France: passport and entry requirements
France follows the EU entry rules, so a family holiday needs no visa, only an in-date passport each, children of any age included. If you're crossing from Dover, Folkestone or St Pancras, the French border checks now happen on the UK side before you board.
Your passport
Every passport has to have been issued less than ten years before the day you arrive, and still have at least three months left on it after the day you leave. Both tests have to pass.
The ten-year test needs a closer look on any passport renewed before September 2018. Back then, unused time from an old passport could be added to the new one, so a passport can show more than ten years between its issue and expiry dates. Anything beyond ten years doesn't count, so it's the issue date that matters, not the expiry date.
Check every passport as you book rather than the week before you fly. Everyone travels on their own passport, and a child's lasts five years against an adult's ten, so they rarely all expire together. Renew any that's close to running out, as it takes weeks to come through.
Getting in
A stay of up to 90 days in any 180-day period needs no visa, which covers any normal family holiday. That limit only matters if you spend long or repeated stretches in Europe within the same six months, and it's counted across the whole Schengen area rather than country by country.
You go through EES, the EU's new entry and exit system, which records your photo and fingerprints digitally instead of stamping your passport. It's free and the record lasts three years. Carry travel insurance, proof of where you're staying, a return ticket and enough money to cover the trip, as French border officers can ask for any of them.
ETIAS, an online travel authorisation the EU plans to bring in, isn't running yet and has no confirmed start date, so there's nothing to apply for before you travel. When it does start it'll cost €20 (last checked August 2026) and last three years, and under-18s won't pay the fee.
Every child needs their own passport, however young, because no child can travel on a parent's. Children aged eleven or younger aren't fingerprinted for EES, and once ETIAS starts each child will need their own, free for under-18s.
Border checks before you board
Crossing by ferry from Dover, through the Eurotunnel at Folkestone or on Eurostar from St Pancras, you clear the French border and EES on the UK side before you leave, not after you land. The whole family goes through together at the terminal, so you're done with French formalities by the time you board. Flying instead, you do EES on arrival at the French airport.
Official sources
Last checked 11 August 2026. Passport and entry rules change, so always confirm on GOV.UK before you book or travel.
