Documents to be presented upon arrival in France.
 

As if there has not been a sufficient number of new concerns for visitors with the apartment crackdown in Paris and the implementation of ETIAS either later this year or early 2022, here is something else that is getting new attention: required supporting documents of all TCNs which must be presented at the request of the Border Police upon your arrival in France:
_____

Proof of accommodation covering the whole duration of the stay (hotel reservation and/or certificate of staying with a relative validated in the town hall);

Documents to be presented on arrival in France
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That latter item is an Attestation d´accueil which must be applied for at the Mairie or Hôtel de ville by the host before a guests/family members arrival at the border and which costs 30€.

ETIAS will start in 2022.

There is a charge of 7 euros for everybody over the age of 18. Under that age it is free. Also, it is valid for 3 years or until expiration of the passport.

Sarastro......thank you for the reminder....I had completely forgotten this good news and will add it to my "one more thing" list......

Actually this is a new law that became effective 1 May.

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes...TA000042777191

More good news , Sarastro! You are making my day!

Does this mean tourists from the US in the future will need more than a passport, which is all that is needed now?

If entering as a tourist:

1. Passport
2. Proof of accommodation ie booking confirmation
3. Proof of sufficient financial means
4. Return air ticket
5. Travel insurance to cover medical etc

Is that different to what is needed now?

Right now you need your passport, PCR results, a sworn statement that you will quarantine for 7 days, a compelling reason statement (though no one from the USA has been asked for this for several months), and a sworn statement to abide by health rules.

If those from the US are allowed to enter France from June 9th, you will also need approved verification of Covid vaccination and possibly an attestation d´accueil or hotel/apartment rental verification. Dropping of the quarantine requirement has not been officially announced.

When the ETIAS program begins, you will also need to pay for an application which tracks your entry/exit into/from the Schengen zone.

Could someone explain what I need to do to prove "sufficient financial means"? Do I need to bring all my latest bank & brokerage account statements? Same with travel insurance. Do I need insurance if my financial records state that I have 10 million dollars? Do any of these new requirements expire in the near future?

Stu Dudley

Huh? In English, please
What's an ETIAS?
What's a TCN?

Am I misreading this?
One can no longer just tool around France, booking a different lodging every couple nights after getting advice from the tourist office? Accommodations must be always booked in advance, never ad hoc?
If so, buh-bye, France.

Thanks for the info, Sarastro. I'd better start getting our ducks in line. Not that we're rushing out to buy plane tickets.

Thanks for the information Sarastro, I don't see any of this as a problem for me.

What Tom says, good questions.

Yes, please explain what is a TCN and what is a ETIAS?
We do have airline reservations for August to visit our daughter and family who live in France. We can change/cancel our tickets, if necessary, but we have to pay a penalty.
Does our daughter have to get a document from her local city hall to prove we are staying with them?
We are fully vaccinated and we have cards to prove it. Do we also need to get a COVID test 72 hours or so before our departure date?
Thanks!

TCN - Third Country National - Citizen of a non-EU country.
ETIAS - EU Travel Information and Authorisation System - developed by the USA and now being adopted by the EU. Kerouac has explained the costs above.

Our questions are NOT being answered:
StuDudley asked about proving "financial means". Answer: nada not even crickets
Tomboy asked whether one henceforth had to have confirmed bookings for every night of a traveler's stay, which would obviate simply touring from town to town, picking up accommodations each night from the TI...................Answer: never addressed no crickets

When you don't know the answer, it is generally best not to reply about such things rather than try to guess.

Tomboy - I´ll see that you get your deposit back.

This law went into effect 18 days ago. With the borders effectively closed to most Americans, no one knows for sure what is going to happen. The link to the law is provided above and anyone can read it, it is not long. If you do not understand it, contact the nearest French embassy, and they should be able to help you with your crickets.

You may not have to present the documents, just the border police might ask for them. Except for the hotel booking, I think they had the right to ask for these items before, correct?

as for the hotel booking, is it not currently required to register with the police after a few days of your stay like in other countries? Which a hotel or vacation rental would do for you but if no paid lodging, most people never did (like me, oops.). I am not sure if France is like Italy in that way. Maybe they are just trying to streamline the system and hopefully will make it easy, like with an app or online form. There are various departments who like to keep track of who is in the country, from where etc.

Showing bookings for a whole stay is a bit silly. One can just cancel them after arrival.

as for ETIAS I’m not holding my breath. They now say end of 2022 but a grace period into 2023, When it happens it will not be some giant hurtle to jump over.

