative trivia. It is the difference between keeping your way of life and losing it for years.
The count itself works as a rolling window, and this is where most mistakes happen. Take any day you are present in the Schengen area, then look backwards over the 180-day period ending on that day, including that day. Count every day you were present in any Schengen country within that window. The total must not exceed 90. Each new day shifts the window forward by one day, so days spent in France nine months ago eventually drop out, while a long summer stay keeps weighing on your allowance deep into the autumn. Two consequences follow that surprise many owners. First, the 180 days are counted across all Schengen states together, so a fortnight driving through Spain and Italy eats the same allowance as a fortnight at your house in France. Second, both the day you arrive and the day you leave count as days of presence, so short frequent hops can consume the allowance faster than one long stay of the same total length. Before every trip, sit down with a calendar and your passport stamps, list every Schengen entry and exit over the last six months, and verify that the planned trip keeps every single day of presence within the limit, not just the arrival date.
Your passport itself is the next checkpoint, and the rule here has invalidated many holidays at the departure gate. The official GOV.UK entry requirements for France state that France follows Schengen area rules: your passport must have a date of issue less than ten years before the date you arrive, and an expiry date at least three months after the date you plan to leave the Schengen area. The ten-year point is measured from the date of issue, not the expiry date, which matters for passports renewed before 1 October 2018 that carried extra months over ten years. The guidance adds that you will be denied entry if you do not have a valid travel document or try to use a passport reported lost or stolen. Check both dates before booking anything non-refundable, and remember that members of your family travelling on different passports each need to satisfy the same test individually.
Even with a valid passport and days of allowance remaining, entry is not automatic. At French border control you may be asked to show proof of travel insurance demonstrating you can cover emergency costs, to prove that you have sufficient funds for your stay, to show proof of your accommodation, and to show a return or onward ticket. That list comes directly from the British government’s France entry guidance, and it mirrors the European entry conditions the French officer applies. If you are staying with family, friends or a third party, you may be asked for a welcome invitation called an attestation d’accueil (a hosting certificate), which your French host must obtain from their local mayor’s office, the mairie, and send to you as the original document before you enter France. The French statute behind that certificate is Article L. 313-1 of the CESEDA, which requires any foreigner declaring a stay of three months or less in the context of a family or private visit to present proof of accommodation in the form of an attestation d’accueil signed by the person offering lodging: “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.” Each request to validate such a certificate costs the host a 30-euro tax, as Article L. 313-6 of the CESEDA provides: “Chaque demande de validation d’une attestation d’accueil donne lieu à la perception d’une taxe d’un montant de 30 euros acquittée par l’hébergeant, recouvrée comme en matière de droit de timbre.” If you own your French home, the position is simpler but still documentary: the guidance says you may need to show evidence of ownership or tenancy of your property, such as a tax bill or a utility bill. A folder kept for every trip, containing your passport copy, insurance certificate, recent bank statements, the title deed or latest taxe foncière bill (the French local property tax), and your return booking, turns a stressful interrogation into a two-minute formality.
B. The EES Today and ETIAS Tomorrow: Biometric Registration Now, a 20-Euro Travel Authorisation Later
The second great change at the border is technological. Passport stamps are being replaced by the Entry/Exit System, the EES, an automated European database that registers non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay each time they cross the external borders. The official European Union page British guidance on the new Schengen entry requirements for France defines it plainly: the system covers travellers not holding EU, Icelandic, Liechtenstein, Norwegian or Swiss nationality, short stay means up to 90 days within any 180-day period calculated as a single period for all participating countries, and your entries and exits, or entry refusals, are registered electronically in the EES. Three practical consequences follow for British owners. First, the arithmetic described above is no longer only your private calendar exercise; the machine keeps its own count from your recorded crossings, which makes undeclared extra days far harder to hide than in the era of faint ink stamps. Second, the record lasts: the British guidance notes that your digital EES record is valid for three years, so a disputed crossing can resurface long after the trip. Third, the process takes longer at first: on your first visit since the system started you may be asked to register fingerprints and a photograph at a special booth before the immigration desk, with checks possible again on exit, and juxtaposed controls mean this can happen before you even leave Britain, at the Port of Dover, the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkestone or Eurostar at St Pancras International. Children aged eleven or younger do not have fingerprints scanned but may still have their photograph taken. Allow extra time for every crossing, especially at peak holiday periods when the new booths create queues.
