France: visa and entry rules
What you need to get in, how long you may stay, and what an overstay costs
France's borders: every crossing point
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Airports 10
France's land neighbours in Europe: Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Andorra and Monaco - all of them inside the Schengen area or linked to it.
With the United Kingdom - under the Channel. The Channel Tunnel and the Calais - Dover ferries lead outside Schengen, and there is full border control there, run under British rules.
Andorra and Monaco are formally outside Schengen, but the only way into them is through France or Spain, and there is no separate check on entry.
France has a land border with Brazil - along French Guiana, at the Saint-Georges - Oiapoque crossing. It is the country's longest land border.
Bringing a car into France
The practical option is to rent a car once you are in Europe.
An International Driving Permit is needed only if your licence was issued outside the EU and the EEA; a licence from an EU or EEA country is valid as it is.
A Green Card is compulsory for foreign-registered vehicles.
Cities enforce Crit'Air low-emission zones - to drive into central Paris and other large cities you need a sticker of the appropriate class.
Travelling to France with a pet
The rules are the same across the whole EU.
An ISO-standard microchip is compulsory, and it has to be implanted BEFORE the rabies vaccination - otherwise the vaccination does not count.
Rabies vaccination - not before 12 weeks of age, and 21 days must pass between the vaccination and entry.
A rabies antibody titre test is required only for pets from a country not on the EU's approved list. The US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are on the list, so this does not apply to pets travelling from those countries; Russia is one of the countries it does apply to. Blood is taken no earlier than 30 days after the vaccination, followed by a three-month wait.
An EU veterinary certificate is required.
No more than five animals per person.
Overstaying your visa in France
The violation is recorded across the whole Schengen area, regardless of the country where it happened.
The main consequence is a refusal of your next visa.
An entry ban for a substantial overstay applies to the entire area.
Days are counted across the whole area at once, not country by country - this is where people go wrong most often.
What else to check before you go
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Entry rules change faster than anything else on this site, and they change without notice. We cross-check every page against several sources and state the date it was verified, but that does not replace the main step: before you travel, check an official source — the country’s consulate, its immigration service or its e-visa portal. Especially if more than a couple of months have passed since our check.