France residence card for employees and fixed-term workers 2026

A foreign national from outside Europe who has found a job in France can obtain a residence card as an employee if the contract is permanent, or as a temporary worker if it is fixed-term. Other rules apply to European and Algerian nationals. The conditions are to be a foreigner who wants to work as an employee, to have a work authorisation and, when admitted to stay in France for the first time, to hold a long-stay visa that acts as a residence permit, marked employee or temporary worker.

When the worker lives abroad, the employer must apply online for the work authorisation before the worker enters France. Once it is granted, the worker can apply for the long-stay visa online and may start working on arrival. Within three months of arriving, the visa must be validated online and a tax paid on top of the visa fee. The residence card application is then filed at the prefecture or sub-prefecture of the home address, no later than two months before the visa expires. A worker already living in France follows a similar path, with the employer requesting the work authorisation.

The card is valid for one year and renewable. At renewal, a worker who is still employed receives a multi-year card valid for four years if the application is accepted and the republican integration condition is met, which includes French at level A2 and a civic examination, except for people over 65. A worker who is unemployed and receives unemployment benefit can obtain a new one-year card. A refusal can be challenged before the administrative court, and silence from the prefecture for four months counts as an implicit refusal.

Applications can be filed at any time once a job and a work authorisation are in place.