French residence permit types 2026: which card to pick

Choosing a residence permit in France means choosing the grounds on which you live here: study, employment, family, your own business, or simply money and insurance without working. We, “Vibe South of France”, went through eleven groups of cards on the service-public pages (salarié and travailleur temporaire share one row): who each one suits, how long it lasts, whether you can work, what it costs and where you file. Below, “permit” and “card” both mean the titre de séjour. The check date is 19 October 2026. For what people in our community went through on one route or another, ask in the Vibe South of France community chat on Telegram - relocating to the South of France.

In short, as of October 2026

• Price. From 1 May 2026 a first card is €350 (tax €300 plus stamp duty, timbre fiscal, €50) and a renewal is €250 (200 + 50). At the reduced rate it is €150 and €100; the retraité card is €50.
• Where. Visiteur, students, families and talent file online through ANEF. Salarié, entrepreneur, au pair and the job-search card go to the préfecture of your place of residence.
• When to renew. Through ANEF, no earlier than 4 and no later than 2 months before the card ends. File late and €180 is added to the price.
• Work. Visiteur and retraité cards do not allow work; a student may work up to 964 hours a year; a salarié works only for the employer on whose behalf the authorisation was issued.
• Language. The first multi-year card needs French at A2, the first resident card B1 (levels and the exam are in the guide to French for a residence permit).

All the types in one table

“Not checked” or “not found” means we did not look at that item in the source or did not find it, not that you cannot work. For those cards open the card for that type on service-public (the links are in the “Sources” block). Filing through ANEF means the portal for foreigners. The general filing sequence, the récépissé and waiting times at the préfectures of the south are in our guide Titre de séjour: French residence permit step by step. Which of these cards are accepted for a social-housing application is in the guide Social housing (HLM). What changes with your citizenship (visa, the agreements with Georgia and Russia, temporary protection) is in the guide Working in France by nationality.

Where to start: your situation

• You study or are about to enrol. Étudiant. Whether your money is enough (€877.50 a month) is covered in the guide to studying in France.
• You graduated from a French university and are looking for work. The “job search or business creation” card, 1 year.
• You have found a French employer. Salarié on an open-ended contract, travailleur temporaire on a fixed-term one. The employer requests the autorisation de travail before you arrive.
• You are married to a French citizen or have a French child. Vie privée et familiale. Bringing your family to you is in the guide to family reunification.
• Your salary is from €39,582 gross a year. Look at the carte talent (“Talent Passport”); for the salarié qualifié you also need a French degree at master’s level. The thresholds are set out in the guide to salaries.
• You do not work, and you have €1,477.93 net a month and insurance. Visiteur.
• You are starting your own business. Entrepreneur/profession libérale; with a master’s-level degree or 5 years of experience and a project of €30,000 or more, talent “porteur de projet”.
• You are 18-30 and have signed a convention with a host family. Au pair.
• You have lived in France 5 years without a break. The EU long-term resident card or the carte de résident.
• You are under temporary protection from Ukraine. You hold an APS, not a card, and we wrote about the move to a card separately: temporary protection in France.

Fees: what all the cards have in common

All the figures come from the service-public news item A18881 (published 22 April 2026, updated 12 May 2026): first issue €350 (it was €225), renewal €250 (it was €225), reduced rates €150 (it was €75) and €100 (it was €75), duplicate €350 and €150. Service-public gives these examples of the reduced rate: seasonal workers, students, job search or business creation, family reunification, au pair. The list is open, so check your own case against the card for your type.

The same news item covers the fees for related documents: the APS (autorisation provisoire de séjour) costs €100, a VLS-TS visa on validation €300 (reduced €100; before it was €200 and €50), the regularisation visa fee €300, of which €100 is not refunded (before it was €200, of which €50 was not refunded), naturalisation €255 (before €55). The basis is article 128 of law no. 2026-103 of 19 February 2026. More on visa validation is in the guide OFII: validating a VLS-TS.

If you are late with a renewal, a further €180 is charged, except in cases of force majeure or a valid visa. The cards for visiteur, student, salarié, entrepreneur and RLD-UE word this the same way.

Visiteur: can you live in France without working

For those who need to live in France but do not plan to work here (service-public, F302, checked 1 June 2026). The conditions: resources of at least €1,477.93 net a month for one person (€17,735.19 a year), health insurance for the whole period and a written statement on your honour that you will not work in France, whether as an employee or self-employed.

The card is for 1 year and can be renewed. The first costs €350, a renewal €250. You file online through ANEF, and the card is issued by the préfecture of your place of residence. Renewal is also through ANEF, 4 to 2 months before the end.

The €1,477.93 threshold matches the net SMIC; see the guide to salaries in France. Keep in mind that work is prohibited on this card. How remote work for a foreign employer is treated we did not find in the service-public card, so ask the préfecture before you file.

