Issue · September 2026 · everything a nomad needs, city by city

Nomadzine

The visa · France

France

France still has no visa expressly for digital nomads. Remote workers use the long-stay visitor visa and its one-year visitor card, the entrepreneur/profession libérale card if they want French clients, the multi-year talent card for founders and highly paid hires, and the working-holiday scheme for under-31s from fifteen partner countries. The one thing to know before applying: on 23 June 2026 the Interior Ministry stated in writing that teleworking from France for an employer established abroad makes a visitor-card holder non-active under French law, which settles a question that consulates and préfectures had answered differently for years.

    Nomad visa · September 2026None as suchRoutes4Bases1

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The routes

Researched 8 September 2026 · rules as of September 2026 · as published, not legal advice

  1. Long stay

    Long-stay visitor visa and visitor residence card (VLS-TS visiteur)

    Visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour, mention visiteur; carte de séjour temporaire visiteur (article L426-20 CESEDA)

    Non-EU remote employees and people living on foreign income who want to live in France for a year or more without joining the French labour market.

    Income floor
    Resources at least equal to the annual net SMIC (French minimum wage), as written in article L426-20 CESEDA; secondary guides put the 2026 net monthly SMIC at roughly EUR 1,426 but consulates assess resources case by case and no separate figure is codified for this visa. Savings can offset lower regular income according to applicant guides.
    Duration
    One year (the VLS-TS is validated online after arrival); renewed in-country as a one-year temporary visitor card. It does not itself open a multi-year card.
    Cost
    Residence-permit tax stamp: EUR 350 on first issue of a residence card and EUR 250 on renewal from 1 May 2026 (article 128 of Finance Law 2026-103). The consular visa fee was not verified this month.
    Processing
    Not published as a fixed period; applicant guides report several weeks from the consular appointment. Statutory targets not verified.
    Eligibility
    Third-country nationals only. Must prove they can live on their own resources, hold health insurance covering the whole stay, and sign an undertaking not to exercise any professional activity in France. The card expressly does not authorise work in France.
    Work rights
    No local employment and no French clients. On 23 June 2026 the Interior Ministry answered written question 11730 saying that a person who is not employed in France and works remotely for an employer under foreign law must be considered non-active under French law. Some secondary reports claim a 2025 circular banned all telework from France on this status; the ministerial answer mentions no such circular, so treat the point as disputed between sources.
    Dependants
    No dependant route is attached to the visitor card; each family member applies for their own visitor visa with their own resources, according to applicant guides. Not verified against the official page this month.
    Leads to
    Counts as regular residence. Lawyers describe the visitor card as a dead end for the multi-year card but a possible path to the ten-year long-term-resident EU card after five years; not verified officially. Naturalisation requires B2 French since 2026.
    Apply
    French consulate or visa centre in the country of residence via France-Visas; validation of the VLS-TS online after arrival; renewal at the préfecture through the ANEF portal.

    Documents Passport and long-stay visa application via France-Visas · Proof of resources at or above the annual net SMIC (bank statements, pension or rental income, payslips from the foreign employer) · Health insurance covering the entire stay · Signed attestation of not exercising any professional activity in France (préfecture template) · Proof of accommodation in France · Recent photographs

    Official page →

  2. Freelance / self-employed

    Entrepreneur / profession libérale residence card

    Carte de séjour temporaire mention entrepreneur/profession libérale

    Freelancers and self-employed people who want to invoice French clients or run a business from France.

    Income floor
    The activity must be economically viable and provide resources at least equal to the monthly gross SMIC; secondary sources give EUR 1,867.02 gross per month from 1 June 2026.
    Duration
    One year, renewable; a temporary card cannot be renewed more than three times with the same mention, after which the applicant must qualify for a multi-year card or another status.
    Cost
    EUR 350 tax stamp on first issue, EUR 150 at the reduced rate for company creators, EUR 250 on renewal, all from 1 May 2026.
    Processing
    Préfecture decisions are not bound to a published period; the viability of the activity is subject to an administrative opinion based on a list of documents set by an order of 13 May 2026 according to secondary reporting.
    Eligibility
    Third-country nationals with a long-stay visa marked carte de séjour à solliciter dans les 2 mois suivant l'arrivée, a registered non-salaried activity, proof of viability, and compliance with the profession's rules. An A2 French certificate is required from 1 January 2026 for any first multi-year card.
    Work rights
    Self-employed activity in France, including French clients. Salaried employment is not covered by this card.
    Dependants
    Family members come through family reunification once the holder meets the resources and housing tests; reduced-rate stamps apply to family reunification cases.
    Leads to
    Yes; years on the card count toward the multi-year card, the ten-year resident card (B1 French required) and naturalisation (B2).
    Apply
    Long-stay visa at the consulate via France-Visas, then the residence card at the préfecture within two months of arrival.

