Studying in France: your questions answered

If you are a non-EU / non-EEA / non-Swiss student living in one of the 73 countries connected to the “Études en France” (EEF) platform - Cameroon, Morocco, Algeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Vietnam, China, India, Brazil and many others - you must apply through this online platform before you can request your visa; you cannot bypass it. If your country is not on the list, you skip the pre-consular step and apply directly to the institution, then to France-Visas.

At least €615 per month (about €7,380 per year), shown via a bank statement, a scholarship certificate, or a guarantor’s declaration.

Yes. A VLS-TS must be validated online within 3 months of arrival on the ANEF platform, and you must pay the validation tax. Miss this step and your stay becomes irregular - and you cannot legally re-cross the Schengen border. (Official pages route to the France-Visas tariff for the exact amount, which changed in 2026; check the live figure on the ANEF payment screen before relying on a number.)

Yes - the VLS-TS lets you work up to 964 hours per year (about 20 h/week, i.e. 60% of legal full-time), counted over 12 rolling months from your permit’s validity date, not the calendar year. EU / EEA / Swiss students are not subject to the cap. Exceeding 964 h risks losing your permit; a validated contrat d’apprentissage sits outside the limit (see the alternance answers below).

Budget several items: the Campus France procedure fee (~€50–€180, varies by country, non-refundable), the long-stay student visa (€50), the external visa-centre service fee (~€33.50 at TLScontact / VFS / Capago), and the VLS-TS validation tax paid online within 3 months of arrival. Per-country fees move every year - confirm yours on your country’s *.campusfrance.org page before you pay.

It is a State-recognised professional certification at bachelor level - EQF level 6, roughly bac+3. The French niveau number is identical to the European EQF number, so “niveau 6” reads as “EQF 6” anywhere in Europe. Note that a titre RNCP, on its own, does not confer a university grade and is not a diplôme national.

Not legally. Both can be EQF 6 / bac+3, but a Licence is a diplôme national that automatically confers the grade de licence, while a French Bachelor is usually a school title - often registered as a Titre RNCP niveau 6 - that confers a grade only if specifically authorised. Ask the school whether the diploma is national, visé, and/or RNCP-registered.

The Master (DNM) is the only State diploma and the only one that confers the grade de master (120 ECTS, niveau 7 / bac+5). MSc and Mastère Spécialisé are establishment diplomas labelled by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles; an MBA is a school title with no single national status. They are well-regarded professionally but are not automatically the grade de master.

France does not grant legal diploma equivalences. ENIC-NARIC France issues an attestation de comparabilité - an advisory document that compares your diploma against the French and European levels - but the final decision on admission or hiring stays with each institution or employer. For studies, recognition can only be granted by the receiving institution; admission is decided solely by the institutions.

The fee is 120 € total (20 € when you submit the request + 100 € at the expert-evaluation stage), and it is free for asylum seekers and refugees. The procedure is 100% online via the Phoenix platform: you upload your diploma, transcripts and any required certified translations, and the attestation is delivered as a PDF. Your diploma must be officially recognised in the country where it was issued; purely linguistic diplomas and those tied to a regulated profession are excluded.

€105. You pay it (or claim exemption) on cvec.etudiant.gouv.fr and must get the attestation before enrolling. Scholarship holders, refugees, beneficiaries of subsidiary protection and certain asylum seekers are exempt but still need the attestation; some lycée-based programmes, BTS and DMA are not subject at all.

At public universities, the State sets low national fees but applies differentiated registration fees to non-EU/EEA/Swiss students. Several groups are exempt from the differentiated rate - notably scholarship holders and, in practice, students already enrolled in a cursus - and many universities exempt their non-EU students by their own decision. Private schools and grandes écoles set their own (often much higher) fees. Always confirm the exact amount and any exemption on the specific institution’s official page before enrolling.

Yes, potentially. From 1 July 2026, personal housing aid (APL/ALS/ALF) is removed for non-EU/EEA/Swiss students who are not scholarship holders (a legislative change, Article 67 of the 2026 Finance Law, affecting roughly 3% of students). EU students and scholarship holders of any nationality remain fully eligible. If you are a non-EU student without a bourse sur critères sociaux, build your budget without housing aid and lean on cheaper CROUS housing and the free Visale guarantor instead.

The cheapest public option is a CROUS residence - typically around €200–€400/month depending on city and room type. Both French and international students enrolled in French higher education are eligible (subject to availability; you do not need to be a scholarship holder, though boursiers are served first). Students arriving from abroad often apply via trouverunlogement.lescrous.fr. Beyond CROUS, look at private residences, colocation, and neutral listing boards.

Use Visale, the free State guarantor from Action Logement. Tenants aged 18–30 qualify whatever their status and with no minimum income, at €0 cost - it acts as your garant: if you can’t pay, it pays the landlord and you reimburse later. Get your visa Visale certificate on visale.fr before signing the lease and give it to the landlord. (And never pay a deposit before seeing the place and signing a real lease - a price far below market is bait.)

Invoke the droit au compte: if every bank refuses you, the Banque de France designates a bank that must open a basic account free of charge, with no condition of nationality or residence status. A French account and its RIB are needed to pay rent, receive CAF aid, be reimbursed by the Assurance Maladie and get paid.

There is no automatic transfer in France. Moving from Bachelor 1 to Bachelor 2 in a different school is an application on file to the receiving institution, judged on the academic content of what you have done - not just on the fact that you validated a year. Prepare your relevé de notes (transcript, with ECTS), a lettre de motivation, and possibly an interview or entrance tests; settle early whether you are aiming for mid-year or the next academic year.

Several, depending on your situation: a passerelle / admission parallèle / admission sur titre into another school on file; a réorientation via Parcoursup to restart a first year next year; using your ECTS to enter at a higher level (L2/L3) in a neighbouring programme; a césure of 1–2 semesters to test another field without losing your place; or, for a Master, applying on Mon Master and - if refused everywhere with a French national Licence - the saisine du recteur.

No. ECTS make your work readable across Europe (60 ECTS = one full year), but recognition - validating them to enter another programme - is decided by the receiving institution. Your credits prove a volume of work; they do not create an automatic admission.

Yes. With a validated VLS-TS or a residence permit marked “étudiant”, you can work up to 964 hours per year, and once your contrat d’apprentissage is validated by the OPCO or DREETS you are authorised to work beyond those 964 hours within your study programme - with no separate work authorisation needed from the employer. For a contrat de professionnalisation it is different: the employer must obtain an explicit work authorisation before the job starts. EU / EEA / Swiss students have free access to the labour market and need no permit.

For a contrat d’apprentissage, yes - but only if you are enrolled in a state-recognised Master, a niveau 1 programme labelled by the CGE, or a CTI-accredited engineering programme (decree no. 2021-360 of 31 March 2021, confirmed in 2022). Outside those, you must first come on a standard “étudiant” status, then switch.

Your training fees are free - covered by the employer’s OPCO - and you earn a real salary set as a percentage of the SMIC (€1,867.02 gross/month at 35h as of 1 June 2026). On a contrat d’apprentissage it ranges from 27% (16–17, year 1) to 100% (26 and over), rising with age and the year of the contract.