French Long Stay Visa - Landing in Switzerland

The airport at Geneve is built on both French and Swiss land, altough it's a "Swiss" airport....If you wish you can leave by a side door and pass by French customs etc directly into France. Don't recommend it because the French door is not easy to find and when you leave you are in what appears to be a small regional airport.

I'm sure othershere have the same problem as the OP ?

DejW

We've had someone else asking much the same thing just recently. No, it's not a problem if you fly to Switzerland and have a Swiss entry stamp in your passport rather than a French one. The main thing will be to send in the OFII papers when you arrive in France and that starts the process off. By entering via Switzerland, you are just proving that you entered France legally - i.e. through another Schengen state.
Cheers,
Bev

Thanks for the info! Won't do it then, will pass through the Swiss immigration

Thanks and have a good weekend!

Bevdeforges said:

We've had someone else asking much the same thing just recently. No, it's not a problem if you fly to Switzerland and have a Swiss entry stamp in your passport rather than a French one. The main thing will be to send in the OFII papers when you arrive in France and that starts the process off. By entering via Switzerland, you are just proving that you entered France legally - i.e. through another Schengen state.
Cheers,
Bev

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Cheers again, Bev!
Would you mind telling me what I have to do after I come back from Brazil with my visa? Or can you give me a link for me to read, please?
I thought I'd just have to come back with my visa and start my life here.

Thanks again for your help!

Depends on what type of visa you have. (We have several folks through the forum lately and I have trouble keeping all their details straight.)

If you're on a spouse visa or a "vie privée et familiale" or some other visa that implies that you'll be settling permanently in France, there is an OFII form that you should ask the nice immigration officer (even if he or she is Swiss) to stamp along with your passport. You then send that in to the OFII office in the departement where you are settling and they will contact you about an appointment to issue you with your titre de séjour (i.e. your residence permit).

On other sorts of long stay visas, you just need to register with the OFII and possibly come in for a medical exam or other brief administrative thing.
Cheers,
Bev

Bevdeforges said:

Depends on what type of visa you have. (We have several folks through the forum lately and I have trouble keeping all their details straight.)

If you're on a spouse visa or a "vie privée et familiale" or some other visa that implies that you'll be settling permanently in France, there is an OFII form that you should ask the nice immigration officer (even if he or she is Swiss) to stamp along with your passport. You then send that in to the OFII office in the departement where you are settling and they will contact you about an appointment to issue you with your titre de séjour (i.e. your residence permit).

On other sorts of long stay visas, you just need to register with the OFII and possibly come in for a medical exam or other brief administrative thing.
Cheers,
Bev

Click to expand...

Thanks, Bev!

I'll have a spouse visa and I've read that I should send this form and wait for an appointment, which I should go through a medical examination (is it true?) and be asked to take some language classes etc.
Or is it simply to receive my titre de séjour?

Other thing that I'd like to ask, if I may, is if I can work as soon as I land in France.
Am I allowed to work or I HAVE to wait until my titre de séjour is issued?

And again, thanks for sharing all your info!

On a spouse visa, your OFII appointment will be probably for the medical and some of the preliminaries, including scheduling the various classes. At the end of the first appointment you should get your titre de séjour, which is basically just a validation of your visa.

As far as the right to work - it's not entirely clear if you're able to work before you get the titre de séjour. Most employers will put you off until you have the titre de séjour as they need the information for their payroll records and can get in big trouble if they are audited and found to have someone on the payroll without the proper documents. You can start a job search, in any event, but don't be surprised if the first question is "do you have work papers?" and if they say to come back after your titre de séjour has been issued.
Cheers,
Bev

Bev already covered this. But for future reference, looking at my OFII instruction form right now (in English, and I'm from the usa)....

When it lists what copies/attachments you need to send to OFII when you arrive, it says:

"b) the stamp from the French immigration officer (or from authorities of the country of transit) showing the date of your coming through the relevant border"


Yay