Immigration formalities

How to obtain your Visa

You've been accepted at Centrale Nantes? You are non-European citizen? Don't forget to apply for your Visa!

To study in France you must be granted a student long-stay visa or student VLS-TS (visa long séjour mention étudiant, ou VLS-TS étudiant) delivered by French Consulates. Don't delay. The sooner you apply, the better. It can take time for the visa to be delivered.

• Learn more and apply: visit the Campus France webpage

If you are a non EU-student, you have to have your visa validated online by the OFII (Office Français de l'Immigration et de l'Intégration) in the first three months following your arrival in France. Use the following link: https://administration-etrangers-en-france.interieur.gouv.fr/particuliers/#/

What you will need before you start the process:

• A personal valid email address
• Your visa information (number)
• Your entry date into France
• Your address in France
• Your credit card to pay for a virtual excise stamp (which you can purchase on the same page)

The virtual excise stamp for a first VLS-TS validation costs €49.

Depending on your situation, you may be asked to come in person to the OFII, to have a medical check or to fill in additional forms. Once you receive official online confirmation proving you have completed the online procedure, you must print it and keep it at all times in your passport.

Friendly reminder: if you do not complete this process within the first three months of your stay in France, you will no longer be able to cross the Schengen borders legally and will not be able to re-enter France, should you leave the country.

When you arrived in France for the first year, you were given a student long-stay visa. Should you continue your studies at Centrale Nantes for a second year, you must renew it and apply for a student residency permit (titre de séjour étudiant). The French institution in charge of the renewal of student residency permits is the local Préfecture.

• More information for enrolled students available on Intranet.

You are an international student with a valid student residency permit (titre de séjour étudiant)?
You recently obtained a Master or PhD degree from a French institution?
You wish to work in France after your studies?
You may be eligible to apply for a 1-year authorization (APS – Autorisation Provisoire de Séjour) to look for a job in your field in France.

• More information about APS
• More information for enrolled students available on Intranet.