Mayotte Travel Guide

Mayotte, the French department in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros, sits outside the Schengen Area entirely, and the Schengen agreements simply do not apply here, a traveler holding a standard short stay Schengen visa cannot use it to enter Mayotte unless the visa's label specifically says 'Valid for Mayotte'. For everyone else who needs a visa, a special application specifically for Mayotte has to go through a French Embassy or an authorized visa application center. Since 20 February 2026, every traveler needing a French visa, short stay or long stay, has to complete the application through the France-Visas portal and book their appointment exclusively through that official system, a newly centralized process.

For stays of less than 3 months, the process still runs through a short stay visa application specifically for Mayotte, and ETIAS, the new European travel authorization system, does not apply here at all, since Mayotte, like France's other overseas departments, sits outside Schengen regardless of how the wider EU system evolves.