    Documents Long-stay visa with the entrepreneur/profession libérale mention · Business plan showing market, pricing, costs and financing · Proof of registration of the activity (SIRENE/INSEE, URSSAF) · Proof of resources at or above the gross monthly SMIC · Proof of address and passport · Professional qualifications where the profession is regulated

    Official page →

  3. Residence

    Talent card (formerly passeport talent)

    Carte de séjour pluriannuelle mention talent (articles L421-7 to L421-25 CESEDA)

    Founders with a real business plan or an innovation-recognised project, investors, and highly qualified employees hired by a French company.

    Income floor
    Varies by sub-category. For the qualified-employee strand, secondary sources cite a contract paying at least EUR 43,243 gross per year; founder and innovative-project strands require proof of sufficient resources and, for founders, investment in the project. Figures not verified on the official page this month.
    Duration
    Up to four years, aligned with the contract or project, renewable.
    Cost
    EUR 350 tax stamp on first issue and EUR 250 on renewal from 1 May 2026.
    Processing
    No fixed published period; consular long-stay visa then préfecture issuance.
    Eligibility
    Not open to EEA, Swiss or Algerian nationals. Requires the qualifying contract, project or investment, and from 1 January 2026 an A2 French certificate for a first multi-year card.
    Work rights
    Work for the sponsoring employer or the declared business; local employment and local clients allowed within the card's purpose.
    Dependants
    Spouse and children receive a talent-family card with work rights, as published in the CESEDA talent section.
    Leads to
    Yes; leads to the ten-year resident card and naturalisation after the standard residence periods.
    Apply
    French consulate via France-Visas, then the préfecture; renewals through the ANEF portal.

    Documents Employment contract or business plan / innovation recognition · Proof of the salary or of resources and investment · Diplomas or evidence of qualifications · Passport, photographs, proof of address · A2 French certificate for a first multi-year card

    Official page →

  4. Working holiday

    Working-holiday visa (PVT)

    Programme Vacances-Travail; visa de long séjour vacances-travail

    Nationals aged 18 to 30 of fifteen partner countries who want a year in France with the right to take casual work.

    Income floor
    Minimum financial resources at the time of application, set per bilateral agreement; no single figure is published centrally.
    Duration
    Up to one year, not renewable.
    Cost
    Consular visa fee; some agreements waive it. Not verified this month.
    Processing
    Applicant guides report a few weeks; no statutory period published.
    Eligibility
    Nationals of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, South Korea, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Taiwan or Uruguay; aged 18 to 30 (up to 35 for Argentina, Australia and Canada); no dependants; health and repatriation cover; sufficient funds.
    Work rights
    Salaried work in France is allowed to supplement funds; remote work for a foreign employer is not addressed in the published scheme.
    Dependants
    Not permitted; applicants must come without dependants.
    Leads to
    No.
    Apply
    French consulate of the country of residence via France-Visas; online for Australia and, since 2023, Chile.

