French budget: Plans to increase cost of residency cards in 2026 by €100

Plans to substantially increase fees for French residency card renewals and other administrative costs for foreign residents have been included in France’s draft 2026 budget.

The government states this is to align the costs with the median in Europe, however immigrants’ association Gisti says it represents an “explosion” in fees.

For example, it is proposed that the cost of most residency cards would rise from €200 (plus a €25 stamp duty payable in timbres fiscaux) to €300, while several cards, such as those for seasonal workers - currently €75 - would rise to €100.

The cost of applying for naturalisation would increase from €55 to €255.

Visas would also be affected, with those that are deemed ‘equivalent to a residency card’ seeing applicants having to pay a residency card fee in addition to the visa fee. 

For example, a long-stay visa is €99 plus visa centre processing fees (€55 in the UK, €220 in the US) currently costs €200 to ‘validate’ in the first months in France to make it ‘equivalent to a residency card’ for the remainder of the first year. 

According to the draft law, however, a further €300 – the new cost of the equivalent card – would have to be paid to obtain the visa. It is not specified if the ‘validation’ fee would be waived.

Obtaining replacement cards due to a change of address, loss etc. would be doubled to €50.

Swapping a foreign driving licence would cost €40. It is currently free to do so. 

Gisti states: “Moving forward, every stage will be more costly. Just so many financial obstacles imposed on people who of course will have no choice but to submit to them, as their residency right is what allows them to live, study, work, or stay with their family.”

Gisti claims that residency fees in France are already among Europe’s highest, bearing in mind the validity length of cards and average purchasing power of the applicants.

Gisti also says that after an MPs’ report criticised high fees in 2019 there was a slight drop so the proposals are “a big step backwards”. Fees need to be confirmed by the Senate and then validated again by both the Senate and MPs before they can be included in the final law.

Whilst The Connexion's does not follow non-French residency procedures, research suggests that Spanish residency fees are significantly lower than France's existing fees, for example with €21.87 cited on an official site for a 'long-term residence' card, while several websites refer to fees of around €100 in Germany.

Note also that some French cards must be renewed (with the fee payable again) annually, at least in the first years in France, including for at least five years in the case of 'visitor' cards often issued to retirees.

France has until now had very reasonable fees for citizenship, compared to many countries (eg. around €600 in Italy and €1,000 in Belgium, or €250 in Portugal). The basic fee does not, however, factor in other costs such as paying for a language test (and, in future, a civic knowledge test), ordering copies of birth and other official certificates and having them translated (and in some cases, 'legalised' or 'apostilled') etc. 

Gisti has also criticised another article of the 2026 finance law that proposes that non-EU foreign students in France be excluded from housing benefit (€100-€250/month), apart from those (one in ten) who have hardship grants.