EU Visa and Health Insurance

[westernman]

Does anyone have any first hand experience of going through the Visa process WITHOUT having an address or Passporte Escale please? We intend to enter France from Spain and cruise North before departing to U.K. so a marina contract would be pointless for us. The interview is in a couple of weeks.

For most things in France they want and address and some proof that you really live there.
For land based people, that is usually an electricity bill.

I would expect that a marina contract with the address of the marina and your name on it would be an adequate substitute.

Without an address in France I suspect you will have a lot of trouble.
So think of an imaginative way as to how you can provide an address and some proof to connect you with that address.

At a very minimum I would make a reservation for the first place you intend to visit, and get some proof of that reservation with your names on it (not just the boat's name) and the address of that marina.

Keep in mind the check box mentality. They need to check the box "address and proof that it is your address". So produce a piece of paper for that. Handwaving for the lack of a piece of paper never works.
Handwaving that your piece of paper does the job usually does work.

 

[stranded]

Does anyone have any first hand experience of going through the Visa process WITHOUT having an address or Passporte Escale please? We intend to enter France from Spain and cruise North before departing to U.K. so a marina contract would be pointless for us. The interview is in a couple of weeks.

First thing is, im pretty sure you can’t enter France on your VSL-T visa from a Schengen country. You have to arrive from and depart to non-Schengen. What you can do is take a trip to a Schengen country and back to France again within the validity of you visa.
We are working on the accumulated understanding that if we have no marina or Passeport Escales we could still get a visa but we would have to demonstrate that we each have €120 per day.

 

[stranded]

For most things in France they want and address and some proof that you really live there.
For land based people, that is usually an electricity bill.

I would expect that a marina contract with the address of the marina and your name on it would be an adequate substitute.

Without an address in France I suspect you will have a lot of trouble.
So think of an imaginative way as to how you can provide an address and some proof to connect you with that address.

At a very minimum I would make a reservation for the first place you intend to visit, and get some proof of that reservation with your names on it (not just the boat's name) and the address of that marina.

Fwiw our marina contract for 5 months is around £1200 and comes with the full fat Passeport Escale. Like you we will be cruising most of the time but the Passeport Escale means it is still cost effective - in actual fact even if we thought we would get no mooring benefit out of it we would probably still have paid it as a sort of tourist tax to get the visa - so looking forward to an extended trip to Europe again!

 

[stranded]

For most things in France they want and address and some proof that you really live there.
For land based people, that is usually an electricity bill.

I would expect that a marina contract with the address of the marina and your name on it would be an adequate substitute.

Without an address in France I suspect you will have a lot of trouble.
So think of an imaginative way as to how you can provide an address and some proof to connect you with that address.

At a very minimum I would make a reservation for the first place you intend to visit, and get some proof of that reservation with your names on it (not just the boat's name) and the address of that marina.

Keep in mind the check box mentality. They need to check the box "address and proof that it is your address". So produce a piece of paper for that. Handwaving for the lack of a piece of paper never works.
Handwaving that your piece of paper does the job usually does work.

I plan to scare them into submission with the sheer size of the wodge of documents I have amassed!

 

[westernman]

I plan to scare them into submission with the sheer size of the wodge of documents I have amassed!

But make sure you know which document corresponds to which check box. I.e. what you will give them for "proof" of address in France.

 

[stranded]

But make sure you know which document corresponds to which check box. I.e. what you will give them for "proof" of address in France.

 

[Koeketiene]

I plan to scare them into submission with the sheer size of the wodge of documents I have amassed!

With an attitude like that, what could possibly go wrong?

FWIW: no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.

 

[stranded]

With an attitude like that, what could possibly go wrong?

FWIW: no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.

I know - I used to work at the Home Office!

 

[Goldie]

First thing is, im pretty sure you can’t enter France on your VSL-T visa from a Schengen country. You have to arrive from and depart to non-Schengen. What you can do is take a trip to a Schengen country and back to France again within the validity of you visa.

Thanks for that, I've emailed the French Embassy in London for confirmation either way. Plan B may have to be to fly to France, travel onwards to Portugal and re-enter France on the way back before finally departing to UK. What a b*** ache it all is!

 

[stranded]

Thanks for that, I've emailed the French Embassy in London for confirmation either way. Plan B may have to be to fly to France, travel onwards to Portugal and re-enter France on the way back before finally departing to UK. What a b*** ache it all is!

Yup.

 

[stranded]

Well, the interview is done, and was actually quite painless - bit of a wait to be seen but then the whole interview and biometrics for the two of us was done in less than 20 minutes. Just a week or two of nail biting now…

 

[westernman]

Well, the interview is done, and was actually quite painless - bit of a wait to be seen but then the whole interview and biometrics for the two of us was done in less than 20 minutes. Just a week or two of nail biting now…

My interview for naturalization was actually hijacked by an agent from the French equivalent to the MI5 who was very concerned that my French high-tech company might be sold to Chinese investors and was very interested to know exactly what I had discussed with Huawei a few weeks back in Paris. Quite how he knew that, he would not tell me.

