France · Work authorisation

Residence card "salarié" (open-ended contract) or "travailleur temporaire" (fixed-term contract)

Issued by The préfecture, on an application your employer files online for the work authorisation, followed by your own long-stay visa and card application. It is checked against conditions rather than scored, so the question is whether you meet each one, not how many points you gather.

Basis
Checklist
Steps
7
Possible outcomes
4
Last checked
2026-09-22

Conditions

What this permit
asks of you.

Which desk decides

The authority, exactly

The ordinary route, and the only one of the three where someone has to prove that hiring you is justified. Your employer is the applicant for the work authorisation, and it has to be applied for again for every new employment contract — a constraint the talent cards do not carry. It also brings an obligation the talent cards' own pages never mention: when the one-year card is first renewed into a multi-year one, a language and civics condition applies.

2026 figure

Salary floor

EUR 1,867.02 a month

Pay may not fall below the SMIC, France's statutory minimum wage, or below the rate in the company's collective agreement where that is higher — and in many sectors it is. This gross monthly figure is the SMIC as printed on the page verified 18 June 2026; it is revised at least once a year, so treat it as a floor to re-check rather than a target.

A figure without the year it belongs to and the condition attached to it is how someone rules themselves out of a permit they qualify for. Both are above.

Qualification

What it wants from your degree

No qualification level is set. What is tested is the job: it must either appear on the shortage list for its region, or have been advertised for three consecutive weeks within the six months before the application with no suitable candidate coming forward.

The procedure

7 steps,
in the order they happen.

Prepare your documents

  1. Have your employer check the labour-market test first, because it decides whether this route is open at all. Either the job is on the list of shortage occupations for its region, or the vacancy has to have been advertised through the public employment service for three consecutive weeks within the preceding six months, with no suitable application received.The shortage list is fixed by arrêté, region by region, and has been updated annually since the January 2024 immigration law; separate lists exist for Guadeloupe, Guyane, La Réunion and Martinique. Whether any given occupation is on it for a given region is not stated here — the arrêté is published on a site that could not be read from here, and the answer is region-specific in any case.
  2. Know which card the contract produces: an open-ended contract leads to a "salarié" card, a fixed-term one to a "travailleur temporaire" card. The difference bites later — a person holding a "travailleur temporaire" card whose work authorisation was granted for an open-ended contract may not work on it, and has to apply to change status first.

Get your qualification assessed

  1. Your employer files the work authorisation application online before you enter France. The préfecture weighs the job, the employer's standing and the pay, which may not be below the SMIC or below the applicable collective agreement.
  2. Expect the employer tax that comes with a granted authorisation, because it is substantial and falls due at your first admission for work. For a contract of twelve months or more it is 55% of the gross monthly salary, capped at €2,567.15 where that salary is €4,667.54 or more; for a contract between three and twelve months it is €74, €210 or €300 depending on the pay band.It is owed once, by the first employer whose job gets you a residence permit for work. It becomes payable again if you leave France after your permit expires and come back for a job that needs a new authorisation.

Close any gaps

  1. With the authorisation granted, apply for the long-stay visa equivalent to a residence permit at the consulate. You may start work as soon as you arrive; within three months of arriving you validate the visa online and pay a €300 tax on top of the visa fee.

Register and start working

  1. File for the card itself at the préfecture of your home address no later than two months before the long-stay visa expires, and pay €350 in tax stamps — a €300 tax plus €50 stamp duty. The card is valid for one year and renewable.
  2. Plan for the condition that arrives at the first renewal. If you are still employed, the renewal is a multi-year card valid four years, and issuing a first multi-year card requires meeting a republican-integration condition: attendance at the training prescribed under the republican integration contract, French at level A2, and passing the civic examination — the last two waived only above the age of 65.

Cost and time

What it costs,
and how long the authority says it takes.

Fees

Validating the long-stay visa
€300, on top of the consular visa fee
Stamp duty and tax on the card
€350 in total: a €300 tax plus €50 stamp duty
Employer tax at first admission
For a contract of 12 months or more, 55% of the gross monthly salary, capped at €2,567.15 where the salary is €4,667.54 or above; €74, €210 or €300 for a contract of 3 to 12 months, by pay band

Timeframes

Prior advertising of the vacancy
Three consecutive weeks within the six months before the application, unless the job is on the shortage list
Silence on the work authorisation
Two months with no answer is an implicit refusal, challengeable within two months
First card
One year, renewable
First renewal
Four years, subject to the republican-integration condition

Published processing times, not a prediction about your case.

Both halves together

Guides that use this permit.

Each one takes a profession into France and runs the recognition branch and the authorisation branch side by side, including what your country of qualification adds.

Evidence

Every claim on this page, and where it came from.

3 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest is 2026-09-22, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.

Is this the right permit for you?

That depends on where you qualified.

The planner compares every route France opens to your country of qualification, and adds the recognition branch when your profession has one.

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