Expat victory as France permits Britons to stay abroad for six months without visa

Many expats had been campaigning for a change to the existing rules which restricts them to 90 days in the country in every 180-day period.

Following Brexit, Boris Johnson agreed to the system in early 2021 but many felt the decision was unfair because French citizens were still allowed to stay in the UK for up to six months without a visa, whether they owned a property or not.

Founder of the France Visa Free Facebook group, Steven Jolly described his excitement at hearing the news about the rule change.

He said: "After two years of campaigning it’s a great achievement to see that France is close to lawfully granting long-stay visas automatically to those British citizens with a secondary residence in France.

"This is a huge step in the right direction for the France Visa Free campaign, and a recognition that those with a home in France should be allowed to continue living in their homes in just same way that they did before Brexit without having to make France their primary residence.

"The current visa process is time-consuming and expensive, and really not equitable or reasonable, given that French people can spend six months per visit in the UK, even if they don’t own property.

"This legislation recognises the problems and is a credible attempt to address the problems."

Previously, second homeowners who wanted to stay longer than 90 days had to apply for a long-stay visa - which they said was a lengthy process.

Many people still have their reserves about how the system will work and when as no implementation date has been confirmed.

Jolly added: “At the moment all we know is that a law has been passed. The details on how this will work will come from a Council of State. Indeed our next phase should be to lobby ideas on how this change could work.

"There is a process that needs to be established. In addition, a note of caution needs to be exercised, the law could be deemed unconstitutional as it favours one group of foreigners over another.”

One option could mean British second homeowners will need to show French border police their property deeds when they enter the country.

Jolly added: “France is helping us solve the 90-in-180 day problem but only for some British visitors; ultimately we would also like to see every British visitor to France treated in exactly the same way as French visitors to the UK today, and given a six month per visit visa exemption or automatically issued visa.”