🇫🇷 France: visa and tax day limits
Ready-made rules count your days against the limits the law names. They don't decide your visa or residency status, and many laws add conditions a day count can't see.
Ready-Made Rules
What the rules say
Schengen short stays
France is part of the Schengen Area. For people who are not EU, EEA or Swiss citizens, short stays are counted across the whole area rather than per country: the common limit is 90 days within any rolling 180-day period, whether or not a visa is needed to enter. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens are not subject to this limit. Track it with the app's Schengen 90/180 tools.
Reviewed September 24, 2026
How days are counted
Under the Schengen rule, both your entry day and your exit day count as days of stay, even if you were only there for part of them. Days on a Schengen residence permit or national long-stay visa don't count toward the limit. Since 10 April 2026, the EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) digitally records the entries and exits of non-EU nationals coming for short stays, replacing passport stamps; its official stay checker doesn't include stays that began before that date.
Reviewed September 24, 2026
Longer stays
For people who are not EU, EEA or Swiss citizens, staying beyond the short-stay allowance generally requires a national long-stay visa or a residence permit, applied for through French authorities before travelling. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens follow separate free-movement rules.
Reviewed September 24, 2026
Tax residency
France treats a stay of more than six months in a year as one sign that France is your main place of stay. It is only one of several alternative tests: your home or family base, your main work and your economic interests can each decide it on their own. A Stay Limit rule of at most 181 days per calendar year can track the day-count part.
Reviewed September 24, 2026
Track your days against any of these rules
Add any of them in Track Country Days and it counts your days for you — automatically, on your device. Free download on iOS and Android.