After entering France on a D visa: validation, ANEF, the first card and travel

After entering France on a D visa you have two deadlines. A VLS-TS is validated online in ANEF within three months, with a €300 tax. On a three-month «talent» visa, the card application is filed within two months. Leaving Schengen is safe with a validated visa, a card or an attestation de décision favorable, not with an attestation de dépôt.

This is where plans most often break: the visa has run out, the prefecture is still deciding, and you need to fly to your parents, to the sale of a flat or on company business. ANEF issues three documents for the waiting period, and they give different rights.

What is ANEF

ANEF (Administration numérique des étrangers en France) is the French Interior Ministry portal where foreign nationals handle their residence online; in 2024 alone, 1,120,942 applications were filed through it. It handles VLS-TS validation, first cards and renewals, travel documents, citizenship and changes of address; employers request work authorisation there too. The address is administration-etrangers-en-france.interieur.gouv.fr. If your procedure has moved to ANEF, you file through the portal; applications for some cards are still taken by the prefecture. Anyone who cannot use the portal is offered an in-person appointment instead — the “solution de substitution” under decree No. 2023-191 (service-public: ANEF services, Interior Ministry answer, 2025).

Titre de séjour: what it is

A titre de séjour is a French residence permit — the document that gives a foreign national the right to live in France for more than 3 months. There are three levels:

• temporary card (carte de séjour temporaire) — up to 1 year;
• multi-year card (carte pluriannuelle) — as a rule for 4 years, and only after a temporary card or a VLS-TS (service-public);
• resident card (carte de résident) — 10 years, renewable, usually after five years in France (service-public).

A D visa is permission to enter, a sticker in your passport: on a three-month visa the prefecture issues the card once you are in France. The exception is a VLS-TS valid for 4 to 12 months: once validated in ANEF it serves as a residence permit until it ends, after which you need a card.

Which visa you hold: VLS-TS or a three-month visa

The first thing to do after entry is look at the visa sticker. The type of visa decides everything that follows (service-public).

• VLS-TS (visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour) runs from 4 to 12 months. It serves as a residence permit, but only once validated, and there is no need to go to the prefecture for a card during that time. Visitors, employees, students and talent holders staying under a year usually arrive this way.
• A visa marked «carte de séjour à solliciter dans les 2 mois suivant l’arrivée» means applying for a card within two months of entry. That is the case for a talent holder coming for a year or more: the consulate issues a three-month visa and the prefecture issues the multi-year card (talent card).
• A temporary visa (VLS-T) needs no card and allows none: you leave when it ends.

Which grounds lead to which visa, and how much money to show, is covered in the article on how to move to France.

VLS-TS validation: three months and €300

A VLS-TS is validated online on the ANEF portal within three months of entry, and the tax is paid at the same time. Since 1 May 2026 it has been €300 instead of €200; the reduced €100 rate applies to students, family reunification, seasonal workers, job seekers and business founders (service-public). Visitors do not get the reduced rate.

• What validation gives you. Lawful stay and the right to cross the Schengen border again. Do not plan trips outside Schengen before it.
• Travel in Europe. A VLS-TS lets you travel in Schengen without another visa, provided you spend no more than 90 days in other countries during its validity.
• What you need. The visa details, the date of entry, an address in France, an email address and a bank card for payment. After payment you receive a PDF confirmation, which you keep until the visa ends.
• Do not put it off. In practice the portal and the payment page do fail, and a few weeks of margin matter more than saving time.

The first card application in ANEF: deadlines and file

The deadline depends on the visa. On a three-month visa, within two months of entry. On a VLS-TS, if you want to stay, no earlier than four and no later than two months before it ends (visiteur card). Filing late costs an extra €180, the droit de visa de régularisation, unless there is force majeure. More important than the money: the document that keeps your stay lawful is issued only for a complete file filed on time.

The file for any card includes:

• the visa or a valid card, and the passport;
• proof of address less than six months old;
• a digital photo with an e-photo code from an approved photographer;
• a signed commitment to respect the principles of the Republic;
• documents for your ground: for a talent holder, the ministry certificate, the diploma, proof of €30,000 in the project; for a visitor, resources and insurance. The full lists are in the articles on the talent passport categories, the talent passport for entrepreneurs and the visiteur visa.

