Advice on finding student accommodation and visa help for studying in Paris

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Hi, I'm hoping for some recommendations for finding accomodation for my daughter who will be studying in central Paris from September. It looks unlikely that the university will offer her 'official' student accomodation. She'd ideally like to share with other students, and would like it to be affordable. Can anyone offer any advice?

And, just in case someone out there has been through this process, any words of advice on the student visa application process? We've read around it, but just want to make sure we haven't missed anything vital, or are about to make some huge mistake.

Thanks for any help.

Does the university have an International Students' Office that can assist her?

Look on the accommodation pages for the university as the first port of call - most of them have links to "non uni" accommodation, if students cannot get any directly from the uni.

You should also look at the international student support pages for visas - in the UK the process is different depending on nationality, level of course, length of course, age of student etc and if you have any issues contact the uni directly.

Hi Lunde. I believe it does, but I'm not sure how much help they offer for pivate accomodation. They offer student accommodation, but there are 6 students for every place offered, and it's based on family income so I'm fairly sure she won't get a place there. The offers are made in July. In the meantime, for the student visa application she needs proof of 3 months accomodation, so we're just trying to work out the best root to get all the bureaucracy and a place to live dealt with in good time.

Go onto the trouver un logement platform, also campus France and the university itself.

There are also lots of privately run student residences. I don't have experience in Paris but in other cities there are a lot and we ended up having to use one due to a late offer. My son said many of the other students in his were international students. He is a French student not eligible for a Crous / student accomodation and our experience is the university gives absolutely no help but this might vary by university and the international office might be worth a try.

Once the French university offers start being made (from June 3rd I think), the good ones will start to disappear so it would be good to start submitting your applications.

https://www.nexity-studea.com/en/student-housing/paris
https://www.studapart.com/en

Consider just outside Paris too, for eg anywhere on the super-fast RER line. I’m in the western suburbs; 17 mins from Arc de Triomphe.

It's quite hard to help without more information. Which university will your daughter be attending? Student house shares are not so much of a thing in Paris, where students often either live at home or in studio apartments. Student halls of residence often have quite stringent acceptance criteria. There are religious (Catholic) halls of residence which are very variable in character - they are worth investigating.

https://dioceseparis.fr/-les-foyers-etudiants-catholiques-.html

Hi. Thanks for the information. She'll be at the Sorbonne, in the Latin Quarter, so would ideally like to be quite central. She'll be there from September to June next year. We thought a studio might be the way to go, although a halls of residence would be preferable just for the social aspect.

As in Panthéon-Sorbonne Université Paris 1? Which subject will she be studying? University halls of residence are quite different in France and not particularly social like UK halls of residence. I think that the Catholic foyers can be a good idea personally - more friendly and more European. University halls of residence are often full of non-European students (which in France means African and Middle Eastern students).

Thanks for the contribution Ceramiq. I believe she'll be at Panthéon-Sorbonne, the lovely neo classical building, studying Latin. We'll look at the Catholic Foyers, she was brought up in Spain so it sounds more like her thing.

Oh gosh, she should definitely look at the Catholic foyers then! The presence of the Catholic Church in student accommodation (and indeed in tourist hospitality) sometimes gets overlooked by the British as it's not really a thing in the UK but in my experience it can be great value for money and self-selecting for certain personality types in a good way.