Étudiant: how many hours a student may work, 964 a year

The student card (F2231, checked 1 August 2026). You need enrolment and resources of at least €877.50 a month; if you are admitted by competitive entry to an institution that has signed an agreement with the State, you do not have to prove resources.

First you are issued a VLS-TS visa for 4 months to a year, and it must be validated online (€100). Then comes a card for 1 year at €100, and later a multi-year card for the rest of the study cycle but no longer than 4 years. The first multi-year card costs €150, its renewal €100. Renewal is only online through ANEF, 4 to 2 months before the end.

Work. Up to 964 hours a year, 60% of the annual norm (F2713, checked 7 October 2025, that is before the fee rise; it has no amounts). The hours are counted not from 1 January but from the date the permit was issued: in the service-public example, a card issued on 1 September 2025 allows work until 31 August 2026. Go over and you risk losing the permit and being refused renewal. The employer files a declaration for you with the préfecture. If you are an Algerian national, an autorisation de travail is needed and the ceiling is 50% of the annual norm.

Salarié and travailleur temporaire: employment

For workers on a contract with a French employer (F15898, checked 1 May 2026). An open-ended contract gets the salarié card, a fixed-term one the travailleur temporaire card. The employer requests the autorisation de travail online before you arrive, then you receive a VLS-TS visa and validate it within 3 months of arriving (tax €300).

The card is for 1 year, a first issue is €350 (300 + 50) and a renewal €250 (200 + 50). On renewal a salarié can receive a multi-year card for 4 years, but French A2 and the civic exam are required (except for people over 65). For a travailleur temporaire the renewal runs for the remainder of the current or a new CDD, sometimes longer than a year.

You file at the préfecture of your place of residence, no later than 2 months before the card ends. How exactly - by online form, by appointment or by post - is up to the préfecture, so see its website. Four months of silence is an implied refusal, which can be appealed within 2 months. How to look for a job is in the guide Working in France for Russian speakers; what in these rules depends on citizenship (visa, the agreements with Georgia and Russia, shortage occupations of Occitanie and PACA) is in the guide Working in France by nationality.

Vie privée et familiale: family

A card for the spouses of French citizens, parents of French children, family members of a person lawfully resident, and also for strong personal and family ties (F2209, checked 1 May 2026).

The first card is for 1 year and costs €350 (stamp duty €50 and tax €300). A renewal is €250. For the spouse of a French citizen, the parent of a French child and people who came by family reunification, the card allows work, and the employer does not have to request a work permit (F2209); some grounds carry restrictions, see the card. For young adults who came by family reunification it is €150 and €100; for victims of violence it is free. The multi-year card for a spouse or the parent of a French child is usually issued for 2 years.

Spouse of a French citizen. Life together must not stop. If you entered on a short-stay visa, you need a marriage concluded in France and 6 months of living together here; if you hold a VLS-TS visa, a current life together is enough. After 3 years of marriage you can ask for a resident card. A temporary card cannot be renewed more than 3 times in a row on the same grounds.

You file online through ANEF 4 to 2 months before the end; some categories file at the préfecture by appointment, 2 months before.

Carte talent (“Talent Passport”): high qualification

In English it is often called the “Talent Passport”: that is the former name. Officially it is now the carte de séjour pluriannuelle “talent” (carte talent, formerly passeport talent). A multi-year card whose validity equals the length of the contract, 4 years at most (F16922, checked 1 June 2026). A first issue costs €350; we did not find renewal amounts in the part of the card we checked, so we do not give them. From abroad you are first given a long-stay visa at a consulate; from within France you file online through ANEF.

Thresholds by profile, gross:

• salarié qualifié - a master’s-level degree or a “niveau 1” degree marked by the Conférence des grandes écoles, obtained in France at a nationally accredited institution, and a contract from €39,582 gross a year; for an employee of an innovative company and for a salarié en mission the threshold is the same and no degree is required (service-public F16922, 1 June 2026);
• EU Blue Card - from €59,373 a year; a contract of 2 years or more gives a card of up to 4 years, a contract shorter than 2 years gives the length of the contract plus 3 months, 2 years at most;
• medical and pharmaceutical professions - from €41,386.48;
• researcher (chercheur) - from €2,200 a month;
• porteur de projet (creating a company) - a master’s-level degree or 5 years of experience, income of at least the SMIC (€22,404.20 a year) and project funding of €30,000 or more; for an investor - an investment of €300,000 or more;
• mandataire social (a company director) - from €67,212.60;
• an artistic or cultural profession - from €1,306.91 a month;
• “renommée” (reputation) - income of at least the SMIC, that is €22,404.20 a year.

How these sums compare with salaries in the regions of the south is in the guide Salaries in France.

