# Visa Application - Question regarding rental agreement



## J&R (May 10, 2021)

We are reviewing our rental agreement in France and something in the contract caught our attention. It says that "The premises are rented to the Tenant exclusively as a secondary residence; they cannot under any circumstances constitute the main residence of the Tenant, the latter agreeing to send the Lessor at his request any evidence justifying his domicile as his main residence in his usual accommodation." We will be selling our house before moving to France, so we are not going to have a "main residence."

Can we still apply for the long term Visa if the rental contract says that the rental is "secondary" and not "permanent"?

Since we are wrapping things up to apply for the Visa, any information is much appreciated.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

This issue has come up before here on the forum but as far as I know, there never was a resolution of whose rights are what in the situation. Basically, for visa purposes your "accomodation" in France for arrival needs to be a place where you can be reached (by postal mail) for purposes of scheduling any necessary meetings or appointments regarding your titre de séjour (residence permit). By implication, if the prefecture or other government agency needed to contact you after you had moved on to more permanent quarters, your mail should be forwarded from that address to your new place. And, in most French transactions where you need to "prove" your residence, they would expect something on the order of utility bills to validate your residential address.

But the last time this came up was a few years back - and ultimately the conclusion seemed to be that clauses in the rental agreement regarding the status of a rental as a "secondary residence" may or may not be applicable depending on the specific circumstances. 

Let's see if we can flag someone down with some experience in this area.


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## bhamham (Feb 19, 2017)

J&R said:


> Can we still apply for the long term Visa if the rental contract says that the rental is "secondary" and not "permanent"?


Seems to me most everyone uses a secondary residence for their accommodation in applying for their visa. I've seen where airbnbs and vrbos have been accepted. Myself, I used a chambres d'hotes for a 90-day stay in my approved application.


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## BackinFrance (Nov 26, 2020)

bhamham said:


> Seems to me most everyone uses a secondary residence for their accommodation in applying for their visa. I've seen where airbnbs and vrbos have been accepted. Myself, I used a chambres d'hotes for a 90-day stay in my approved application.


I think it would be highly unusual, if not impossible, for someone moving from eg the US to get a standard long term rental contract, yet non-EU citizens manage to relocate to France on the basis of various alternative arrangements. As for such things as utility bills, there have been various comments on this forum about how people have got around that when utilities are included in the rent.


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