Move to France with an Italian or Spanish residence permit

We at “Vibe South of France” are not lawyers. What follows is the procedure described by the official Service Public cards, the European Commission portal and the prefectures, and every item carries the date it was checked (we read the sources on 25 October 2026). The question comes up often: a residence permit or long-term residence in Italy, Spain or Germany, and a wish to live and work in the South of France. How many people in our community are in that position, we haven’t counted and won’t invent a number. 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. The page answers the question without the chat.

Which document you hold and what it allows

The main difference is between “entering” and “settling”. A short trip within Schengen is open to almost anyone with a residence permit from a Schengen country. Living and working on French soil is not possible without a French title.

The 90-day lines apply to a residence permit from a Schengen country (Ireland and Cyprus are not in it).

Trips of up to 90 days in 180: no work on the cards

The European Commission’s “Already in the EU?” portal says that with a long-stay visa or a residence permit issued by a Schengen country you may go to another Schengen country for 90 days in 180. You must explain the purpose of the trip, have the means to stay and to return, and not be considered a threat to public order, security or health. By card F1765, crossing the border takes a passport and the residence permit itself.

Working during those 90 days is not allowed on the cards we read. For an ordinary card that is F2728: it “ne permet pas de séjourner ni de travailler en France”. We read “séjourner” there as “to live”, while a short visit stays under EU rules. For EU long-term residence the Hérault prefecture says the same outright in its list: the card “n’autorise pas l’exercice d’une activité professionnelle en France”. The exceptions (congresses, filming and the like) are described on Service Public for holders of a C visa, and whether they extend to residence-permit holders is not clear from the cards. If you need a one-off work trip, ask the prefecture beforehand.

Two caveats, so that you neither worry for nothing nor relax for nothing. The duty to “déclarer son entrée” is named in F1765 for people without a Schengen residence permit, and for permit holders it says nothing: we don’t write “not needed”, we write “not mentioned”. And registering entry in the EES system (F39104) is not required of “titulaires … d’un titre de séjour délivré par la France ou un autre État membre”.

EU long-term residence from another country: a French title within 3 months

The résident de longue durée-UE status gives the right to move to another EU country for longer than three months, but not automatically. The European Commission portal says you must apply and obtain a residence permit from the second country. Most often they ask for stable and regular resources, health insurance and housing, and if you want to work, proof of the job. A country may set quotas (an application can be turned down even if you qualify) and check the labour market; limits on access to work are allowed for up to a year.

France does not ask you for a D visa (F16162). But the card itself “ne permet pas de travailler en France”, and the title must be requested “au plus tard dans les 3 mois après son entrée en France” (F2728). If you ask for a title that lets you work as an employee (salarié, for example), the employer, depending on the title, asks for a work authorisation on the administration’s platform; without it you may not work.

What is asked in practice shows in the Hérault prefecture’s list “Titulaire d’une RLDUE vers salarié” (PDF of 22 March 2022, the lists page updated on 5 February 2026). It is a list of documents for a salarié card application in one prefecture, not a general rule for all EU long-term residents:

• a copy of the EU long-term residence card from the other country;
• resources at least equal to the SMIC (10% more for a family of 4-5 people, 20% more if the family has more than five members), proven in the country that issued the card, plus a promise of work stating the salary;
• proof of health insurance in the issuing country, in France, or private insurance;
• a work authorisation that the employer obtained in advance;
• a translation of documents in a foreign language by a sworn translator.

The Gard prefecture put this application into a separate online form on demarche.numerique.gouv.fr; holders of a tourist C visa and of a one-year D visa are excluded from it. We found no single nationwide formula for “where to apply”: apparently you apply to the prefecture for your home address, and its website says how to book. We have no confirmation that this case goes through ANEF.

The fee: card F15898 (1 May 2026) gives €350 for the salarié card (€300 taxe + €50 timbre, paid in stamps). The prefecture PDFs of 2019 and 2022 show other sums, and they are out of date. That an EU long-term resident pays the same sum is our inference from the title being the same (salarié); check with the prefecture.

A side effect. The Haute-Garonne prefecture (PDF, 2019): if a title is issued in France, the first EU state is informed and, “dans certaines conditions”, the long-term resident status may be withdrawn. On the European Commission portal the status is lost, among other cases, if you became a long-term resident in another EU country or were absent from EU territory for more than 12 months in a row. Before applying, find out what the country that gave you the EU long-term residence says about this.

Years spent in another EU country apparently do not count. French EU long-term residence (F17359) requires 5 years of lawful continuous residence in France. The card has no direct sentence “years in another EU country do not count”; this is our conclusion from the condition. It names one exception, the Blue Card: if you have already had a Blue Card in France for 2 years and before that lived 3 years in the EU with a Blue Card, a national card for highly qualified workers or an asylum card, you can apply for EU long-term residence.