Retraité: not for a newcomer

The “retired person or spouse of a retired person” card is for 10 years, costs €50 (and €50 on renewal), and renewal cannot be refused (F2710, checked 1 May 2026). But it does not suit every retiree. The condition: you previously lived in France on a resident card (including an RLD-UE or the former 3-year or 10-year resident card), now live abroad and receive a French basic pension. The card is not provided for citizens of the EU and Algeria.

What it gives you: you may come to France for up to a year without a visa. The card gives no right to work. You file at the préfecture or, from abroad, at a consulate. For a foreign retiree who has never lived in France on a resident card, visiteur is closer: that is our conclusion from the conditions of the two cards, and it is worth confirming at the préfecture.

Entrepreneur and profession libérale: your own business

A card for 1 year at most (F35795, checked 1 June 2026). The activity must be your main occupation, match your qualifications or experience and be economically viable; the income from it must be at least €1,867.02 a month (the gross SMIC).

A first card is €350 (50 + 300), a renewal €250 (50 + 200). You file at the préfecture of your place of residence, and a renewal in the last 2 months. If the business is going well, you can get a multi-year card for 4 years at €350.

Au pair

For people aged 18 to 30 who live with a host family (F15813, checked 1 May 2026). You sign a convention for up to 1 year, extend it with a new convention to a year, and no more than 2 years in all. Pocket money is at least €320, up to 25 hours a week under the convention.

The fee is €100 at visa validation on arrival, then €150 for the first card; a renewal is €100. You file at the préfecture of your place of residence, in the last 2 months.

Job search or business creation

For graduates (F17319, checked 1 June 2026): a degree of at least licence professionnelle or master’s level obtained in France within the last 12 months (if you file from abroad, the period after the degree is up to 4 years). The card is for 1 year and cannot be renewed. It costs €150 (50 + 100), and €100 for validation if you entered on a visa. You may work in your field, at a salary from €2,800.53 gross a month. You file at the préfecture of your place of residence.

A researcher whose talent-chercheur card is ending gets the same card. If you find a job, you change the grounds to salarié or talent; the change is covered in the guide Titre de séjour.

Carte de résident: 10 years

A card for 10 years, renewable (F2208, checked 1 July 2026). It is issued on several grounds: to the spouse of a French citizen (marriage of 3 years or more), on family reunification, to the parent of a French child, to dependent children and parents of French citizens, to refugees and stateless persons, and to recipients of an annuity for an accident at work. As a general rule a first issue requires French at B1 and the civic exam (except for people over 65); for some categories these requirements do not apply; the list and the levels are in the guide to French for a residence permit.

The first card is €350 (50 + 300), a renewal €250; it is free for refugees, stateless persons and holders of subsidiary protection. You file online, and the card is issued by the préfecture; some categories file at the préfecture. The card lapses if you were absent from France for more than 3 years in a row.

Résident longue durée-UE (RLD-UE)

For people who have lived in France for 5 years (F17359, checked 1 June 2026). The residence must be continuous: an absence of up to 6 months in a row is allowed, with a total of 10 months. You need stable resources of at least the SMIC (€1,867.02 gross a month), French at B1, the civic exam and health insurance.

The card is for 10 years and renewable; it lapses if you lived outside France for 6 years in a row. A first issue costs €350, but if you already hold a valid permit (which is almost everyone who applies), it is €250. A renewal is €250 (50 + 200). The first application goes directly to the préfecture as soon as the conditions are met; a renewal goes online through ANEF 4 to 2 months ahead or to the préfecture in the last 2 months.

Changing grounds: what the cards describe

• Job search or business creation. The card is issued for a year without renewal (F17319). If you find a job, you change the grounds to salarié or talent.
• Researcher. When the talent-chercheur card ends, you can get the same job-search card for a year at €150.
• Temporary protection. This is an APS, not a card; the move to an ordinary card is described in the guide to temporary protection.
• Other moves (for example from student to salarié, or from visiteur to entrepreneur) we did not go through in the cards: the grounds and the set of documents depend on the préfecture and on your case.

On the long-stay visa and entry see the guide Visa for France, on study Studying in France. If you have reached citizenship, see French citizenship.

If you are choosing between cards or changing grounds, you can ask in our chat who went which way and how it is going now at your préfecture.

Vibe South of France community on Telegram - residence permits, paperwork and life in the South of France

See also

• Relocating to the South of France: documents step by step
• Titre de séjour: French residence permit step by step
• OFII: visa validation and integration contract
• French for a residence permit and citizenship: A2, B1, B2 and the civic exam
• Salaries in France: the SMIC and talent card thresholds
• Family reunification in France: conditions, income, housing, procedure
• Studying in France
• Visa for France: Schengen, type D and VLS-TS
• Working in France for Russian speakers
• Temporary protection in France: who qualifies and how to get the APS
• Working in France by nationality: visas, agreements, shortage occupations
• Social housing (HLM): which cards are accepted
• Micro-enterprise in France for foreigners: permits, contributions, ceilings