The address. The prefecture accepts an electricity, gas, water, phone or internet bill, a lease or a rent receipt. If you are staying with friends, you need their signed attestation d’hébergement — not to be confused with the invitation for a visiting guest (attestation d’accueil) — and a copy of their ID. In a hotel, the hotel’s certificate and the latest monthly invoice (service-public). If you rent for the first weeks, make sure the contract works for the prefecture: more in the article on renting a home in France.

Récépissé, APRI, décision favorable: what each document gives

While the prefecture reviews the application, ANEF issues documents step by step, and a paper application gets a récépissé (service-public: ANEF documents, récépissé). They are confused all the time, though the difference is fundamental.

On a first filing, the APRI and the décision favorable give a right to work only for certain cards, talent and salarié among them; on a renewal, the rights of the previous card continue. A visitor may not work in France at any stage.

Can you leave France while waiting for the card?

The rules on returning from outside Schengen are set out on the service-public page on returning to France, and they produce two different situations.

• You came on a VLS-TS and applied for the card on time. If the file is complete, the APRI together with the expired visa and passport lets you return: service-public explicitly names an expired long-stay visa. The exception is a visa marked «Dispense temporaire de carte de séjour».
• You came on a three-month «talent» visa. While the visa is valid, you can leave and return on it. Once it has expired with no decision, you will be let back in only with an attestation de décision favorable. With an attestation de dépôt or a first-filing APRI, you need a visa de retour from the French consulate in your country of residence.
• A prefectoral return visa exists, but only in humanitarian cases and force majeure: it is requested before departure, costs €6 in tax stamps, is at the prefect’s discretion and allows entry only through a French border.

An example. A company founder with his wife and two children enters on 1 March on a three-month «talent» visa, files in ANEF on 10 March, and the visa ends on 31 May. The sale of a Moscow flat is set for 20 June. If there is no decision by the end of May, going to the sale in person most likely means being stuck outside Schengen until a visa de retour is issued. The safer route is a power of attorney for the sale, signed while the visa is still valid. That decision is planned before entry, together with the tax on the sale, whose French side we cover in a consultation.

In practice, people travel between France and Russia via third countries on an attestation de décision favorable for years without trouble at the border: the document is designed for exactly that.

2026 fees and collecting the card

The new rates were introduced by Article 128 of the 2026 Finance Law No. 2026-103 (service-public). Payment is by electronic timbre fiscal: online by CB, Visa or Mastercard (PayPal and American Express are not accepted) or at a tobacconist. There is no need to buy the stamp in advance. When the card is ready, the prefecture tells you how much to pay and calls you in to collect it; proof of payment is shown on collection. In practice not everyone receives the SMS that the card is ready, so a few weeks after the décision favorable it is worth checking your account and your prefecture’s website.

If ANEF fails or the prefecture stays silent

Portal failures. In practice, errors at the last step of filing and «stuck» applications were a regular occurrence in 2025 and 2026. The official routes are these (Interior Ministry answer to an MP, 2025): the Centre de contact citoyen, the ANEF support line and online form; Points d’accueil numériques in prefectures, which help you file; and, since Decree No. 2023-191, a «substitute solution», meaning the application is taken in person where the online service cannot be used because of how it is designed. Keep screenshots of errors and your correspondence with support: they show that a missed deadline was not your fault.

The prefecture is silent. The legal time limit for a decision is four months, or 90 days for an EU Blue Card. Silence after that counts as a refusal, and from then you have two months for a recours gracieux or hiérarchique and for a claim in the administrative court (service-public). Where an urgent step is needed, such as a document without which you lose lawful stay, there is the référé «mesures utiles»: an urgent procedure in which the judge, within a few days to a month after the hearing, may order the administration to take a useful measure; a lawyer is not compulsory (service-public). The outcome is not guaranteed, and we do not advise filing one without a lawyer who practises immigration law.

In practice, decision times vary widely: from three weeks for a talent renewal to five to seven months in the busiest Île-de-France departments. Sometimes the APRI is not issued on time and, once the visa expires, only the attestation de dépôt remains; repeated requests through the portal and a lawyer’s letter help in that case. Complaints about the rights of foreign nationals are the leading reason people turn to the Défenseure des droits, which is another free channel.

The family: spouse and children after entry

• A talent holder’s spouse. The «talent – famille» card is requested in ANEF on the same timetable: within two months of entry on a D visa, or four to two months before a VLS-TS ends. It costs €350, lasts as long as the main applicant’s card and allows both employment and self-employment (service-public). In practice the spouse files after the main applicant, using the main applicant’s foreign national number.
• Children. Minors do not need a card, but to return to France from outside Schengen after their visa ends they need a DCEM, which a parent who already holds a card applies for (service-public). The online confirmation of a DCEM application does not let a child back in. While the parents hold only a décision favorable, trips with the children are best kept within the validity of the children’s visas.
• Healthcare and a bank account. Joining PUMa and opening an account rely on the same documents: see the articles on healthcare and insurance in France and on banks for Russian nationals.

