France visa and entry rules: EES and ETIAS explained

Getting into France, in plain terms

This page covers one thing only: the paperwork and border checks for entering France to visit Paris. It does not cover what to pack, currency, or how much things cost — those live in their own guides. What follows is what actually determines whether you can board a flight and clear the border at Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) or Paris Orly (ORY).

France is part of the Schengen area, the group of European countries that share a common external border and do not stamp passports at internal crossings between member states. That single fact shapes almost everything below: who needs a visa, how long a visit can last, and what kind of check happens on arrival.

France and the Schengen area

The Schengen area covers most of the EU plus a handful of non-EU countries. Once you are inside it, you can move between member states — say, arriving in Paris and later taking a train to Brussels or Amsterdam — without a border check at each crossing. The rules that matter are set at the point you first enter Schengen territory, which for most visitors flying in will be CDG, Orly, or occasionally Paris Beauvais (BVA), the low-cost airport roughly 85 km north of the city, connected to Porte Maillot by a shuttle that takes well over an hour.

Two groups of travellers, with different requirements, cover the large majority of visitors to Paris.

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens

If you hold a passport or national identity card from an EU or EEA country, or from Switzerland, an identity card is sufficient to enter France. A passport works too, but it is not required. There is no length-of-stay limit in the way there is for other visitors, since freedom of movement within the EU/EEA applies.

Visa-exempt visitors

A separate group of nationalities does not need a visa for short stays, but does need a passport. This includes the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and a number of other countries with visa waiver agreements with the Schengen area. If this is your situation, the rule to know is the 90/180 day limit.

The 90/180 day rule, explained properly

Visa-exempt visitors can stay in the Schengen area for up to 90 days within any 180-day period. The wording matters: it is not 90 days per calendar year, and it is not reset by leaving France for a country outside Schengen. It is a rolling window — count back 180 days from any given date, and the total days spent inside Schengen during that window cannot exceed 90.

This also counts time spent in any Schengen country, not just France. A trip to the Loire Valley or a weekend in Normandy as day trips from Paris does not add extra days to your allowance, since you never leave Schengen territory to take them. But if your Paris trip follows an earlier visit to, say, Spain or Italy in the same six-month window, those days already count against your 90.

For most visitors — a week in Paris, or even seven days with day trips — this rule is irrelevant in practice. It becomes relevant for people combining Paris with an extended European trip, doing a Paris layover as part of a longer stopover pattern, or returning to the region multiple times in a year. If your travel plans are anywhere near the 90-day threshold, it is worth counting carefully rather than estimating, since border officers do check.

The Entry/Exit System (EES): what changed at the border

The Entry/Exit System, known as EES, is a new EU-wide system for recording non-EU nationals crossing the external Schengen border. It replaces manual passport stamping with a digital record that includes fingerprints and a facial photo, captured the first time you enter and used to verify subsequent entries and exits.

EES has been in operation since 12 October 2025, and the EU’s rollout across all Schengen external borders is set to be complete by April 2026. In practice this means that arriving at CDG or Orly from outside the EU, you can expect a biometric registration step at the border rather than a simple stamp — particularly if it is your first crossing since the system went live at that airport.

A few practical points follow from this:

• The first registration takes longer than a passport check used to. If you are on a tight connection, especially through CDG, build in extra time at immigration.
• EES applies to non-EU nationals broadly, including visa-exempt visitors from the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens are not subject to it, since they are not crossing an external Schengen border in the same sense.
• Because the rollout is staged through April 2026, exactly how the process looks can still vary somewhat by airport and by month. What is fixed is that biometric capture is the new norm, not the exception.

EES does not change who needs a visa or the 90/180 day limit — it is a recording mechanism, not a new eligibility rule.

ETIAS: not required yet

This is the point most likely to be misunderstood, so it is worth being precise. ETIAS — the European Travel Information and Authorisation System — is a planned pre-travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors, similar in concept to systems used elsewhere. It is not currently required to enter France or the rest of Schengen.