    Documents Passport from a partner country · Proof of funds · Health and repatriation insurance for the year · Return ticket or funds to buy one · Visa application through France-Visas

    Official page →

Without a visa, by passport

The stay you get on arrival, and whether working remotely on it is tolerated

  • EU / EEA / SwitzerlandFree movement, no day limit; registration not required in FranceRemote work is lawful; tax residence and social-security rules still apply once France becomes the principal place of stay or work.
  • United Kingdom90 days in any 180 across Schengen; biometric EES registration at the border; ETIAS (EUR 20) expected from the last quarter of 2026Not addressed in published rules for short stays. Reported as tolerated when no French client or employer is involved; the June 2026 ministerial answer concerns the visitor card, not the short stay.
  • United States90 days in any 180; EES; ETIAS expected from the last quarter of 2026Grey: no official statement covers telework on a short stay; widely reported as tolerated for a foreign employer.
  • Canada90 days in any 180; EES; ETIAS expected from the last quarter of 2026Grey as above; the working-holiday route exists for under-36s.
  • Australia90 days in any 180; EES; ETIAS expected from the last quarter of 2026Grey as above; working-holiday route to age 35.
  • Brazil90 days in any 180; EES; ETIAS expected from the last quarter of 2026Grey as above; working-holiday route to age 30.
  • Japan90 days in any 180; EES; ETIAS expected from the last quarter of 2026Grey as above; working-holiday route to age 30.
  • IndiaSchengen visa requiredShort-stay visa conditions bar employment in France; remote work for a foreign employer is not addressed in published rules.
  • South AfricaSchengen visa requiredAs for India; no published tolerance statement.
  • TurkeySchengen visa requiredAs for India; no published tolerance statement.

Tax

When the country starts counting you as its taxpayer

Residency trigger
Article 4 B of the General Tax Code makes a person tax-domiciled in France if any one test is met: the home (foyer) or principal place of stay is in France, a professional activity is carried on in France unless shown to be ancillary, or the centre of economic interests is in France. The 183-day count is only an indicator for the principal-place-of-stay test; residents with family or economic ties in France can be resident below 183 days, and the physical-activity test can catch someone working remotely from France for a foreign employer.
Special regime
The impatriate regime under article 155 B of the General Tax Code exempts the impatriation bonus (or an optional flat 30 percent of pay), pay for days worked abroad, and half of foreign-source investment income until 31 December of the eighth year after taking up the post. It is limited to employees and certain company officers recruited from abroad by a French entity after five years of non-residence; the tax authority's page states that self-employed people and freelancers are not covered, so a remote worker for a foreign employer does not qualify. Finance Law 2026-103 of 19 February 2026 clarified that income exempt under article 155 B is removed from the reference income used for the differential contribution on high incomes.
Social security
An employer with no establishment in France that has an employee working in France must register with URSSAF's foreign-firms service and pay French contributions; the simplified Titre Firmes Etrangères is available to firms with fewer than twenty employees, as published by CLEISS. Within the EU, EEA and Switzerland the employer can instead hold an A1 certificate from the home state, requested before the activity starts. For other countries the bilateral agreement, where one exists, governs certificates of coverage; without one, French affiliation applies from the start of activity in France. Self-employed residents affiliate with URSSAF as independents.
Treaties
France has one of the largest treaty networks in the world. The practical effect for a remote employee or contractor is that employment income is generally taxable where the work is physically performed once French residence is triggered, with credit or exemption in the home country under the relevant treaty; the treaty text, not the visa, decides residence tie-breaks. Individual treaties were not opened this month.

Practicalities

Residence-permit taxes
From 1 May 2026, EUR 350 tax stamp for a first residence card (EUR 150 reduced rate for students, company creators, seasonal workers, job seekers and family reunification), EUR 250 on renewal (EUR 100 reduced), EUR 350 for a duplicate, EUR 100 for provisional permits, and EUR 300 visa-regularisation right of which EUR 100 is non-refundable. Basis: article 128 of Finance Law 2026-103.
French language
From 1 January 2026 a first multi-year card requires certified A2 French, the ten-year resident card requires B1, and naturalisation requires B2, proven by a diploma, certificate or approved training-centre attestation. The test applies at first issue, not at renewal of the same card.
Health insurance
The visitor card requires private health insurance covering the whole stay. Access to the state scheme (PUMa) after settled residence was not verified this month.
Border biometrics
The Entry/Exit System has been fully operational since 10 April 2026 after a phased start on 12 October 2025: face and fingerprints are taken on first entry and every crossing is logged, so 90/180 overstays are calculated automatically. Long-stay visa and residence-permit holders are exempt.
Overstay penalties
Reported fine of EUR 198 on exit, an order to leave France if caught in-country, entry into a Schengen overstayers record and a possible multi-year Schengen entry ban. Other guides quote EUR 500 to 3,000; the figures are disputed between sources. Around 7,000 people had been refused entry on EES overstay flags by 20 April 2026 according to press reporting.
ETIAS
Visa-exempt travellers will need an ETIAS authorisation, EUR 20, processed within up to 96 hours, expected to go live in the last quarter of 2026 with a transitional period after launch.
Tax number and bank account
A French tax number is issued on the first return or on request to the tax office; bank-account and SIM-registration rules for non-residents were not verified against official sources this month.

