What is a ‘temporary’ residency card?
This refers to any card that is issued for a one-year period
Why are some residency cards referred to as ‘temporary’ cards on official sites? Is this related to ‘temporary visas’?
No, this is not related to ‘temporary’ long-stay visas.
A carte de séjour temporaire refers to one of the cards that is issued for a one-year period.
Despite the name, such cards are typically renewable as long as you continue to meet the requirements. The latter include having a salaried job (for a carte de séjour ‘salarié’), having a viable self-employment business (if you have an ‘entrepreneur’ card), having sufficient means to support yourself (if you are an early-retiree) and so on.
Note that you do not automatically lose renewment rights on a salarié card if you are unemployed when you come to renew the card.
If you are on unemployment benefit you will be issued with a new ‘temporary’ card for a year. After the end of that period, if you are still unemployed it can only be renewed again if you still have remaining rights built-up to draw this benefit (and only for this remaining period).
Many people in stable employment can obtain a ‘multi-year’ card on renewal, lasting four years, if they meet the other requirements (integration in France etc).
The term temporary card is used to differentiate them from cartes pluriannuelles (multi-year residency cards) or cartes de résident (see chapter 8).