If the EES record is wrong, correct it immediately rather than hoping nobody notices. The British guidance says that if you believe your time in the Schengen area has been recorded incorrectly, you should raise it with border officials and be ready to provide supporting evidence, and that if you believe you were entered into the system incorrectly you should approach border officials at your next crossing and request a correction, carrying documentation of any exemption. This is where your travel folder earns its keep a second time: boarding passes, booking confirmations and the stamps or records of neighbouring countries prove where you actually were. Long-term residents of a Schengen country are exempt from the EES, so once you hold a French residence permit or long-stay visa you leave this system behind for France, and time spent under that permit or visa does not count towards your 90-day visa-free allowance elsewhere in the Schengen area. Keep your permit and passport together whenever you travel, and carry proof of the exemption so a hurried officer does not register you as a visitor by mistake.
Behind the EES comes a second system, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System, ETIAS, and here precision matters because much of what circulates online is premature. The consolidated text of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240 establishing the European Travel Information and Authorisation System states three facts as they stand: ETIAS is the new travel authorisation for visa-exempt travellers to enter thirty European countries, it is currently not in operation and no applications are being collected, and the Union will announce the specific start date several months before launch: ETIAS is currently not in operation and no applications for travel authorisations are being collected. When it does go live, the same official site describes the traveller journey in five steps, including payment of a 20-euro application fee and a stay of up to 90 days. For now, the only correct advice is negative: do not pay any website claiming to issue your ETIAS today, do not postpone a trip waiting for it, and budget the future 20-euro fee and the online application into your travel routine once the launch is formally announced. Anyone who tells you ETIAS is already mandatory is either mistaken or selling something.
II. When the Stay Goes Wrong or You Need Longer: Refusal, Overstay, the Visitor Route, and How to Challenge
A. Refused at the Border or Accused of Overstaying: the Written Decision, the Waiting Zone, the Judge, and Your One Clear Day
A refusal of entry at a French airport or port follows a strict ritual, and knowing the ritual is your first protection. Article L. 332-1 of the CESEDA allows a refusal decision against a foreigner who does not satisfy the admission conditions: “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.” The decision cannot be a shrug at the booth. Article L. 332-2 of the CESEDA requires it to be written and reasoned, taken by an authorised officer, with notification of your rights: the right to warn or have warned the person you were to visit, your consulate or a lawyer of your choice, and the right to refuse removal before one clear day has passed: “La décision de refus d’entrée, qui est écrite et motivée, est prise par un agent relevant d’une catégorie fixée par voie réglementaire.” The notification must mention the right to warn the host, the consulate or a chosen lawyer: “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.” It must also mention the right to refuse removal before one clear day has passed: “Elle mentionne le droit de l’étranger de refuser d’être rapatrié avant l’expiration du délai d’un jour franc”. Finally, “La décision et la notification des droits qui l’accompagne lui sont communiquées dans une langue qu’il comprend.” That délai d’un jour franc, one full clear day, is confirmed by Article L. 333-2 of the CESEDA: “L’étranger peut refuser d’être rapatrié avant l’expiration du délai d’un jour franc.” Use that day. Telephone your family, your consulate and a lawyer, gather your documents, and do not sign any statement you do not understand. The decision and the rights notice must be communicated to you in a language you understand, with particular attention to vulnerable persons, so insist on an English version or an interpreter before answering substantive questions.
Instead of immediate removal, you may be placed in a waiting zone, the zone d’attente, situated in the airport, port or international railway station. Article L. 341-1 of the CESEDA authorises this placement for the time strictly necessary for your departure. Police custody beyond the initial period is not at the administration’s free disposal: Article L. 342-1 of the CESEDA provides that keeping you in the waiting zone beyond ninety-six hours from the initial placement must be authorised by a judge of the judicial court, for a maximum of eight days: “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.” That judge is the juge des libertés et de la détention (the liberty and custody judge, usually shortened to JLD), and the hearing is a genuine adversarial examination, not a rubber stamp. The administration must justify the extension, you appear with a chosen or appointed lawyer and an interpreter, and the judge verifies that your rights were respected and that the measure is proportionate. Orders of the Paris court of appeal reviewing these JLD decisions, such as its ordinance of 20 September 2023 (RG 23/03920) on an appeal against a Bobigny JLD order maintaining a traveller in the waiting zone for eight days, show that appellate control over waiting-zone detention is real and routinely exercised.
