Moving to France as an EU citizen: rights, family, tax

We at “Vibe South of France” do not give legal advice. We have collected the procedure for someone arriving with an EU, EEA or Swiss passport, and for their close family, from the Service Public, Your Europe and ameli cards and the official sites of three countries; each item has its own check date (we checked on 25 October 2026). For our community this is an important case: the husband or wife has an EU passport, and the person themselves comes from the CIS. How many people like that we have, we haven’t counted and won’t make up. You can talk through your own case in the “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram - moving and life in the South of France, where there are 700+ members.

In short: how it differs from moving from the CIS

The main point: a citizen of the EU, the EEA or Switzerland already has the right to live in France. The state does not grant it, it checks that you qualify. The United Kingdom is not on this list.

The right to reside: before and after 3 months

Up to 3 months. You can enter and live here without formalities. You need a valid passport or ID card, in case your papers are checked. You can also work during this period without a permit (F13512).

Longer than 3 months. Card F2651 (checked 1 April 2026) names three grounds: you work, you study, or you have insurance and sufficient means. The freedom is “not entirely free” (“n’est pas totalement libre”), and a refusal of residence is possible. You also need an identity document and must pose no threat to public order.

What “sufficient means” means is stated in figures. The administration may not demand that your resources exceed €651.69 a month for one person and €977.54 for a couple without children (F2651, F22117). That is a ceiling on what can be required for the card, not a minimum pension.

The card is optional. For a worker, a student and an economically inactive person the card says it outright: “Vous n’êtes pas obligé de posséder un titre de séjour” (you are not obliged to hold a residence permit). But you can get one if it is easier for you to prove your right to reside with a document. The application is filed online at ANEF, the card is free, issued by the prefecture or sous-préfecture for your address, and valid for up to 5 years (F16003, F22117). For the inactive person’s card, the European CEAM card is accepted as insurance for the first year.

Do you need to register at the town hall? For France the open cards set out no such obligation. The general Your Europe rule is wider: after 3 months an EU country may ask you to register, usually at the mairie or the police. If you are not sure, ask the prefecture or the mairie where you live.

Permanent right. After 5 years of lawful, continuous residence you gain the right of permanent residence and no longer have to prove work, study or means. You lose it if you are absent from France for more than 2 years in a row. These do not count as a break: absences of up to 6 months a year and an absence of up to 12 months in a row for a serious reason, such as illness, study or a posting abroad (F2651, F22117). Some categories get it sooner, for example cross-border workers and people who stopped working because of disability or retired.

Non-EU family members

For us this is the most common case: your husband, wife or parent has an EU passport, and you don’t. Under cards F2653 and F19315 the rules are these.

Who counts: a spouse; a child under 21 or dependent (yours and your spouse’s); a dependent parent (yours and your spouse’s). A PACS partner, if you have lived together for at least 1 year. A cohabiting partner (concubin), at the administration’s discretion, if you have lived together for at least 5 years (there are exceptions). Other relatives are considered separately, at the administration’s discretion. If you are a student, you cannot bring your parents. And there is a condition for the European: in France they must have the right to reside as a worker, an inactive person or a student.

The rules apply when the EU citizen lives outside their country of citizenship. A German, an Italian and a Spaniard in France fit them, while the family of a French citizen live under different rules.

What to attach: a valid passport, proof of address no older than 6 months (a bill, a rent receipt, an attestation d’hébergement), an electronic photo, a document proving the relationship (for a spouse, an extract or a full copy of the marriage certificate), and proof of the European’s right to reside, for example an employment contract, proof of means or a student card. For dependants you need documents showing how the European supported them in the previous country.

Applying late. If you apply after 3 months, a “droit de visa de régularisation” of €300 in stamps may be required when the card is issued. It is a fee, not a fine. Source F19315 is dated February 2024, so check the 6-month processing time and the amount with ANEF or the prefecture before applying.

You get an electronic attestation de dépôt as soon as you file the application. After 5 years non-EU family members must apply for a permanent-residence card 4-2 months before the end of the fifth year; it is valid for 10 years. A European family member may choose not to take such a card. On family reunification from a country outside the EU there is a separate page.

Health: PUMa, S1, CEAM and carte Vitale

PUMa. If you work and your application is accepted, you are covered at once. Without a job you have to wait 3 months in the country, and the rights stay as long as you live in France at least 6 months a year (F34308). An EU citizen who is not working needs means at least equal to RSA/ASPA; otherwise French insurance is not set up, though treatment costs may be covered through AME. ameli does not give the sums on its page, and we don’t quote them. The 2026 social security financing act provides for a “participation financière” from non-working PUMa recipients who do not pay CSG, CRDS and the health insurance contribution under an international convention; the amount is awaited in a decree, and the old arrangement applies in the meantime.

