your roadmap
The whole journey from Nepal to France, end to end — organised around the Campus France procedure, which is both the spine of the process and the place it is decided.
Seven stages. France's sequence is unusually front-loaded: the substantive assessment happens at the Campus France interview, months before the consulate looks at your file.
Shortlist, and check what you'll pay
Public university or grande école — and confirm your fee under the 2026 differentiated rules. If post-study work matters, plan at master's level, because a Licence alone will not unlock it.
Language
French or English certification for admission — and begin French regardless, because it gates work, daily life and longer-term status.
Open your Études en France file
The EEF procedure: your academic project, your choices, your documents.
The Campus France interview
In Kathmandu. This is the real screen. Roughly 3 days to 3 weeks.
Acceptance, NOC, tuition
Your Accord préalable, then MoEST approval, then remittance in that order.
France-Visas and VFS Kathmandu
The consular application, biometrics, and the €50 fee.
Arrive and validate
Validate your VLS-TS online after arriving — then bank account, CAF, and enrolment.
Housing in France is bureaucratic in a way that surprises people — landlords typically want a French guarantor, which you will not have.
CROUS student residences
Subsidised university housing. Cheapest by far, heavily oversubscribed — apply as early as you possibly can.
Private student residences
More expensive but far easier to secure from abroad, and they generally do not demand a guarantor.
Shared flat (colocation)
Common and cheaper, but usually arranged after arrival and often needs the guarantor you lack.
Ask about Visale — a state-backed guarantee scheme that can stand in place of a French guarantor for students. Not knowing it exists is a common reason international students overpay for housing.
First and most important: validate your VLS-TS online after arriving — it only functions as a residence permit once validated
Then: open a French bank account — it is required for the CAF housing allowance and most of daily life
Worth doing early: claim the CAF housing allowance — it offsets rent, and international students routinely leave it unclaimed
The VLS-TS validation is not optional — your visa only functions as a residence permit once validated, and leaving it undone puts your legal status at risk. Do it in your first days, not your first term.
Two decisions made now determine what is available to you at graduation.
Degree level: the post-study RECE permit is master's level only — a Licence graduate generally cannot access it
Language: a 2026 update adds an A2 French requirement for converting to a longer-term permit
Both are cheap to plan for and expensive to discover late. If staying in France is part of the goal, you need a master's and at least A2 French — and the French is far easier acquired over three years of living there than crammed in the final term.