A recent courtroom example shows exactly which evidence turns these cases. On 4 June 2025 the liberty and custody judge of the Bobigny judicial court, ruling as case RG 25/04934 on a request to extend a traveller’s waiting-zone detention, refused the extension. The traveller had been refused entry a few days earlier on the ground that she held only two booked hotel nights and allegedly insufficient funds for a seventeen-day tourist stay. At the hearing she produced bank statements proving a balance that corroborated her account, showed she had brought her return journey forward and documented it, and her travel insurance was undisputed. The judge held that she had demonstrated, through documents debated adversarially, that she possessed sufficient means of subsistence for the period and the nature of the stay, plus her return, and that prolonging detention would be disproportionate to the exercise of her fundamental rights, in particular her freedom of movement within the Schengen area as authorised by her visa: “Madame [V] [Y] justifie ainsi par les pièces produites, des conditions matérielles de son séjour en ESPAGNE, où elle dispose d’une somme supérieure à celle exigée pour s’y rendre et pour y séjourner pendant la durée envisagée”, and “Le but de la prolongation demandée apparait ainsi à ce jour disproportionné à l’exercice des droits fondamentaux reconnus par l’Etat français dont la personne dispose, en particulier sa liberté d’aller et venir dans l’espace SCHENGEN autorisée par le visa obtenu”. The lesson for a British traveller is direct: the officer’s first calculation of your means is not the last word, and bank statements, a return ticket and an insurance certificate produced before the judge can undo a refusal built on thin figures. Carry originals and keep digital copies accessible from your telephone.
The graver scenario is an overstay discovered inside France, which leads to a removal order called an obligation de quitter le territoire français, usually shortened to OQTF. Article L. 611-1 of the CESEDA lists the cases, and the second covers you precisely: a foreigner who entered under a now-expired visa, or who, not being subject to the visa requirement, entered France more than three months ago and remained without holding a residence permit: “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”. As a visa-exempt British citizen, remaining in France beyond your 90 days without a residence permit or long-stay visa places you squarely in that category. The order normally grants a voluntary departure period of thirty days from notification, under Article L. 612-1 of the CESEDA: “L’étranger faisant l’objet d’une décision portant obligation de quitter le territoire français dispose d’un délai de départ volontaire de trente jours à compter de la notification de cette décision.” It can also be accompanied by a ban on returning to French territory, an interdiction de retour, which, combined with the Schengen-wide logic of the British guidance on bans of up to three years, can shut you out far beyond one missed flight home.
An OQTF is challengeable, and the deadlines are brutally short, so prepare before you need them. Article L. 614-1 of the CESEDA provides that the removal order, together with the related residence decision, departure-period decision and any return ban, may be challenged before the administrative court: “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.” Where the fast-track procedure applies, Article L. 921-1 of the CESEDA sets the tempo: the court must be seised within seven days of notification, and it rules within fifteen days of the appeal being lodged: “le tribunal administratif peut être saisi dans le délai de sept jours à compter de la notification de la décision. Sous réserve de l’article L. 921-4, il statue dans un délai de quinze jours à compter de l’introduction du recours.” Seven days means instructing a lawyer the same week, assembling proof of your entries and exits, your EES record, your ties and the reasons for the prolonged stay, and filing without waiting for a translation of every document. If you live in Paris or the inner suburbs, your order will typically come from the Prefect of Police, the préfet de police, and your appeal goes to the administrative court of your district, so identify the competent court and a lawyer experienced in foreigners’ litigation, the contentieux des étrangers, before the deadline forces a rushed choice. Never ignore an OQTF and hope it lapses: an unchallenged order becomes enforceable, can be executed by forced removal, and poisons every future visa or residence application.