The EU has announced that it intends to launch ETIAS in the last quarter of 2026. No exact start date has been confirmed, and no fee amount has been published. Anything you read online stating a specific date or a specific price for ETIAS ahead of an official EU announcement should be treated with caution — this page deliberately does not repeat one, because none has been confirmed at the time of writing.

The one source worth checking before you travel is the official EU site, travel-europe.europa.eu, which will carry the confirmed launch date and requirements once ETIAS goes live. If you are booking a trip to Paris for late 2026 or beyond, it is worth a check close to your travel date rather than assuming today’s rules will still apply unchanged.

If you need a Schengen visa

Visitors from countries without a visa waiver agreement need a Schengen visa before travelling to France. This is a separate process from ETIAS, requires an appointment and supporting documents, and should be started well ahead of a trip — processing times vary and are not something to leave until the last weeks before departure.

The official starting point is france-visas.gouv.fr, the French government’s own portal for visa requirements, appointment booking, and application tracking. It is the accurate source for your specific nationality, rather than third-party visa services, which often add fees for information available free on the official site.

From border control to central Paris

Clearing the border is only the first step. Once your passport or ID card has been checked — and, for non-EU visitors, once the EES biometric capture is done — the next practical question is how to actually get from the airport into the city. CDG sits roughly 25 km north-east of central Paris; the RER B runs from the airport to Gare du Nord and Châtelet, and taxis are available at the official taxi rank outside each terminal. Orly is closer, around 13–14 km south of the city, and has been connected to the Paris metro network by line 14 since June 2024, alongside the older Orlyval link. Full route options, including a fixed-price transfer straight from the terminal, are covered in our airport transfers guide and in the dedicated pages for CDG to the city centre and Orly to the city centre.

Book a private CDG to Paris transfer

If you would rather skip the RER B with luggage after a long flight, or you are landing late and want a fixed price agreed in advance rather than a metered taxi, a pre-booked private transfer removes that decision at the point you are most tired. It is not required — the RER B and taxis both work fine — but it is worth knowing it exists before you land, the same way it is worth knowing your EES and 90/180 status before you land.

Once you are in the city, getting around uses the separate network run by Île-de-France Mobilités: 16 metro lines, 5 RER lines, plus trams and buses. Since the January 2025 ticketing reform, single fares are split into a Metro-Train-RER ticket and a Bus-Tram ticket, both loaded onto a Navigo Easy card or a phone; visitors staying several days typically use a weekly Navigo pass (Monday to Sunday) or the tourist-oriented Paris Visite pass. None of this is connected to your entry status — it starts once you are already inside France — but it is the natural next question after the border.

Booking attractions ahead, the same way you should plan entry

There is a useful parallel between the border paperwork on this page and how you should approach Paris’s most popular sights: both reward planning ahead rather than showing up and hoping. Just as it pays to know your EES and 90/180 status before you fly, it pays to book timed entry for sites that sell out or run reserved slots, rather than discovering the queue on arrival. The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Catacombs and the Musée d’Orsay all use timed-entry systems where a booked slot avoids the longest waits.

Two smaller sites worth building into an itinerary, and easy to book ahead alongside your other tickets, are the Rodin Museum and the underground Catacombs:

Rodin Museum entry ticket Catacombs entry ticket and audio guide

For a change of pace from the standard museum circuit, the recently reopened Hôtel de la Marine on Place de la Concorde is also worth a booked slot — it sits close to the Champs-Élysées and Tuileries and pairs well with a first day in the city while jet lag is still an issue:

Hôtel de la Marine entry ticket

Money, connectivity and the days after you land

None of the entry rules above involve currency or payments — France uses the euro, and cards and contactless are accepted almost everywhere, with cash mainly useful for markets. What to bring and how to pay is covered separately in our guide to money, cards and payments in Paris. The same applies to staying connected: neither EES nor ETIAS require a working local phone number, but most visitors want data on arrival, which this guide to eSIMs and wifi in Paris covers in detail.

