France’s interior ministry has released provisional immigration figures for 2025, showing an 11.2% increase in the number of first French residency cards issued compared to 2024.
The rise represents 39,000 additional residency permits, bringing the estimated total number of first-issue French residency cards issued last year to 384,000.
However, the increase is largely explained by a sharp rise in residency cards granted on humanitarian grounds, including to refugees, which were up 65% over the year, states the report, published on January 27.
First-issue residency cards
The provisional figures for 2025 show 15,000 first French residency cards were issued to Americans, compared to 13,122 in 2024 - a 14.3% increase.
‘First residency cards’ includes VLS-TS visas that have been validated online after moving and are counted as equivalent to a residency card.
This puts Americans in sixth place when it comes to the top nationalities for first-issued cards (after Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, Afghans, and Chinese), with the main reason being long-term study (52.5%), ‘miscellaneous purposes’ (21%), which includes ‘visitor’ visas for retirees/early-retirees, and then work (16.9%).
Last year, Americans were in fifth place with the drop this year being due to an increase in cards issued to Afghans.
Britons did not feature in the top 10 nationalities for first-issued cards in 2025, with an estimated 7,870 being issued to Britons in 2025, compared to 8,899 the previous year - a decrease of 11.6%.
Rise in number of French visas issued
The number of visa applications and issuances continued to rise in 2025, increasing by 1.1% and 3.5% respectively compared with the previous year. An estimated 3,524,108 applications were received, of which around 2,958,913 were granted.
The overall increase in the number of visas granted was greater for short-stay visas (+3.9%) than for long-stay visas (+1%).
Americans were among the main beneficiaries (7%) of long-stay visas, with some 20,166 being issued - up 20.2% on the previous year. The main reasons were long-term study and internships (40.1%) and ‘miscellaneous reasons’ (40.2%), followed by work (11.8%).
Britons are also among the most numerous, representing 5% of all long-stay visas issued in 2025, with ‘miscellaneous reasons’ (including ‘visitor’ visas for retirees/early-retirees and also ‘temporary’ long-stay visas for second-home owners) making up 59%, followed by work 23%, and long-term study and internships 13.2%.
Britons and Americans both make the top 10 nationalities for the most 'talent' visas (for certain highly-qualified roles, jobs in 'innovative' companies, people investing substantially in start-up companies, artists and sportspeople etc.); Americans represented 7% and Britons 4%.
The report also highlights that Canada is one of the top countries for ‘talent’ visas issued last year, with almost 600 being granted (+12%).
Britons and Americans in France
Some 172,312 (+1.4% over one year) Britons were estimated to be living in France in 2025 making them the fifth most numerous foreigners settled in France after Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians and Turks.
Americans do not make the top 10 in this case but their number is expected to increase in future years.
The interior ministry highlights the increase in Britons applying for residency cards that followed Brexit, due to no Britons no longer being EU citizens.
Some 10,000 held a residency card in 2015 but this figure jumped to roughly 155,000 in 2021 following the requirement for all Britons living in France to apply for Withdrawal Agreement residency cards.
Some 91,3% of Britons living in France in 2025 held residency cards classified as issued for 'miscellaneous' reasons (outside common work or family-related purposes), including WA cards and 'visitor' cards for people such as retirees and early-retirees.
The heading is thus the most common residency status for Britons in France, followed by work (5.2%).
Residency card renewals (ie. for people who have already had at least one previous residency card and/or VLS-TS) were also up year on year in 2025 (+7.6%), with the rise mostly driven by an increase in cards issued for family-related reasons.
The number of Britons renewing cards increased from 5,230 in 2024 to 7,221 in 2025 (+38%), a figure likely to rise again substantially in the current year as many five-year Brexit cards come up for renewal.
The number of foreign nationals legally present on French territory as of December 31, 2025 is close to 4.5 million - an increase of 3.2% over one year.
The interior ministry does not focus on impacts on ‘net’ migration, however Insee figures (not yet available for 2025) show the trend has been a moderate year on year rise in this factor (called solde migratoire).
Granting of citizenship dropped
Foreign people obtaining French nationality, which also has the knock-on effect of reducing the presence of foreign nationals, dropped in 2025, the new figures also show.
A total of 62,235 people obtained French nationality in 2025 (compared to 66,745 naturalisations in 2024); a decline of 6.8%.
This drop was higher proportionally for people obtaining nationality by naturalisation (down 13.5%), as opposed to via family links.
The interior ministry says this is notably due to the tougher conditions for obtaining nationality, introduced in May 2025 by the then interior minister, Bruno Retailleau.
These included asking prefectures to reject “apart from exceptions” people whose income is mostly from abroad.