S1. For a pensioner from another EU country, the S1 document is issued by the fund that pays the pension. Ask for it before you leave: a request made after departure may delay registration in France (F12859, CLEISS). A posted worker stays insured in their own country: they are better off requesting S1 before leaving, and their status is confirmed by form A1; a posting must not exceed 24 months, except in exceptional cases (ameli).

CEAM. This is the European card for the time of a trip. It is issued by your country of insurance, it is free and it does not replace French insurance. For the inactive person’s card it is accepted as proof of insurance for the first year (a European form of continued insurance is also suitable).

Carte Vitale. After the social security number, you order it in your ameli account (about 2 weeks) or by post (about 3 weeks), and it is free. People born abroad first get a temporary NIA number for 9 months (ameli, 2 October 2026). Details and steps: carte Vitale and Sécu.

Work and job hunting

An EU citizen can work straight away, and after 3 months too: any employed work or self-employment, except part of the civil service and regulated professions (a lawyer, a dentist and the like, F2651). For professions and pay in detail, see work in France.

Looking for work? After arriving, register with France Travail as a jobseeker. Unemployment benefit from your previous country can be received in France for 3 months, extendable to 6, if before leaving you had been registered with the employment service for at least 4 weeks and obtained document U2 (F12136). Card F12136 was checked in January 2023, so check it again before you fly.

Tax

Any one of four criteria makes you a French tax resident (F62, 1 January 2026):

• your family (spouse, partner, children) normally lives in France;
• your main place of stay is here, 183 days or more in a year;
• your main job is here;
• the centre of your economic interests is here.

If a second country also claims you as a resident, the double taxation convention settles the dispute. How the conventions with Germany, Italy and Spain split pensions is set out below; salaries and dividends are not covered on this page, and the texts of the conventions are on impots.gouv.fr.

In the year of the move, tax is charged on all income from the date of arrival (BOFiP). A French resident declares all income, French and foreign (F36401). The first return is usually filed on paper if you are filing for the first time and were not included in your parents’ return; foreign income goes on form 2047.

Foreign accounts. Every account opened abroad, neobanks included, must be declared with the return: box 8UU and form 3916 bis. For each undeclared account the penalty is €1,500, and for states without a convention on fighting tax fraud €10,000 per account (A18891). The €1,500 applies when France has such a convention with the state of the account; for a state without one the penalty is €10,000 per account (A18891). The first sign is the IBAN: if it does not start with FR, the account is most likely foreign. More on tax: taxes in France.

A pension from Germany, Italy or Spain

In short: a private pension for past work is taxed by France, as your country of residence, under all three treaties. A pension for government service is taxed by the country that pays it, unless you are a French citizen without that country’s citizenship. Statutory social insurance pensions are where the three treaties differ. Below is what the texts themselves say, not an analysis of your situation: check the details with your service des impôts.

Germany. The 1959 convention applies as amended by the avenant signed in Berlin on 31 March 2015; the amendment came into force on 24 December 2015 and applies to payments and income from 1 January 2016. Under article 13 § 8, pensions, annuities and similar payments, “y compris les sommes versées au titre des assurances sociales légales”, are taxed only by the recipient’s country of residence. For a French resident that means France, including for a pension from Germany’s statutory social insurance. In return, France pays Germany compensation under article 13 c: that is a settlement between the two states and doesn’t concern the pensioner. A pension for administrative or military service paid by the state, a Land, a local authority or a public-law body is taxed by Germany under article 14 § 1. The exception is a recipient who holds French and not German citizenship: then France alone taxes it. Where Germany taxes a service pension, France gives a credit equal to the French tax on that income under article 20, so you don’t pay twice, but you still put the income on your French return.

Italy. The convention was signed in Venice on 5 October 1989 and has applied since 1 May 1992. A private pension for past work is taxed only by the country of residence (article 18 § 1). Pensions and payments under social insurance legislation “sont imposables dans cet Etat” (article 18 § 2): Italy may tax them, but not exclusively. Under article 24 France also takes such income into account and gives a tax credit equal to the French tax on it. In practice, Italy taxes an Italian social insurance pension, you declare it in France, and the credit cancels the French tax on it. A state pension for service to Italy is taxed only by Italy, except where the recipient lives in France, is a French citizen and is not an Italian citizen (article 19 § 2); the article 24 credit covers it too.

