Long stay visa for France (180 days)

[jongood]

Quote..
While the pandemic will be behind most of the decrease, Puig warned that it is unlikely figures will return to pre-pandemic levels due to Brexit travel restrictions.

The true impact from B****t has yet to be experienced because at no time has this period been free of Covid.
It would be interested to see if Spain could go it alone in issuing a long stay visa.....entry and exit would only allowed into Spain directly...I wouldn't imagine arriving and departing Calais and waving your Spanish Long Stay Visa to a French Border Guard and saying Don't stamp my passport Sir...
I can imagine Flying into Spain for second homeowners being manageable...that's what needs to be addressed first..
Getting the whole of the EU to agree would also be something that could take time..

Getting the EU to agree will depend mostly what schultz thinks and how the French elections go, I reckon Greece, Italy and Portugal will be on side.

Without wishing to get a political debate started, can I point out that the decision - now ancient history - should not really have been solely about our holiday or retirement plans.

 

[poacher]

Apparently Spain has lost over €1,000,000,000,000 (One Trillion) in the last two years from British tourists alone. Plus one presumes similar amounts from the Germans, the Dutch etc etc.

No chance - it is well known amongst the tourist industry of Spain / its islands that "it is the 'Brits' that spend" - souvenirs, bars, restaurants etc.
During the pandemic I have seen more than one business "open / close" depending upon whether the "Brits" are able to fly or not - "no Brits, no open" - "not worth it otherwise"

Personal experience of Spain and its offshore islands in the motorhome (and elsewhere) is that many European motorhome visitors bring as much provisions as possible "from home". (accepted there are always exceptions)

 

[sciac2001]

I have recently witnessed two French and one German motorhomes towing trailers which I had thought carried a motorbike or scooter and which actually had tins and packs of foodstuffs that I do not see in Spanish shops.

(These mh also looked like long-termers already well settled in free of charge “semi-official” parking areas.)

I will stress that the majority do not do the above and I regularly see them in the foodstores etc.

 

[MisterB]

I have made enquiries previously and found TLS very helpful. One thing they pointed out was that you cannot 'roll over' from a tourist visa into your Schengen 'allowance'. You need to leave France and have your passport stamped on exit, then re enter at least 1 day later - you can't just travel back the same day as their system wouldn't (couldn't ?) see that as exiting the zone.
We would have gone through with the application but when we worked out what dates we wanted to travel, we didn't need it and will still be getting around 120 days from mid March until mid October.

At the time I spoke to TLS, they hadn't considered how to deal with motorhomers, who would not be able to provide a permanent address/ location as they would be travelling around with no fixed itinerary. Eventually they did get back to me about a month later and said so long as I explained it during the interview and provided vehicle documents, insurance, V5 and MoT that covered the duration of the visa, then it wouldn't be an issue.
I think TLS act as the gatekeepers and sift out any non compliant applications and so long as they approve the application, then it's likely to be successful.

 

[Scotch mist]

Also need to be careful about vehicle insurance , I think our insurance says max 9 months in Europe
BUT it also says max trip at any one time is 90 days

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[EuroTrotters]

No chance - it is well known amongst the tourist industry of Spain / its islands that "it is the 'Brits' that spend" - souvenirs, bars, restaurants etc.
During the pandemic I have seen more than one business "open / close" depending upon whether the "Brits" are able to fly or not - "no Brits, no open" - "not worth it otherwise"

Personal experience of Spain and its offshore islands in the motorhome (and elsewhere) is that many European motorhome visitors bring as much provisions as possible "from home". (accepted there are always exceptions)

European long term winter villa renters do the same.

I once took over a 6 months rental from a Dutch couple from Rotterdam. They didn’t leave a grain of salt or a square of toilet paper. Not a drop of washing up liquid or farts worth of fly spray. Cleaned up though, in more ways than one.