Campus France Application Process 2027: Routes, Fees and Dates

  • Last Updated on: September 24, 2026 by
  • Swapna Kanchikacherla
Campus France Application Process
Campus France Application Process

Any course in France longer than three months needs a long-stay visa, and that puts you through Etudes en France (France-Visas, Student). For the 2027-2028 intake, applications open on the platform on 1 October 2026 (Campus France, Etudes en France application guide). Every other deadline counts forward from that date. Most Indian applications come apart on three things: the choice limit, the money you have to show, and a No Objection Certificate that does not exist. Start with the route table below.

Written by
Swapna Kanchikacherla
Head of European Desk
Specialises in Germany and France student admissions and visa documentation, with a focus on Campus France, APS, blocked-account and proof-of-funds files.
9 Years, 1100 Visas
Reviewed by
Sridhar Kongara
Managing Director
Mr. Kongara Sridhar, Director of AOEC India, has over 12 years of experience in overseas education consulting, admissions, and student visa guidance.
Over 12 years Experience

Key Takeaways

  • A course over three months needs a long-stay visa and an Etudes en France application.
  • Etudes en France reopens on 1 October 2026 for 2027-2028 entry.
  • You get 7 choices in total, at most 3 of them first-year Licence (French bachelor’s) courses.
  • The process itself costs about INR 36,400: INR 20,000 to Campus France, EUR 50 (about INR 5,466) for the visa, EUR 100 (about INR 10,931) on arrival.
  • Validate your VLS-TS (the long-stay visa that doubles as your residence permit) within three months of landing.
  • Campus France issues no NOC; you get an interview completion certificate.
  • Budget about INR 11.5 lakh of visible funds: EUR 877.50 a month (about INR 95,922) over a 12-month year, built up over months.
Table of Contents
Who Uses Etudes en France, and the Route Your Profile Puts You On Scroll here ↓ Etudes en France Dates for 2027-2028 Entry, and the Steps Before Your Interview Scroll here ↓ What the Campus France Application Process Costs, and What You Get Instead of an NOC Scroll here ↓ Frequently Asked Questions Scroll here ↓

Who Uses Etudes en France, and the Route Your Profile Puts You On

Etudes en France is the online platform Campus France runs for student applications. One account on it carries you from your first university choice all the way to the visa appointment. In 2026 the procedure covers 73 countries, India among them (Campus France, Studying in France procedure). Your route depends on the level you apply for.

Your situationRouteYour dateWhere you applyHow many choices
Class 12 leaver, year 1 of a public Licence (French bachelor’s)DAP blanche (the first-year Licence route)To your universities by 15 Dec 2026Etudes en France3 of your 7 choices
Final-year BTech or BSc, applying for a master’sHors-DAP (everything except first-year Licence)Set by each universityEtudes en FranceUp to 7 choices in total
Already admitted to a private school not on the platformDirect admission, then an Etudes en France file for the visaSet by that schoolThe school’s portal first, then Etudes en FranceNo platform limit on direct applications
Doctoral candidateOutside Etudes en France, on a passeport talent (researcher visa)Set by the doctoral schoolThe doctoral school directlyNo Etudes en France limit
Architecture at a national school (ENSA)DAP jaune (the architecture route)Same dates as the DAP routeEtudes en France2 programmes

Etudes en France gives you 7 choices in total, and at most 3 of them may be first-year Licence courses under the DAP (Demande d’Admission Prealable, the preliminary admission request). A Class 12 applicant who uses three Licence choices has four left, not seven, and those four must go to hors-DAP courses, meaning anything outside first-year Licence. All three of your DAP universities read your application at the same time, so ranking them makes no difference. Language is set by the programme, not by the platform: French-taught courses want a French test, and France runs plenty of English-taught ones that do not, including some that accept you without IELTS. Marks and test scores are a separate gate from your route: see the requirements to study in France for Indian students.

Parcoursup, the portal French school-leavers use, isn’t your route from India: your first-year Licence request sits inside Etudes en France as the DAP. Our study in France guide maps the institution types.

A doctorate is not covered at all: you contact the doctoral schools directly and travel on a passeport talent, the visa for researchers. A school not listed on the Etudes en France platform admits you directly, on its own calendar. You still need an Etudes en France application for the visa.

Etudes en France Dates for 2027-2028 Entry, and the Steps Before Your Interview

Etudes en France reopens on 1 October 2026 for 2027-2028 entry. Files reach your universities by 15 December 2026, they decide by 30 April 2027, and you answer by 31 May 2027. No India calendar has appeared yet, so confirm these on the India portal before you apply. Hors-DAP shares that calendar except the submission deadline, which each programme publishes on its own page. Our France intake calendar tracks those windows.