Family. For the husband or wife of an EU long-term resident from another country, the card is “vie privée et familiale”, applied for within 3 months of arrival, with a €350 fee (F2209). You may not work on it for a year after the card is first issued. You have to show that you lived together in the other EU country, plus health insurance and stable resources or support from the spouse. Children get the same card at 18 (at 16 if they want to work).

Blue Card: moving after a year

If you hold another EU country’s Blue Card and have lived there at least a year, France issues the “talent - carte bleue européenne” card on simplified grounds (F16922, 1 June 2026). The deadline for applying is short: “dans le mois de votre entrée en France”. From a second move, 6 months is enough instead of a year. The European Commission portal says the same about 12 months, and that you apply for a new Blue Card in the destination country.

Among the documents for this case the card lists a valid Blue Card from another EU country, with 1 year (or 6 months) of residence there; for the full list see step 3 of the card. A D visa is not needed (F16162). The employer needs no work authorisation: the card “vous autorise à séjourner et à exercer une activité professionnelle en France”, and the employer is also exempt from the tax for hiring a foreign worker (F16922).

The conditions of an ordinary Blue Card in France, by the same card: a diploma of at least 3 years of higher education or 5 years of experience, a contract of at least 6 months and a salary not below the threshold, €59,373 gross a year. Whether each of these conditions applies to a move in the same form, the card does not say outright, so confirm the threshold and the documents with the prefecture. The fee is €350 (50 + 300). The family can get a “talent-famille” card without family reunification. If the prefecture is silent, that is a refusal: after 90 days, or after 30 days if you already hold a Blue Card from another EU state.

An ordinary residence permit: a D visa from the issuing country

If you hold a work, study or family permit, and neither EU long-term residence nor a Blue Card, F2728 says: apply for a long-stay visa at the French consulate in the EU country that issued your card. You apply “auprès des autorités consulaires françaises du pays où vous vivez”, no earlier than 3 months before you leave (F16162). If you need work, the employer asks for a work authorisation before you enter, and after arrival the visa is validated within 3 months and €300 is paid (F15898, this is for the “salarié” visa).

A change of status on the spot for such a permit does not appear in the texts we read. We don’t write “forbidden”, we write “not found”, and we advise asking the consulate a question before you travel.

Posted workers and ICT

If your own EU company has sent you to work in France (a posting, not a move), the Code du travail R5221-2 2° exempts from the French work authorisation a worker posted under articles L.1262-1 and L.1262-2 who regularly works for an employer established in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland. It does not follow that you can work and live here as long as you like: the sources we opened give no answer on the right to stay beyond 90 days, and we don’t guess. This is a disagreement between sources: CLEISS says that a work authorisation is needed; we have not resolved it.

ICT (an intra-corporate transfer) is separate: by F2728 a holder of another EU country’s ICT card may come for the same mission for up to 90 days, and then the employer asks for no authorisation. If the mission is longer than 90 days, the employer asks for the authorisation and the worker applies for a title in France. A D visa is waived for long ICT mobility (F16162).

Family members of an EU citizen

If your permit is a card for a family member of an EU citizen, issued by another EU country, you need no D visa to move (F16162). Which title you need after arrival, cards F16162 and F2653 (on the family of an EU citizen) do not say outright for such a card. Everything else about a European’s family, the documents, deadlines and rights, is on the page Moving to France as an EU citizen.

What we did not find

We did not open the text of the CESEDA; we could not open the EU directives 2003/109/CE and 2021/1883 (EUR-Lex returns an empty reply), and the sites immigration.interieur.gouv.fr and france-visas.gouv.fr answer with a captcha. So there are no quotations from the law itself here, only from the official cards and the prefectures’ lists. We did not look for actual appointment waits at the Hérault prefecture. Nor is there a direct quotation on whether you may work on another country’s Blue Card for up to 90 days without a French card: we write neither “you can” nor “you can’t”.

Where to read next

If none of these routes fits, see which residence permits there are and how to get them, the France visa and titre de séjour: documents and deadlines. On work and hiring there is working in France for foreigners, and on Blue Card and other pay, salaries in France.

Where to ask a question

Nuances like “how fast did the Hérault prefecture reply” or “what did the consulate in Milan say about the D visa” 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 - moving and life in the South of France there are 700+ members, and your case may well be among them.

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
• French residence permit types
• France visa
• Titre de séjour: a residence permit in France
• Working in France
• Salaries in France
• Moving to France as an EU citizen
• Family reunification in France