France · Work authorisation

Multi-year residence card "talent – carte bleue européenne" (EU Blue Card)

Issued by The préfecture of the place you will live in France, through the ANEF online service, after a long-stay visa issued by the French consulate in your country of residence. 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
6
Possible outcomes
4
Last checked
2026-09-22

Conditions

What this permit
asks of you.

Which desk decides

The authority, exactly

This is the French route that accepts a qualification earned anywhere, and the one that lets experience stand in for a diploma. It costs a markedly higher salary floor than the talent card above — half again as much — and it is the route to read first if you studied outside France.

2025 figure

Salary floor

EUR 59,373 a year

The condition is stated as at least 1.5 times the reference average gross annual salary, and Service-Public prints the product of that on the page verified 1 June 2026. The reference figure itself is set by the Arrêté of 21 August 2025, so both the multiplier and the base are worth re-checking on the date you apply.

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

A diploma attesting at least three years of higher education, OR five years of professional experience at a level comparable to a higher-education qualification and relevant to the sector or occupation you will work in. That experience requirement drops to three years acquired within the seven years before the application for the occupations fixed by an arrêté of the minister responsible for immigration. A contract of at least six months is also required.

The procedure

6 steps,
in the order they happen.

Prepare your documents

  1. Check which of the two qualification tests you meet. Either three years of higher education evidenced by a diploma, or five years of relevant professional experience at a comparable level — and if your occupation appears on the arrêté the immigration minister publishes, three years acquired in the last seven are enough.Which occupations that arrêté covers is not stated here, because the arrêté itself is published on a site that could not be read from here. Ask the consulate or the préfecture whether yours is on it before you rely on the shorter experience route.
  2. Secure a contract of at least six months with gross annual pay at or above the threshold. The card's length is tied to that contract: a contract of two years or more gets a card for its length capped at four years, and a shorter contract gets a card for its length plus three months, capped at two years.

Get your qualification assessed

  1. Apply for the long-stay visa at the French consulate where you live, then file the card application on ANEF — within two months of entering France on a long-stay visa, or between four and two months before an existing permit expires.
  2. If you already hold an EU Blue Card issued by another EU member state, you can come in on that instead: after a year there you may apply in France, and you have to file within the month of your arrival. From a second move onwards the qualifying period drops to six months.That intra-EU move also shortens the deadline on the other end: silence from the préfecture becomes an implicit refusal after 30 days instead of 90.

Close any gaps

  1. File your valid long-stay visa, residence permit or Blue Card from the other member state, your passport, proof of address less than six months old, an e-photo code and the employer attestation, for which the administration publishes a downloadable template. Where the occupation is regulated in France, add proof that you meet the conditions to practise it.

Register and start working

  1. Pay €350 in tax stamps — €50 stamp duty plus a €300 tax — once the préfecture confirms the card is ready, and collect it there.

Cost and time

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

Fees

Stamp duty and tax on the card
€350 in total: €50 stamp duty plus a €300 tax, paid in tax stamps
Employer costs
No work authorisation to obtain, and the employer is exempt from the tax on employing a foreign national

Timeframes

Card validity
For a contract of two years or more, the length of the contract capped at four years; for a shorter contract, its length plus three months, capped at two years
Silence from the préfecture
90 days with no answer is an implicit refusal — 30 days if you already hold an EU Blue Card from another member state
Filing after an intra-EU move
Within the month of entering France, after a year in the other member state and six months from the second move on

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.

2 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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