RialtoGrl

That's pretty much what I experienced last month.
At the height of the Covid restrictions and post Brexit I was required to carry 12 separate documents. On entry, immigration officers only wanted to see two - a negative Covid test and my passport. Haven't said that , there's no way I would suggest winging it and not taking the required documents, entry always seems to be down to the discretion of each officer.

Yep, going to wait and see when this becomes a bit easier before heading there.

Just to point out that this law was not in effect last month, so experiences before 1 May may not be indicative of what the future may hold. Additionally, I understand that any police official may ask for these items at any time, not just when you pass through border control.

It's just too early to know the full impact. This might turn out to be similar to the IDP requirement when driving. IDP´s were only recently required in France, within the last few years. Much has been written about IDPs on travels forums, but I have never heard of anyone being asked for one by the police.

On that webpage it says you need to show you have 65 euros per day after hotel. Just carry the documents or have them on your phone. The title is a bit misleading here, maybe they will ask, maybe not.

I still don't know what papers I need to carry to verity the 65E per day stuff. My bank/brokerage account statement, my credit card statement showing the credit card credit amount remaining, or do I need to carry cash???? And the travel insurance? Do I show them the 5 page document that indicates my Medicare coverage in Europe. I can just see me standing in line at immigration at CDG with 2,000 people in front of me in the same line. And if I bring the wrong document - do they deny me entry?

Stu Dudley

E65?

You can't get a decent bottle of Bordeaux for that.

And so the snobism begins.... My decent Bordeaux starts at about 6 euros at Monoprix.

Wow. How much for a decent Burgundy?

It was a joke!

A credit card is usually sufficient to prove that you have financial means.

And yes, it is my experience as well travelling during these times is that you have printed lots of documents and then no one asks for them (eg legal reason to leave the UK, no one asked anything, COVID test to enter DK, no one asked for the test certificate but they made you take an antigen test at the airport on arrival) and then you get asked for something that you didn't know you had to have (eg receipt for the UK's day 2 & 8 tests, booking ref was not enough apparently so had to fumble thru my credit card statement on my iphone looking for proof of payment).

How is this going to work for visitors coming from the US to France via Iceland ? Passengers enter the Schengen zone in Iceland, which believe me is a cakewalk compared to the passport control lines at CDG. In the past we haven't gone through any further formalities when we reached CDG. We just got off the plane and headed directly to the luggage carousels.

I can't see Iceland doing France's border checks for them, so is it likely TCNs coming to France from elsewhere in the Schengen zone will be interviewed on arrival at CDG?

I'm not taking this too seriously. By the time we get to France it will all have shaken out. But it does cause us to start thinking: Icelandair or Air France? Which is less of a hassle?

Wow, thanks for this note. I guess more research is needed on how to prove funds.

What health insurance do people prefer to enter/meet the EU requirement?

thanks

They seem to have left out several accommodation situations, most notably, what if your accommodations is your own secondary residence, but you are not staying beyond your Schengen limits (for a residence permit or other type of VISA)? I reviewed the link in french, but it seemed only to cover hosted stays. Do I bring my habitation tax bill? Executed acte de vente? Get an attestation from the Mairie without entering the country?

-1

Oh the aggrievement. Oh the humanity.

You keep a copy of your taxe d´habitation. An acte de vente doesn´t prove anything in reference to where you stay.

Do you know about the wayback machine internet archive? There are snapshots of this page going back to August 2018. These requirements have been there. The health insurance requirement is fairly new (2020?) It came in after Covid started I bet.
The August 2018 snapshot:
https://tinyurl.com/8f99wncz

this is all much ado about nothing...certainly bring paperwork or have things available on your phone if you feel more comfortable but it’s not new and unless you look like a hobo probably no one will ask for anything.

My post of 17 May links to the changes dated 16 December 2020, effective 1 May 2021.

I read an article in the Guardian this morning about this. Because British citizens are now third country nationals, it is new for them. Maybe that it is why it is news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...brexit-changes

Proving financial means isn't that difficult, no need to get out all your retirement account statements, it is financial means to last your trip, not for the rest of your life or for moving there. Generally, it's around 125 euro per day, I think. Copy of a recent bank statement showing enough balance should do it. I don't know how credit cards work as you'd have to prove your limit, but maybe they are loose on that and think any credit card is ok.

However, these are the official rules that make it clear, I imagine they would be the same for France specifically in this case.

https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/sch...s-subsistence/

Just one bank statement showing a payment for utilities.