The French government has significantly increased the fees for residency permits and French citizenship from May – here’s a breakdown of the new fees.
Foreign residents in France will face significantly higher administrative fees from 2026 after the government confirmed increases to the cost of both residency permits (titres de séjour) and French citizenship (naturalisation) applications.
The changes were included in the 2026 Budget (loi de finances 2026), which has now been formally adopted – and will take effect from May 1st.
Also from May, a fee of €40 will be applied to swapping a foreign driving licence for a French one.
The government has said the rise is intended to align France more closely with average fees in other EU countries and to contribute additional revenue to the state budget.
Residency permits
The budget raises fees for residency permits (titres de séjour).
The detailed structure on the new fees, published on the government information site, is as follows;
Delivery of a first carte de séjour – €350 (up from €225)
However, certain types of cards benefit from a lower rate of €100 (up from €75). they are;
- Student card
- Seasonal worker (travailleur saisonnier)
- Job-seekers (recherche d’emploi ou création d’entreprise – a specific type of card available only to a small number of people, it is mostly for people who have completed higher education in France)
- Family reunification (regroupement familial)
- Au pair (jeune au pair).
The cost of renewing a carte de séjour will rise to €250, up from €225. The above card types which benefit from the reduced rate will also have a reduced rate for renewal, set at €150.
Requesting a duplicate carte de séjour, if yours has been lost or stolen, is the same as the cost of a first delivery – €350, or €150 at the reduced rate.
The existing fee exemptions remain in place, so Brits who lived in France before Brexit and are covered by the Withdrawal Agreement continue to get cards for free. There are also exemptions for refugees.
The increases in fees are expected to generate over €150 million in additional annual revenue for the French government.
The changes comes into effect on May 1st 2026 and apply to all applications made on or after that date.
Visas
The cost for most types of visa are unchanged, but there is one exception – the visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour (VLS-TS), sometimes known as the visitor visa.
This visa exempts the holder from the need for a carte de séjour for the one year that it is valid, in effect the visa ‘acts’ as a carte de séjour, which is why it is included in this legislation.
This visa type is intended for people who are moving to France but do not intend to work here, it’s most commonly given to retirees – full details here.
The cost of this will rise to €300, from €200.
Provisional document and regularisation
Some people can obtain a ‘provisional authorisation to remain’, this is limited to specific groups such as the parents of a sick child in France or those doing a voluntary aid mission. The fee for this document is now €100.
Asylum seekers are exempt, as are people leaving the sex trade who are on an approved ‘social integration’ pathway.
People who find themselves undocumented in France can apply to regularise their status via the visa de régularisation – the cost of this rises to €300, €200 of which is reimbursed if the application is unsuccessful (up from €200 with €150 reimbursed currently).
Citizenship fee
Under the new rules, the timbre fiscal required for applications for French nationality, whether by residency (par décret) or par déclaration (example through marriage or family ties) will rise from €55 to €255. For residents in French Guyana, it rises to €127.50 (up from €27.50).
The new amount will apply to applications made on or after May 1st, 2026. Applications made before that date are not affected.
But the application fee is only a small part of the cost, most applicants spend several hundred euro on assembling the required dossier of documents (with certified translations), while most candidates also have to pay to take a language test (around €100, spending on location) and a written civics exam (around €70).
From January 1st, there have also been some significant changes to the requirements for French citizenship, including a new written civics test and a higher language level requirement.
READ ALSO: Updated guide: How to get French citizenship
