# Proof of residence (attestation d'hébergement) for long term (1 year) visa



## Kelda

Hi, I am new to the forum, and reaching out for help through all of the information and lack on for visa applications online.

We are in the process of applying for our visa. We need to provide the proof of residency and we will be hosted by our friends. 

All of the online information suggests that we need an 'attestation d'herbergement' rather than the attestation d'accueil for a stay of longer than 3 months? Is this correct?

I have therefore provided the templates for the herbergement to my friends, but I can find no information to say whether this requires validating at the marie or not? Can anyone advise?

Thanks!! Kelda


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## Bevdeforges

Are you going to be living with your friends for the entire year? Or just for a few months until you can find a place of your own? (Which is a fairly common way for folks to handle the residence situation.)

I don't think the attestation requires validation at the mairie, but it will require copies of your friends' i.d. documents (French cartes d'identités or cartes de séjour) and proof that they are indeed the legal residents of the place where you will be living (lease or ownership of the flat/house). If you will be staying with them, it would be a good idea for them to prepare a statement explaining the terms of your stay with them - i.e. will you be paying any sort of rent? sharing in expenses? and when will this arrangement end?

The main concern is that this is a valid residential arrangement and that your friends are indeed legally entitled to live in the property and to have long-term guests like this. (There can be limitations if they are renting the property or if there is some sort of sub-leasing deal for you, which will require the approval of the landlord.)


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## Kelda

Bevdeforges said:


> Are you going to be living with your friends for the entire year? Or just for a few months until you can find a place of your own? (Which is a fairly common way for folks to handle the residence situation.)
> 
> I don't think the attestation requires validation at the mairie, but it will require copies of your friends' i.d. documents (French cartes d'identités or cartes de séjour) and proof that they are indeed the legal residents of the place where you will be living (lease or ownership of the flat/house). If you will be staying with them, it would be a good idea for them to prepare a statement explaining the terms of your stay with them - i.e. will you be paying any sort of rent? sharing in expenses? and when will this arrangement end?
> 
> The main concern is that this is a valid residential arrangement and that your friends are indeed legally entitled to live in the property and to have long-term guests like this. (There can be limitations if they are renting the property or if there is some sort of sub-leasing deal for you, which will require the approval of the landlord.)


Thank you for such a quick reply. The plan is to certainly start out living there, it's a farm property with a lot of space, but we will look for something for later on in the year, to give everyone a bit of space. I think we need to be there for 3 months at least.

Preparing a statement sounds like a good idea. They own the property, and we can set out the terms of our arrangement with them.


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## Crabtree

As long as you can show the French immigration that you have an address to go to that is sorted and you explain that the arrangement is temporary as you wish to buy your own property then it will be fine


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## Bevdeforges

You certainly don't need to be buying a property right away. They just need assurance that you can receive mail at your initial address, and that if you find more permanent quarters after a couple months, you're in a position where any mail can and will be forwarded to your new address, you should be fine. And yes, it's an excellent plan to live in an area for a couple of months or more so you can get a better sense of where you would want to live for the longer term.


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## Kelda

Thanks for replies, it all sounds like it will work and good to know it’s an approach that others have had. We will get our friends to gather the supporting docs and take the letter to our visa interview and hopefully all will be well.


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## Greenfoot

Kelda said:


> Thanks for replies, it all sounds like it will work and good to know it’s an approach that others have had. We will get our friends to gather the supporting docs and take the letter to our visa interview and hopefully all will be well.


Hi Kelda

We've very recently been through the visa process (VLS-TS) and were in a similar situation - our application was approved with no problems. You should be fine


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## Kelda

Greenfoot said:


> Hi Kelda
> 
> We've very recently been through the visa process (VLS-TS) and were in a similar situation - our application was approved with no problems. You should be fine


Thanks, that's really good to know. I don't suppose you have any advice about health insurance?! It's our latest headache...


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## Greenfoot

Kelda said:


> Thanks, that's really good to know. I don't suppose you have any advice about health insurance?! It's our latest headache...


Hi Kelda

If I remember correctly, we just searched online for 'international / European long term health insurance', and whilst we might have been able to find a cheaper policy if we'd searched and compared further, we went with one of the big (familiar) names and a pretty basic policy covered everything we needed. 

We ran into a challenge in that we could only purchase a policy a maximum of 8 weeks before it would start, but we wanted to have our visa appointment asap - you have to show proof of your policy at your appointment of course. We ended up having to delay our visa appt a little bit and our health ins policy was dated to begin about a week before the date we put on our visa application, but that was fine - not sure if that makes sense??

Main points are your policy needs to include repatriation and minimum of £30,000 in cover (most actually give around £100,000).

Some providers offer to refund you if your visa application is refused.

I'm not sure if that helps, but let me know if you have any other questions - it is a challenge to get your head around the info that is given on the visa application website, and to figure out the stuff that's not explained 🤯


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## JayBee1

Greenfoot said:


> Hi Kelda
> 
> If I remember correctly, we just searched online for 'international / European long term health insurance', and whilst we might have been able to find a cheaper policy if we'd searched and compared further, we went with one of the big (familiar) names and a pretty basic policy covered everything we needed.
> 
> We ran into a challenge in that we could only purchase a policy a maximum of 8 weeks before it would start, but we wanted to have our visa appointment asap - you have to show proof of your policy at your appointment of course. We ended up having to delay our visa appt a little bit and our health ins policy was dated to begin about a week before the date we put on our visa application, but that was fine - not sure if that makes sense??
> 
> Main points are your policy needs to include repatriation and minimum of £30,000 in cover (most actually give around £100,000).
> 
> Some providers offer to refund you if your visa application is refused.
> 
> I'm not sure if that helps, but let me know if you have any other questions - it is a challenge to get your head around the info that is given on the visa application website, and to figure out the stuff that's not explained 🤯





Kelda said:


> Thanks, that's really good to know. I don't suppose you have any advice about health insurance?! It's our latest headache...


Adding 1 more thought. Most schengen visa packages allow for a date alteration to match when you want to leave. We bought our insurance, got our visa, called the insurance company with our date change and within a minute we had the corrected policy. Good luck and congratulations!


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