If you haven’t answered a university offer by 31 May, the silence counts as a refusal.

Six steps, from account to visa appointment:

  1. Create your Etudes en France account and note your Campus France Registration Number.
  2. Fill in marks, degrees and your statement of purpose for a France student visa. Have scans ready:
    • Class 10 and 12 marksheets
    • Degree certificate, or a bonafide letter from your college if you are still in your final year
    • CV and passport bio page
    • Photograph and language test scores
  3. Make your 7 choices.
  4. Pay the fee and submit your application.
  5. Sit the academic interview, a one-to-one with a Campus France adviser, and collect your interview completion certificate.
  6. Book your visa appointment at VFS Global, which handles French visa applications in India, once Campus France emails your clearance.

Work backwards from the visa date. You can’t apply for the visa earlier than 3 months before you fly, so the application, the interview and the offer must all be done by then. Give yourself six months, not six weeks. The paperwork is heavier than anything you’ve filled in before.

As of September 2026, you must show EUR 877.50 a month (Campus France India, Preparing the visa application). It’s pinned at 47% of the French minimum wage, so it rises whenever that wage rises. The monthly figure is published; the number of months isn’t. Show a full academic year’s worth and you’re covered either way.

From our counselling desk: Ardent Overseas handled 80 Campus France files for the September 2025 intake from our Hyderabad and Tirupati offices. The biggest weakness wasn't grades or language. It was proof of funds: no account of how the money accumulated, and thin parental income proof. A modest declared income beside a balance that appeared last month looks borrowed. Build your proof of funds for a France student visa over six months.

What the Campus France Application Process Costs, and What You Get Instead of an NOC

As of September 2026, the Etudes en France procedure fee is INR 20,000 (Campus France India, Increase in Etudes en France fees). The long-stay student visa adds EUR 50 (about INR 5,466) and EUR 100 (about INR 10,931) falls due on arrival, for about INR 36,400 in all.

ChargeAmountWhen you pay
Etudes en France procedure feeINR 20,000Before your application is checked
Long-stay student visa feeEUR 50 (about INR 5,466)At the VFS Global appointment
VLS-TS validation on arrivalEUR 100 (about INR 10,931)Within 3 months of landing
Your total so farAbout INR 36,400Excludes the VFS fee and tuition

India is on the Etudes en France country list, so your visa fee is EUR 50, not the EUR 99 charged elsewhere (France-Visas, Student). Charpak and Eiffel scholarship holders, plus the other awards Campus France lists, skip both fees but still pay the VFS service fee.

Those same holders are the only people who can ask for a refund, and only until 30 June of the year after they paid. The visa fee never comes back, on withdrawal or refusal (Campus France India, Application and Admission Procedure).

Validating your VLS-TS costs EUR 100 online, within 3 months of arrival (Service-Public, student long-stay visa and residence permit). A year later you pay EUR 150 for the multi-year carte de sejour (French residence permit), which replaces your VLS-TS. On top of these you still owe tuition and the CVEC (a compulsory EUR 105 charge for 2026-2027 that funds campus health and sport services); the cost of studying in France totals those.

There is no NOC, and nothing in the process produces one

Applicants and agents call that clearance a No Objection Certificate, or NOC. Campus France doesn’t issue one. The Campus France application process ends instead with an interview completion certificate from your advisor at the academic interview, and an automated email clearing you for VFS Global. If the interview worries you, prepare with the Campus France interview questions we hear most often.

Get in Touch

Frequently Asked Questions

No. A course of three months or less takes a short-stay visa, and Etudes en France does not apply. Anything longer takes a long-stay visa, the type D, which covers a stay of more than three months and up to one year. Read the duration on your admission letter.

Seven choices in total. At most three of those may be first-year Licence courses under the DAP, and the remaining four must sit outside it. Architecture runs on its own track: a national school of architecture (ENSA) takes a DAP jaune, a separate file from the standard DAP.

Every visa refusal must state its reasons, so read them first. You then have 30 days to appeal to the CRRV, the commission that reviews French visa refusals, and that appeal is compulsory before any court action. Read the France student visa rejection reasons before you file.

A student VLS-TS is issued for four months to one year. Renewal must be requested at the earliest four months and at the latest two months before your current document expires. Leave France unvalidated after those first three months and you need a fresh visa to return.

Charpak Master pays EUR 860 a month (about INR 94,007) and waives the visa and procedure fees. You must be 30 or younger. As a bourse du gouvernement francais, a French government scholarship, it may also waive differentiated tuition, the higher rate non-EU students pay, though each university decides. See other scholarships to study in France.

Sources

Official sources first, then reputable third-party.

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