France for remote workers: no nomad visa, but a visitor card that now tolerates foreign telework

Where remote workers base and which status they hold

France offers no visa written for digital nomads and the government has announced no plan for one. Remote employees of foreign companies overwhelmingly use the long-stay visitor visa, which is validated online after arrival and converts into a one-year visitor card; the legal test is simply resources at or above the annual net minimum wage, health insurance for the whole stay, and a signed promise not to exercise a professional activity in France.

Freelancers who want French clients take the entrepreneur/profession libérale card, which needs a viable registered activity earning at least the gross monthly minimum wage and, since May 2026, an administrative viability opinion based on a fixed document list. Founders and highly paid hires use the multi-year talent card, which admits family with work rights and runs for up to four years. Under-31s from fifteen partner countries can take the one-year working-holiday visa, which allows casual employment but is not renewable.

Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille and the Riviera remain the usual bases, though the rules are national and the préfecture, not the city, decides renewals.

What the June 2026 answer changes, and what applicants report

For years consulates told applicants that telework for a foreign employer was compatible with visitor status while some préfectures and tax officials treated any work physically performed in France as work in France. The deputy François Gernigon put the contradiction to the Interior Ministry in December 2025. The answer published on 23 June 2026 says a third-country national who is not employed in France and does not work for a company on French territory must be regarded as non-active when teleworking for a foreign employer. The answer is a ministerial position rather than a change in the CESEDA, and some secondary guides still assert a 2025 circular banning all telework on the visitor card; that circular does not appear in the ministerial answer, so applicants should expect préfectures to apply the answer unevenly for a while.

Applicants report that consular decisions on the visitor visa take weeks rather than days, that resources are assessed case by case with savings accepted to top up income, and that the first renewal at the préfecture depends on ANEF appointment availability. The visitor card cannot on its own become a multi-year card, and any first multi-year card now requires a certified A2 French level.

Tax and social contributions

Residence for French tax follows article 4 B: home or principal place of stay, principal professional activity, or centre of economic interests. The 183-day rule is only an indicator, and the activity test means work carried out from a French flat for a foreign employer can itself make someone French-resident. The impatriate regime under article 155 B shelters part of the pay of employees recruited from abroad by a French entity for up to eight years, but the tax authority states that self-employed people are excluded, so it does not help a typical remote worker.

A foreign employer whose employee works from France must register with URSSAF's foreign-firms service and pay French contributions unless an A1 certificate (EU/EEA/Switzerland) or a bilateral certificate of coverage applies. France's treaties then allocate taxing rights, generally to the place where the work is physically done once residence is triggered.

Borders, fees and what is coming

Since 10 April 2026 every non-EU short-stay traveller is fingerprinted and photographed at the external border under the Entry/Exit System, and the 90-in-180 count is automatic; press reporting put refusals on overstay flags at about 7,000 by late April 2026. The ETIAS authorisation, EUR 20 and valid for repeated short stays, is expected in the last quarter of 2026 with a soft-launch period afterwards.

Residence-permit tax stamps rose on 1 May 2026 to EUR 350 for a first card and EUR 250 for renewals under the 2026 Finance Law. Reported overstay fines range from EUR 198 to several thousand euros depending on the source, alongside an order to leave and a possible Schengen entry ban.

Researched from questions.assemblee-nationale.fr · legifrance.gouv.fr · legifrance.gouv.fr · legifrance.gouv.fr · service-public.gouv.fr · impots.gouv.fr · diplomatie.gouv.fr · diplomatie.gouv.fr · loire.gouv.fr · vaucluse.gouv.fr · the authority