Spain. The convention was signed on 10 October 1995 and has applied since 1 July 1997. A private pension for past work is taxed only by the country of residence (article 18). A pension for service to the state or its public bodies is taxed only by Spain, and by France if you live in France and hold French but not Spanish citizenship (article 19 § 2). These articles say nothing about social insurance, so we make no claim about a Spanish social insurance pension: ask your service des impôts. We have not checked article 24, on how Spain and France remove double taxation.

How it is declared in France. Start with the treaty. If the income is exempt in France under it, you still declare it so that the rate on your French income can be worked out (méthode du taux effectif). If the income is taxable in France, then in the tax office’s words “pour éviter une double imposition, un crédit d’impôt égal à l’impôt français s’applique le plus souvent”. You fill in forms 2042 / 2042 C and 2047, starting with 2047 according to its notice. Without a treaty, the income is taxed in France. These explanations come from an impots.gouv.fr page updated 12 March 2021; the treaty texts are in the source list.

Driving licence and car

An EU licence is valid without an exchange until it expires. An exchange is compulsory in four cases: the licence is about to expire, you want a new category, you broke the rules in France and lost points or had the licence restricted, suspended or cancelled, or the licence is lost, stolen or damaged (F1757, F1758). A voluntary exchange is possible even if the licence has expired.

Since 12 May 2026 the exchange is paid: an electronic stamp of €40 (€20 in Guyane), and it applies to a voluntary exchange (A18887, F1758). The application is filed at ANTS, you keep driving while it is processed, and the attestation you receive is valid for 4 months.

There is a trap: if your European licence was obtained by exchanging one from a country without reciprocity (the card gives an example: a Spanish licence obtained in exchange for a Chilean one), you can drive on it in France for only 1 year from the day you settled here, and then you take the French exam (F1757, F1758).

Don’t mix up two periods. For tax residence one of the criteria is 183 days, while the “résidence normale” for licence exchange is 185 days in a calendar year (A18887).

The car. If you have settled in France and declared your main home, you need a carte grise within 1 month of moving, whatever your citizenship. You can apply online at ANTS or through an accredited motor-trade professional; prefectures do not accept applications (F10519). The temporary CPI document is valid for 1 month and only within France. You need the old registration, proof of address no older than 6 months, cerfa 13750, a contrôle technique under 6 months old for a car over 4 years old, a COC from the manufacturer (or its substitute from F10519) and a quitus fiscal, if there is no exemption note. There is no customs on bringing a car in from the EU (F492). We have not confirmed the procedure for obtaining a quitus fiscal when moving with your own car: ask the tax office (SIE). All about buying and registering: a car in France.

Registering in your own country: Germany, Italy, Spain

You have come for good, and a record of you remains at home. The deadlines and penalties differ from country to country.

Worth knowing: Italian consulates have their own document requirements. The consulate in Lyon, for example, does not accept an attestation d’hébergement or tenancy agreements as proof of residence; other supporting documents are needed. Which consulate covers your département, see the websites of the consulates in Lyon and Marseille, and check whether another consulate is closer. For Spaniards, registration is handled by the Spanish consulate for your district; we opened the page of the consulate in Toulouse (RMC, the form and the procedure), and which district your département falls under, see the exteriores.gob.es website. Registering at a consulate does not settle the question of tax residence; the preamble to RD 991/2024 says so directly.

Voting and a couple of other things

In municipal and European elections an EU citizen in France can vote, but first applies themselves to be put on the lists; you can vote for the European Parliament in one country only (F1937). The rest, housing, bank, school, follows the general rules: a bank account and renting a home without a guarantor. For your first weeks after arrival, see the first 30 days in France.

Where to ask a question

Nuances like “how fast did the Hérault prefecture reply” or “which consulate accepted an AIRE registration by post” are not in the guides: they are known by people who have already been through it. We have no chat data on this topic, but you can ask: in the “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram there are 700+ members, and your case may well be among them. If an answer turns out to be useful, we will have something to add here.

The “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram - moving and life in the South of France

See Also

• Moving to the South of France: documents step by step
• How to move to France: all the legal routes
• Titre de séjour: a residence permit in France
• Family reunification in France
• Carte Vitale and Sécu: how to get them
• Taxes in France for newcomers
• Driving licences in France: exchange, from scratch, exam, points
• Buying a car in France
• The first 30 days in France: what to do