B. Staying Longer Lawfully: the Long-Stay Visitor Visa and the One-Year Visitor Card That Forbids Work
The lawful answer to a longer stay is not to stretch the 90 days but to change status before they run out. French law draws a bright line at three months. Below it, short stays follow the visa-free logic described in Part I; above it, you need a long-stay visa and then a residence permit. Article L. 312-2 of the CESEDA requires any foreigner wishing to enter France for more than three months to apply to the French consular authorities for a long-stay visa, which may cover stays of a family nature, as a visitor, a student, a trainee or for professional activity: “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”. The mirror rule inside France is Article L. 411-1 of the CESEDA: any adult wishing to stay in France for more than three months must hold one of the listed residence documents, beginning with the long-stay visa itself. For retired owners and remote landlords who simply want to live in their French house for six months, the relevant category is the visitor, the visiteur, and the application is made from the United Kingdom at the French consulate before travelling, never by converting a tourist stay after arrival.
The visitor route has three conditions, and each generates its own file of proof. Article L. 426-20 of the CESEDA grants a one-year temporary residence card marked “visitor” to the foreigner who proves they can live from their own resources alone, at a level at least equal to the annual net minimum wage, the salaire minimum de croissance (SMIC) net annuel, who holds health insurance covering the stay, and who undertakes not to work in France: “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. Il doit en outre justifier de la possession d’une assurance maladie couvrant la durée de son séjour et prendre l’engagement de n’exercer en France aucune activité professionnelle. Par dérogation à l’article L. 414-10, cette carte n’autorise pas l’exercice d’une activité professionnelle.” In practice the consulate examines twelve months of bank statements, pension statements, rental income schedules and savings, a comprehensive private health insurance policy with repatriation cover for the full year rather than a basic travel policy, and proof of accommodation in France such as your title deed. The third condition deserves emphasis because it ends many plans: the visitor card strictly forbids any professional activity in France, whether employed or self-employed, and working remotely for your British employer from your French desk while holding visitor status breaches the undertaking you signed. If you intend to work, even remotely, you need a work-authorised status instead, which is a different procedure with an employment contract and a work permit at its centre. For readers whose project is residence plus work, our companion guide on which long-stay visa and which residence permit British newcomers need, and how to challenge a refusal or removal order maps the full range of visas and permits beyond the visitor route.
Start the visitor application at least three months before your intended departure, through the official France-Visas wizard at france-visas.gouv.fr, which confirms the exact category and document list for your situation, since consular practice on evidence varies and the British guidance itself refers you to French government requirements for stays beyond 90 days. Apply from the United Kingdom, attend the biometric appointment and the interview, and do not travel to France to wait for the decision. Once the long-stay visa is issued and validated online after arrival, and once the one-year visitor card is delivered by the prefecture, the préfecture, of your French home, your position transforms: time spent under the visa and the card does not count towards the 90-day visa-free allowance, your EES visitor registration falls away for France, and you can plan the year around school terms, medical treatment or renovation works instead of around a countdown. Renewal is applied for at the prefecture two months before expiry, with updated proof of resources and insurance, and several consecutive visitor cards can later open the path to a multi-year card for established residents. If the consulate or the prefecture refuses, the refusal must be reasoned and it can be challenged, first by an informal reconsideration with corrected evidence and then before the administrative court, within the short deadlines examined in the previous section. A refusal that simply states insufficient resources without engaging with your statements can be attacked precisely on that ground, so keep copies of everything you filed.
Conclusion
Living between Britain and a French house after Brexit is entirely possible, but it now runs on documents, calendars and deadlines rather than on habit. Count every Schengen day in its rolling 180-day window before each trip, keep your passport within the ten-year issue and three-month expiry rules, and travel with the folder that proves your insurance, your funds, your accommodation and your return. Expect the biometric booths of the Entry/Exit System, allow the extra time they demand, and check that your electronic record matches reality. If an officer refuses you entry, require the written reasoned decision, use your clear day to call your family, your consulate and a lawyer, and put your bank statements and return ticket before the custody judge rather than accepting the first calculation. If you have already overstayed, treat any removal order as a seven-day emergency and challenge it with evidence, not with explanations alone. And when ninety days are structurally not enough for the life you want in France, apply from Britain for the long-stay visitor visa, prove resources at least equal to the annual net minimum wage with full-year health cover, and respect its absolute bar on working. Owners who master these five reflexes keep their French home a place of holidays, not of litigation.