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 and the visa's reference numbers

Step-by-step

1
Validate your VLS-TS within three months of arrival
Done online with the visa number, your date of entry and an electronic tax stamp. This is the step that 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
Create and monitor your ANEF account from week one
Nearly all immigration procedures now run through the national platform. Requests for further documents appear inside the account rather than arriving by post or by email, so check it weekly whenever a procedure is live.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 1
3
Book anything ANEF does not cover through the Var préfecture's own site
The préfecture in Toulon handles residence procedures for the arrondissement and publishes its own booking routes, a citizen contact centre number and a contact form. Its counters open on weekdays through the working day. Use those channels — commercial 'appointment finder' sites resell a public form and guarantee nothing.
OnlineWho: You
4
Use the point d'accueil numérique if the platform defeats you
The Var runs a digital access point for foreign nationals — staffed help to complete online procedures — available by appointment on weekdays, including sessions at the préfecture itself. If you are stuck on an ANEF form, that is a real service designed for exactly this and it is free.
In personWho: You
5
Read the nationality and clearance line on any defence-adjacent job advert
This is the most important local step in this guide. Roles at the naval base, at Naval Group, at the arsenal and across a large part of the supplier chain require French or EU nationality, a security clearance, or both, and those requirements are stated in the posting. They are not negotiable by a good CV and they are not an immigration matter your préfecture can help with. Establish which parts of the local market are actually open to you before you commit to the move.
OnlineWho: YouBefore you accept the move
6
Start renewals at the earliest permitted date and screenshot everything
A renewal is filed at the earliest four months and at the latest two months before your current permit expires. Use the front of that window — an early application produces a récépissé that protects your status while the file is considered. Screenshot each submission: being able to show what you sent and when is your only leverage if a file stalls.
OnlineWho: You

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 proof of resources, depending on the route
Passport photographs to French specification
ANEF account credentials

Things most newcomers don’t know

A valid work permit does not open the largest employer in the département.

The naval base and its supply chain dominate employment here, and a great deal of that work is restricted to French or EU nationals, requires a security clearance, or both. Those are defence and employment requirements rather than immigration ones, so nothing in your titre de séjour changes them and no préfecture can help. Newcomers who research the visa carefully and the labour market loosely arrive with the right paperwork for a job market that is substantially closed to them. Read the nationality clause on the actual posting before the move, not after.

Source: community-reported

The Var runs staffed help for the online platform, and it is not advertised where you would look.

ANEF defeats people — not because the procedures are hard but because the platform is unforgiving about document formats and silent about what it wants next. The département operates a point d'accueil numérique with appointments on weekdays specifically to sit with foreign nationals and complete online procedures. It is free, it exists in every département in some form, and almost nobody uses it because it is filed under digital inclusion rather than under immigration.

Source: préfecture du Var

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 there is no letter in the 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 treat email as unreliable rather than as the channel.

Source: service-public.fr

Common mistakes to avoid

Moving here for defence-sector work without checking the nationality and clearance requirements first.
Missing the three-month deadline to validate a VLS-TS online.
Paying a commercial site for an appointment the préfecture provides free.
Struggling alone with ANEF when the département runs a staffed digital access point.
Applying for renewal too late and falling between a lapsed permit and an undecided file.

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