Before you start

A long-stay visa matched to your route, obtained before travel
A passport valid well beyond the intended stay
A French address and a justificatif de domicile in your name
An ANEF account, or accreditation through your organisation's protocol service

Step-by-step

1
Validate your VLS-TS within three months of arrival
Done online with the visa number, your entry date and an electronic tax stamp. This is what converts the visa into a valid residence permit. Missing the window puts you out of status and the remedy is far worse than the fifteen-minute procedure you skipped.
OnlineWho: YouWithin 3 months of arrival
2
If you are joining an international organisation, go through its protocol service, not the préfecture
Staff of the European institutions and the other international organisations here, and their accredited family members, are issued a special residence title by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Your organisation's protocol or HR service runs the process. Do not start an ANEF file in parallel — the two routes are separate and mixing them creates a mess.
Via employerWho: Your organisation's protocol serviceOn appointment
3
Ask early how a special title interacts with long-term residence and naturalisation
A special residence title is not an ordinary titre de séjour, and time spent on one is not automatically equivalent for the purposes of a ten-year card or a naturalisation application. If you expect to settle in France permanently, get this confirmed in writing by the protocol service and by the préfecture at the start rather than discovering the position after five years.
In personWho: You
4
Create and monitor an ANEF account if you are on the ordinary route
Nearly all standard immigration procedures run through the national platform, and requests for further documents appear inside the account rather than by post. Check it weekly during any live procedure and screenshot every submission.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 1
5
If the job is in Germany, arrange the German authorisation separately
A French residence permit does not authorise employment in Germany. Non-EU nationals need German permission, and the route depends on the role and your qualifications. Living in Strasbourg and commuting to Kehl or Offenburg is normal, but it is two sets of paperwork rather than one.
Via employerWho: Your employer in GermanyBefore starting the job
6
Get a utility bill in your own name early
France has no municipal registration, but its administration constantly asks for a justificatif de domicile in your name. An electricity or internet account is the usual source, and having one unlocks a surprising number of unrelated procedures.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 1–2

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the long-stay visa
Proof of the date you entered the Schengen area
Justificatif de domicile in your name
Employment contract or appointment letter
Organisation accreditation documents, for the special title route
ANEF account credentials, for the ordinary route

Things most newcomers don’t know

The European institutions run a completely separate immigration track, and it is not simply a faster version of the normal one.

Staff and accredited dependants of the international organisations in Strasbourg hold a special residence title issued by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs rather than a préfecture card. It is convenient while the posting lasts. What it is not is an ordinary titre de séjour, and the question of how those years count toward a ten-year card or naturalisation is one to settle in writing at the start of a posting, not at the end of it.

Source: Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères — protocole

Schengen removes the border check, not the German work permit.

You can cross to Kehl on a tram without showing anything to anybody, which makes a German job feel administratively trivial. It is not: a non-EU national needs German authorisation to work in Germany, obtained through the German process, and the fact that you hold a French permit and live three kilometres away is irrelevant to it. People accept German offers assuming their French card covers it.

Source: service-public.fr / German immigration authorities

The three-month validation deadline is the one that quietly ends people's stay.

A long-stay visa marked VLS-TS is not a residence permit until you validate it online and pay the tax stamp. Miss the window and you are out of status with no simple remedy — you may have to leave France and restart. It looks like a formality precisely because the visa in your passport appears to be doing the job already.

Source: service-public.fr

ANEF posts document requests inside the account and tells nobody.

The platform does not reliably notify you when a caseworker asks for something, and nothing arrives by post. Files sit untouched for months because an applicant never saw a request they could have answered the same day. Check the account weekly during any live procedure and keep screenshots of everything you submit.

Source: service-public.fr

Common mistakes to avoid

Missing the three-month deadline to validate a VLS-TS online.
Assuming a special residence title counts like an ordinary permit for long-term residence.
Assuming a French residence permit authorises work in Germany.
Running an ANEF file and a protocol accreditation in parallel.
Not checking the ANEF account and letting a document request stall the file for months.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.