It is also worth knowing, separately from anything at the border, that a small per-person, per-night city tax is added to accommodation bills and collected by the hotel or host directly — it has nothing to do with your visa or entry status and is not something you pay at the airport.

A quick reference

Traveller type	Document needed	Length of stay	Extra step
EU, EEA, Swiss citizen	National ID card or passport	No limit	None
Visa-exempt (UK, US, Canada, Australia, Japan, others)	Passport	Up to 90 days per 180-day period	EES biometric registration at first entry
Other nationalities	Passport + Schengen visa	As granted by visa	Apply via france-visas.gouv.fr in advance

This table covers entry requirements only. It does not include ETIAS, since it is not yet in force for anyone.

What this means for planning a Paris trip

None of this should complicate a standard visit. If you are coming from the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Japan or another visa-exempt country for a trip measured in days rather than months, the practical impact is limited to one thing: expect a biometric check at the border the first time you pass through under EES, and allow a bit more time for it than you might remember from previous trips before October 2025. Everything else — how long you can stay, whether you need paperwork beforehand — is unchanged from before EES, since visa-exempt travellers didn’t need pre-authorisation then and still don’t need ETIAS now.

If you fall into the smaller group needing a Schengen visa, the main planning task is timing: start the france-visas.gouv.fr process early enough that an appointment slot and processing time don’t collide with your travel dates.

This also matters for how you shape the trip itself. Because your Schengen clock runs from the moment you first cross the external border, a Paris stay that adds day trips to Versailles, Giverny or the Champagne region around Reims and Épernay does not cost you anything extra against the 90/180 limit — you remain inside Schengen the whole time. The same is true of the destinations further afield sold as excursions from Paris, such as the Loire Valley châteaux or the D-Day beaches in Normandy: they are day trips, not separate border crossings, so they are worth building into an itinerary purely on their own merits. For a broader view of how to structure those extra days, our guide to the best day trips from Paris covers the options this site treats as excursions rather than separate bases.

For everyone, the one date worth watching is the ETIAS launch announcement in the last quarter of 2026. It will not affect a trip booked and taken before that system goes live, but if your Paris trip is planned for after that window, it is worth a check on travel-europe.europa.eu a few weeks out rather than assuming nothing has changed.

Frequently asked questions about entering France for a Paris trip

Do UK, US, Canadian, Australian and Japanese travellers need a visa for Paris?

No, not for a short stay. These are among the nationalities exempt from a Schengen visa, and can stay in France and the rest of the Schengen area for up to 90 days within any 180-day period, for tourism.

What is the 90/180 day rule?

Visa-exempt visitors can spend a total of 90 days inside the Schengen area within any rolling 180-day window, counting all Schengen countries together, not just France. Days from a Schengen trip earlier in that window count against the total.

What is the EES and does it apply to me?

The Entry/Exit System (EES) is an EU border system that records fingerprints and a photo for non-EU travellers at the external Schengen border, including at French airports. It has been operating since 12 October 2025, with full rollout completing in April 2026.

Do I need ETIAS to visit Paris?

Not yet. ETIAS is a pre-travel authorisation the EU has said it plans to launch in the last quarter of 2026, but no exact date or fee has been confirmed. Check travel-europe.europa.eu closer to your trip for the official update.

Is an ID card enough for EU, EEA and Swiss citizens?

Yes. Citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland can enter France with a valid national identity card; a passport is not required, though it works as well.

What if I am not from a visa-exempt country?

You will need a Schengen visa before travelling. Applications go through france-visas.gouv.fr, which is the official French government site for visa requirements and appointments.

Will the EES fingerprint check slow down arrival at CDG or Orly?

It can, particularly while the system is still rolling out through April 2026. First-time registration in the EES takes longer than a normal passport check, so build in extra time when connecting or arriving at peak hours.

Does this page cover visa costs or exact ETIAS fees?

No. No official price for ETIAS has been published, and this page does not invent one. For current fees and dates, use travel-europe.europa.eu for ETIAS and france-visas.gouv.fr for Schengen visas.