Your questions - travel documents

What are biometric passports?

All member states of the European Union, must be able to provide biometric passports across all of its territory beginning June 28, 2009. Biometric passports include a photograph and 8 fingerprints of its holder. It allows authorities to immediately recognize an individual.

How will the PARAFE system use the information I provide?

If you do not hold a French biometric passport, you must enroll in the PARAFE program before you can benefit from it. Your saved personal information (marital status, passport information, digital fingerprints) is exclusively reserved for PARAFE. The data is kept for a period of 5 years, which is when your PARAFE registration expires. You can leave the PARAFE program at any time and your personal data will then be deleted.

More on travel documents

PARAFE explained on Paris airports website

What is a transit visa?

A transit visa is valid for a very short period. Depending on your nationality and destination country, you may need to have a transit visa to make a connection in a foreign airport or cross through a foreign country. In France, there are 2 types of transit visas:

  • The airport transit visa: it allows a traveler to pass through the international zone of an airport, without entering the country's territory. Not all foreign travelers are subject to this regulation. Contact the embassy of your connection country for detailed information.
  • The short stay visa: granted to a traveler who intends to go from a non-Schengen country to another non-Schengen country by crossing through the territory of France or any other Schengen member country. The visa may be valid for 1 or several crossings of a maximum duration of up to 5 days each.

Prior to departure, we recommend that you check the entry and travel regulations for your destination countries. If you do not respect these regulations, you will have to pay the fees or fines charged to Air France by the country authorities.