 

[stranded]

At the moment the nursing home costs €1900 per month for my wife's father, it is on a side street from the road where we live, so we visit almost every day, his pensions almost cover it, this is a sore point for a certain section of the family in that they see their inheritance dwindling slowly but surely.
In Belgium the spouse cannot inherit from their partner only the children can inherit, so when the mother in law passed away automatically half of the father-in-law's property, monies etc. became the property of the children, it has caused some problems lets say.
At one point some idiot in government here wanted to change the law so that it was only grand kids that could inherit I don't think the person thought that through properly.

he would not tell me.

My interview for naturalization was actually hijacked by an agent from the French equivalent to the MI5 who was very concerned that my French high-tech company might be sold to Chinese investors and was very interested to know exactly what I had discussed with Huawei a few weeks back in Paris. Quite how he knew that, he would not tell me.

Need to know old chap, need to know!

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Well, the interview is done, and was actually quite painless - bit of a wait to be seen but then the whole interview and biometrics for the two of us was done in less than 20 minutes. Just a week or two of nail biting now…

In France if they did the finger printing then I would suggest that it is confirmed, the interviewer flags up any problems during the interview and it's either sorted or stopped there and then. I had a CDS for several months prior to being naturalised and their were a number of people being interviewed at the same time in several booths, I did see one guy obviously refused for some reason so you should be OK.

 

[stranded]

Need to know old chap, need to know!

Don’t know what on earth

In France if they did the finger printing then I would suggest that it is confirmed, the interviewer flags up any problems during the interview and it's either sorted or stopped there and then. I had a CDS for several months prior to being naturalised and their were a number of people being interviewed at the same time in several booths, I did see one guy obviously refused for some reason so you should be OK.

Sadly I don’t think it’s that clear cut. I was chatting with the interviewer and he was clear that his job was solely to ensure that we had the evidence to back up what we were saying. So in our case he was confident that eg our bank statements and pension letters proved that we had the income we said we had, but no clue what level of income that needs to be. This would fit with what I know about how the UK Visa process works.
So I think we have proved our case, but still have no idea whether that case meets the still mysterious test the French visa officers will apply.

 

[st599]

For France the required income is published, 60 per person per day, doubled if you don't have hotel accommodation for your entire stay.

 

[stranded]

For France the required income is published, 60 per person per day, doubled if you don't have hotel accommodation for your entire stay.

Indeed, or the alleged €35 daily rate if your boat on a mooring is considered a home, which I think equates to the minimum wage based monthly rate held out as a possibility in the Cruising Association guidance. But not which of these they will work to in the case of a cruising yachtsperson, what account they take of prepaid mooring eg a mooring contract, or a Passeport Escale, or a bloody great Bugel anchor (the best btw.). Which means to be confident one needs to demonstrate pension income of €7200 a month net for a couple or liquid savings of over €43000 for the full 6 months which will be a disappointment to a lot of cruisers who manage to live very well on much less. That is a lot of latitude for uncertainty.

 

[John_Silver]

Well, the interview is done, and was actually quite painless - bit of a wait to be seen but then the whole interview and biometrics for the two of us was done in less than 20 minutes. Just a week or two of nail biting now…

Shouldn’t be too long a wait….I’ve just received an e mail, from TLS, one week and a day on from presenting papers. I’m still in suspense though: it only informs me that my passport is back from the consulate. Not whether the visa has been granted!

 

[stranded]

Shouldn’t be too long a wait….I’ve just received an e mail, from TLS, one week and a day on from presenting papers. I’m still in suspense though: it only informs me that my passport is back from the consulate. Not whether the visa has been granted!

Barstewards - it wouldn’t take much for them to put a smilie or a frownie at the end!

 

[John_Silver]

Good news: A VLS-T may still be obtained without a French terrestrial address or marina contract. My passport has been returned this morning, with a visa inside.

My sense is that the TLS team were looking for something more than my written statement, that Stargazer was my ‘place of residence,’ backed up with an SSR certificate; and got a ‘this-might-just-fly’ look, on production of a wad of Passeport Escales paperwork. But it is hard to know what swung the decision because, whilst TLS are the gatekeepers for an application, the Embassy is the decision maker. And one has no interaction with the Embassy.

I do think that Westernman’s advice (#36), regarding copious provision of documentation which can be argued to be ‘equivalent,’ is very insightful. I felt as if there was a great willingness to be persuaded, on the part of the TLS team…..

Glad that’s over, for another year. Looking forward to a summer roaming the Golfe de Gascogne!