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Q&A: French minister to answer Brexit questions from anxious Britons

France's Europe Minister will be answering questions from anxious Britons about what a post-Brexit world has in store for them in a live Q&A session on Friday evening.

Published: 1 March 2019 10:15 CET

Q&A: French minister to answer Brexit questions from anxious Britons

France's Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau. Photo: AFP

The Q&A with France's Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau will take place on Friday from 6.30 pm – 7.30 pm (Paris time) on Facebook live and will be available on both the Facebook pages of the minister and the France Diplomatie.

Questions can be posted in French or English however it's important to note that the answers will be in French. If you would like to take part you can already post questions at this link now.

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So far people have posed questions covering healthcare, problems with getting an appointment for a carte de sejour residency permit at local prefectures and issues affecting those who own second homes in France.

One person has asked if France will support the 'Costa amendement', referring to an amendment that gained the backing of the UK government this week, which is aimed at protecting the rights of Brits after Brexit from Conservative MP Alberto Costa.

Loiseau has suggested that questions could cover topics such as how Brexit will affect Britons in France, how businesses could be affected, and what Brexit could mean for students with plans to study in the UK.

A law covering the rights of Britons living in France in the case of a no-deal Brexit was published by the French government in February however while it was supposed to ease the concerns, many have found that it's only thrown up more questions about their situation and what the future holds for them.

Member comments

Hounddogman - 5 March 2019 at 17:39 CET

I have to say I found this session of little practical value. Many of the questions of key concern to expat Brits went unanswered (including my own) not least because they need to be answered not by a Minister for Europe but by someone from the Minsistry of the Interior (who are the appropriate ministry for questions about cartes de sejour). In addition much of the space and time available was taken up by some troll posting pointless and insulting comments.

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'Be ready to wait': Your tips for getting a French visa post-Brexit

Whether you’re moving to France to live, or you’re a second-home owner wanting to spend more than 90 days out of every 180 in France, if you’re British you will now need a visa.

You can find more on how to apply for a visa, and how to understand what type of visa you need, in our visa section HERE.

But how these systems work in practice is not always the same as the theory.

To learn more about the process of getting a visa as a UK national, The Local asked British readers for their experiences of going through the system.

The consensus among respondents was that the whole thing was bureaucratic, though there were notable differences in experiences that ranged from the “easy” to the “complicated” and “time-consuming”, while the advice for future applicants was, routinely, have all your paperwork ready – and be prepared for a lengthy wait at one of the UK’s TLS centres.

Appointments

Like most visas, French visas for UK nationals must be applied for before you leave home. You can find a full explanation of the process here, but the basic outline is that you apply for the visa online, and then have an in-person appointment in the UK in order to present your paperwork.

Sue Clarke told us: “As long as you get all your paperwork together correctly and in the right order, the time it takes to receive your passport back with the visa in it once TLS has sent it off is only a few days.

“TLS – the centre which works on behalf of the French Embassy to collate your application – is so very busy,” she added. “That part of the process took hours even when you have an appointment.”

READ ALSO EXPLAINED: What type of French visa do you need?

“The visa process itself was fairly well run, and a decision for the initial visa was quick,” wrote Ian Sheppard, who successfully applied for a visa in July 2022.

“Although getting the follow up residence permit was a pain, [and] took longer than expected, and there was little to no communication with severely limited ways to get in touch about the application.”

Sheppard thought that, biometrics apart, the process could have taken place online, and wondered whether the follow-up residence permit application could be more closely linked to the initial visa application, “rather than effectively submitting the same application twice”.

Georgina Ann Jolliffe described the process as “stressful”.

“A lot of the initial stage was unclear and I needed a lot of reassurance about the visa trumping the Schengen 90 days. (The Local helped on that one),” she wrote.

“[The] lack of ready communication was very stressful. It could be slicker, however staff at Manchester TLS were excellent.”

Jacqueline Maudslay, meanwhile, described the process as “complicated”, saying: “The waiting times for the appointment with the handling agent (TLS in the UK) are long and difficult to book online. We applied for a long-stay visa and were given a short-stay visa, with no reasoning and no option of talking to anyone.

“We had met every criteria for the long-stay visa. There needs to be a contact link with the French Consular website directly for discussing visa applications.”

Handling agent TLS’s website – the first port of call for applicants from the UK – was a target for criticism.

“The TLS system is probably the most user unfriendly system I have ever used,” wrote Susan Kirby. “It throws up errors for no legitimate reason and even changes data you have keyed in. Dates are in American format so you have to be very careful and it can be very difficult to edit.”

Bea Addison, who applied for a visa in September 2021 with a view to retiring in France, agreed that it was complicated and believes the French system is chaotic and badly organised compared to other countries. “Even staff in the French Embassy in London were not knowledgeable of the process and documentation,” she wrote.

“The renewal in France was applied for in July 2022 … we have received an attestation that we will be granted renewal visas, which expired in October 2022, but we have not yet received a date to attend the préfecture due to a backlog.

Second-home owners

Many of our survey respondents were not moving to France, but were instead second-home owners who did not want to be constrained by the 90-day rule.

They have the option of remaining residents of the UK and applying for a short-stay French visitor visa – which must be renewed every year.

Second-home owner Peter Green told us: “Our appointment with TLS was delayed by two and a half hours and the whole experience was chaotic.

“We now have to go through exactly the same process again to get a visa for 2023. With second-home owners there should be a fast track that just involves proving financial viability, nothing else has changed. The system needs to be fully computerised.”

Second-home owner Alan Cranston told us his application met with no problems, but came with “unwanted cost and effort”.

“Our six-month visa was for our first stint at our house in France in the spring, and that then overlapped our second visit in the autumn which was under Schengen. How that is handled seems to be a muddle (we did not leave the country for a day at the end of the six months, as some advise),” he said.

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