Common mistakes

• Treating the attestation de dépôt as a residence permit. It only proves that you filed.
• Flying out of Schengen on a first-filing APRI and being unable to return without a visa de retour.
• Applying for the card from a VLS-TS in the visa’s last month: an extra €180 and the risk of getting no APRI.
• Filing an incomplete file «to make the deadline»: the APRI is issued only for a complete file filed on time.
• Not validating the VLS-TS in the first weeks and hitting a portal failure in the third month.

The deadlines after entry are short and the consequences of a mistake are long: from an extra €180 to months without being able to leave. If you are planning a family move and trips in the first year, describe your situation and we will review free of charge which document you will hold at each stage. If your visa was refused, see the article on D visa refusals and appeals.

Frequently asked questions

What is ANEF?

ANEF (Administration numérique des étrangers en France) is the French Interior Ministry portal where foreign nationals handle their residence online. It is used to validate a VLS-TS, apply for a first residence card and its renewal, request travel documents and citizenship and report a change of address, and by employers to request work authorisation.

What is a titre de séjour?

A titre de séjour is a French residence permit: the document that lets a foreign national live in France for more than 3 months. A temporary card (carte de séjour temporaire) lasts up to 1 year, a multi-year card (carte pluriannuelle) usually 4 years and a resident card (carte de résident) 10 years. A D visa is permission to enter, while a validated VLS-TS itself serves as a residence permit for up to 12 months.

What happens if you do not validate a VLS-TS within three months?

Validation in ANEF within three months of entry is the condition for lawful stay on a VLS-TS and for the right to cross the Schengen border again. Without it, the visa does not work as a residence permit. That is why it is best validated in the first weeks: since 1 May 2026 the tax is €300, or €100 for students and certain other statuses.

When do you apply for a residence permit after entering on a D visa?

On a three-month visa marked «carte de séjour à solliciter», within two months of entry. On a VLS-TS, no earlier than four and no later than two months before it ends. Filing late costs an extra €180 unless there is force majeure, and it removes the right to an APRI.

Can you leave France with a décision favorable?

Yes. An attestation de décision favorable together with a valid passport lets you leave Schengen and return to France until the card is issued, even if the visa has already expired. This is stated explicitly on service-public.gouv.fr in the rules on foreign nationals returning to France.

Can you leave France with a récépissé or an APRI?

It depends on whether it is a first filing or a renewal. With a renewal récépissé or APRI you can return together with the expired card or long-stay visa and your passport. With a first-filing récépissé, an attestation de dépôt or a first-filing APRI you will not be let back in: you need a visa de retour from a French consulate.

What should you do if the visa has ended and the prefecture has not replied?

If a complete file was filed on time, you should have an APRI, which confirms lawful stay for up to three months and is renewed until the decision. If you have no APRI, write through ANEF and to the prefecture and keep the correspondence. Silence for four months counts as a refusal, after which you have two months to challenge it.

How much does a first residence card in France cost in 2026?

Since 1 May 2026 the first card has cost €350: €300 tax and €50 stamp duty, or €150 at the reduced rate. A renewal is €250 and VLS-TS validation €300. Payment is by electronic timbre fiscal once the prefecture says the card is ready.

How long does the prefecture take to decide on a first card?

The legal limit is four months from filing a complete file, or 90 days for an EU Blue Card; silence after that counts as a refusal. In practice the time depends on the prefecture: from three weeks to five to seven months in the busiest Île-de-France departments.

Official sources

• service-public: long-stay visas and VLS-TS; talent card; talent – famille card; visiteur card: filing deadlines and the €180 fee
• service-public: attestation de dépôt, APRI, décision favorable (CESEDA R431-15-1, R431-15-2); récépissé (CESEDA R431-12 – R431-15); returning to France after leaving Schengen
• service-public: residence permit taxes from 1 May 2026; proof of address for a card; DCEM for children
• ANEF portal; service-public: what you can do in ANEF; service-public: types of titre de séjour; National Assembly: question No. 5936 and the Interior Ministry’s answer on ANEF; service-public: référé «mesures utiles»