You must maintain the validity of your residency permit, your titre de séjour, throughout the duration of your studies. This means you’ll be expected to renew your residency permit every year you’re a student at Audencia. It’s illegal to live in France under an expired titre de séjour or a tourist visa with the intention of studying.
If you’re a citizen of France or any other European Union country, you don’t need a residency permit. All registered non-European Union students must have a valid titre de séjour in order to study at Audencia.
Your visa acts as a residency permit once you have gone through the OFII procedure after arriving in France.
Before you come to Nantes, you’ll need to have obtained your student visa. Once we’ve gathered the required documents from you (copies of your passport, the student visa you obtained prior to your arrival, the entrance stamp from border control, and the original OFII form) we’ll send them to the Office Français de l’Immigration et de l’Intégration (OFII). You are not required to follow this procedure if your visa carries the statement “dispense temporaire de titre de séjour”.
Three months before your residency visa expires, please come to the international office to discuss your renewal options and where you’ll be given a list of required documents. Your visa renewal application must be complete and ready for processing two months prior to the expiration date.
Remember: your titre de séjour may expire during the summer, so you must renew your status before you leave for summer vacation. Don’t schedule any trips or buy tickets before you’ve discussed your renewal options with us. Also, your passport must have a validity of at least six months in order to launch your renewal procedure.
Any renewal application submitted to French authorities after the expiry date will require payment of late fee penalties: 180€ if the application is submitted one day to three months after the expiry date and 417€ if it’s submitted three months after it expired.
Required documents for the renewal application
Passport
VLS-TS (OFII sticker+ the long term visa) or the titre de séjour to be renewed
Enrolment certificate from your programme for the current academic year
Bank certificate or attestation de solde bancaire (this provides proof that you hold a bank account in France. This must include your full name, your personal address in France (Nantes), as well as proving a minimum of 615€ per month in your account. The prefecture in Nantes requires proof of financial resources for the previous and current academic years.
Proof of housing (a housing insurance certificate under the student’s name no older than two months)
Once the procedure is completed the prefecture will give you a date from which you may go to them in order to pick up your new titre de séjour. To do so you will need to take them your expired titre de séjour and/or récépissé.
Please note: Exchange students who wish to extend their exchange period will have to reapply for another student visa.