Long Stay Visa in French Polynesia: Part One

We have been approved! We have to head to Vancouver to have our long stay visa stamped in our passports but our application has been approved.

N American cruisers used to get 3 months in French Polynesia, renewable for an additional 3 months for a total of 6 consecutive months. The rules were changed in 2010 so that visitors can only stay 3 months out of every 6 months. This means you have to be out of the country for 3 months in between and effectively means that most US/Canadian cruisers leave after only 3 months. We left for 3 and returned.

To stay more than 3 months you have to apply for a 'visa long sejour' and this application must be made at a French consulate in your country of residence. The application requires a lot of supporting material and is quite an undertaking. The reason for this is that the visa long sejour allows you to get a carte de sejour which is a temporary residence permit much like a green card for the US. There is no such thing as a tourist visa longer than 3 months.

After making an appointment at the consulate and submitting the involved packet (including police checks) and paying a big fee and leaving a postage paid envelope, the consulate checks the packet and then mails it to Papeete. Yep, right back where we came from.

We had done some preliminary checking of procedure while in French Polynesia and had already spoken to the person who would be receiving our application. The consulate warns that the procedure could take up to 4 months (!) to compete.

One month after submission ours was approved! After a quick scramble we changed our plane tickets and are now returning to Estrellita in early March.

Once we arrive in Papeete we still have to stop into the office with our visa long sejour, more photos and more money and get our carte sejour. This carte is renewable annually for a fee. Essentially with the carte sejour we could live in French Polynesia indefinitely. However after 2 years we would have to pay import taxes of 26% of the value of the boat.

This story to be continued after we arrive back in La Polynesie Francaise.

Suddenly our long visit seems short and we enter that stage of a trip where everything becomes a fun packed scramble to the finish line.