Could France ease visa rules for British second-home owners?

A French senator has reopened the argument over how long British second-home owners should be able to stay in France – with wildfire prevention providing the latest reason for giving them more flexibility.

Lauriane Josende, senator for Pyrénées-Orientales, says some owners need to return regularly to clear vegetation, maintain land and deal with risks around their property. But nothing has changed yet. Her intervention is a written question to the French government, not a new law, and the existing 90-in-180-day limit still applies.

It sounds like a fairly niche problem – how do you clear undergrowth at a French second home if you’re running out of Schengen days? But it taps into a much bigger argument that has been rumbling on since Brexit: should someone who owns a home in France have a simpler way to spend more than 90 days there without applying afresh for a longer-stay visa? Josende is now using the practical responsibilities of property ownership to reopen that question.

In short: British second-home owners have not been given any extra time in France. Visa-free visits are still limited to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period. France does have long-stay visas for people who want more time, while Josende is asking whether owners with ongoing property responsibilities should get a simpler or more flexible route.

A new push to ease visa rules for British second-home owners

The latest push comes from Lauriane Josende, a senator for Pyrénées-Orientales, who has asked the French government to look again at the rules for British owners of homes and land in France.

Her argument is quite specific. Some owners need to return regularly to maintain their property, particularly in areas where clearing vegetation is part of wildfire prevention. She wants to know whether France could create a more practical visa or stay arrangement for them.

She has asked whether France could introduce a targeted and tightly controlled arrangement giving those owners more suitable conditions of stay or a simpler visa process. The wording matters. She is not asking for an automatic right to live or work in France, and one senator’s written question cannot change the Schengen rules by itself.

The question was still awaiting a response from the Interior Ministry when checked on 30 September 2026.

For anyone trying to work out where they stand now, our guide to visa options in France for non-EU citizens explains the main routes. We also have a practical recap on getting the right visa to live in France.

Why wildfire rules have reopened France’s visa debate

This is the part that makes the latest intervention different.

France has legal rules on clearing vegetation in areas exposed to forest and vegetation fires. In affected areas, owners may have to clear around buildings to a depth of 50 metres, with local authorities able to increase that to 100 metres. The work also has to be maintained rather than treated as a one-off job.

Josende's point is fairly straightforward: France can require an owner to keep land safe, but that owner may also be counting Schengen days carefully before deciding when they can travel over to deal with it.

She cited the July 2026 Trévillach wildfire in Pyrénées-Orientales, which burned nearly 5,000 hectares. Her question links that risk with the practical problem of owners who may need to supervise maintenance more often than their normal holiday plans would suggest.

That does not mean wildfire duties create an immigration exemption. They don't. If you own a French property from overseas, the two issues still have to be managed separately.

It is also a useful point to think about before buying. A large rural plot can come with very different maintenance demands from an apartment or a smaller lock-up-and-leave home. Our guide to managing a property in France covers some of those practicalities.

Current France visa rules for British second-home owners

For British citizens without protected French residence rights under the Withdrawal Agreement, owning a home in France does not give you extra visa-free days.

You can normally visit France and the rest of the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period. The important bit is that it is a Schengen total, not 90 days in France plus another allowance elsewhere.

If you want to spend longer at your French home, France already has national long-stay visas. France-Visas says British second-home owners planning to stay for between three and six months should apply for a temporary long-stay visitor visa, known as a VLS-T.

Your plans	Current position
Up to 90 days in any 180	Visa-free, subject to the Schengen calculation
Three to six months in your French second home	VLS-T 'visitor' long-stay visa
More than six months	A longer-stay or residence route applies, such as the VLS-TS 'visitor' route where appropriate
You own a French property	Ownership alone does not give you extra visa-free days

This isn't a minor concern for people looking at France. In Your Overseas Home's 2026 buyer survey, 110 of 250 prospective France buyers who answered the concerns question – 44% – selected getting a visa. Another 87, or 34.8%, selected the 90-day rule limiting their time there.

France has tried to simplify visas for British second-home owners before

Yes. The question of special treatment for British second-home owners has already made it much further through the French political system once.

In 2023, Parliament added a measure to immigration legislation that would have given British owners of French second homes a long-stay visa as of right. The Constitutional Council removed it in January 2024 because of the way it had been inserted into the legislation – as what French constitutional law calls a cavalier législatif, or legislative rider.

That ended that particular attempt, not the wider argument. Senators continued to press the Interior Ministry over the cost and inconvenience of repeated long-stay visa applications.

When the government replied to those questions in June 2025, it did not offer a special route for second-home owners. Instead, it pointed to the existing VLS-T and VLS-TS visas and work to digitise more of the application process.

So the latest question is better seen as another attempt to move an argument that has never quite gone away. It is not evidence that a new visa is imminent.

Could British second-home owners get more than 90 days in France?

Potentially, yes – but the distinction between Schengen rules and French national visas is important.

France cannot unilaterally rewrite the Schengen-wide 90-in-180-day rule. Longer stays are different: once you move beyond the short-stay framework, France controls its own national visa and residence procedures.

That gives the French government room to simplify applications, change how some long-stay visas work or propose a more tailored national route. Whether it chooses to do any of that is the unanswered part of Josende's question.

For now, there is no special six-month entitlement for British second-home owners and no new maintenance exemption.

What the visa debate means for British second-home owners

For existing owners, plan around the rules in force today rather than waiting for a possible change. Count all your Schengen days, and if you want a longer stay, check the visa route that matches your plans.

If your property falls within France's wildfire-clearance rules, check the requirements for the exact commune and département. If you cannot always be there yourself, it may be worth arranging a local contractor, property manager or trusted key-holder so maintenance does not depend entirely on your next visit.

And if you are still house-hunting, put maintenance on the viewing checklist. The amount of land, surrounding vegetation and ease of arranging local help can matter almost as much as the house itself if you will be managing it from another country.

You can find the wider buying process in our guide to buying property in France, while the France destination page brings together our current guidance on buying, moving and owning.

What should I do next?

If France is on your shortlist, download the free France Buying Guide. It covers the buying process, legal checks and practical planning before you commit to a property.

If the visa or residency side is likely to affect how you use the home, speak to a France property expert and get the position checked for your own circumstances.

Sources

• French Senate – written question no. 09965, published 10 September 2026
• France-Visas – guidance for British citizens, including second-home owners
• France-Visas – tourist stay of more than three months
• French Ministry for Ecological Transition – legal wildfire-clearance obligations
• French Senate – June 2025 Interior Ministry response on British long-stay visas