Every new employment contract requires its own work authorisation, and you cannot bring your family until eighteen months of residence.
between leaguesFrance's entry bar is low: the salary floor is the minimum wage, the shortage occupations list was expanded in 2025, school is free and compulsory for all children aged 3-16, and there is no mandatory address registration. We found no campaigns against legal foreign residents in the past year; the ministry's one targeted measure, an instruction of 5 April 2026, works in their favour: 500 staff assigned to renewals for working people, and temporary certificates issued automatically for up to 12 months.
Delivery is what breaks. Renewals take twice as long as promised, and the Défenseur des droits, in a report of 17 July 2026, counted the backlog rising from 243,000 to 403,000 cases. The ANEF online platform fails systematically (forms vanish, files will not upload, receipts never arrive), and the matter reached the Conseil d'État; the Bobigny prefecture took in 188,000 applications in 11 months with about 4,000 slots a week. The state does not publish refusal statistics.
The ordinary employee pays for things that the rules for "talents" do not show. The "salarié" card is tied to a specific job: every new employment contract needs a new work authorisation, and if the occupation is not on the shortage list, the employer must first advertise the vacancy for three weeks. Since 17 July 2024 every foreigner signs a commitment to respect the principles of the Republic at issue and renewal, and a card already granted can be withdrawn or not renewed if the prefect decides it was breached; the test is a matter of judgement. The integration programme is mandatory: civics training and up to 600 hours of French.
On the other hand, protection after job loss is strong: if the dismissal was involuntary, the card is renewed for a year, and after that for as long as unemployment benefit rights last. While a renewal is pending, a temporary certificate lets you work. Banking is formally a right through the Banque de France, but newcomers without proof of address are often turned away.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
No visa for short stays, up to 90 days in 180, as across the Schengen area. To live and work, the same residence card route as for everyone.
A separate Franco-Algerian agreement of 1968 applies: certificats de résidence instead of the usual cards, no multi-year or Talent cards, and family can join after one year of residence instead of 18 months.
Bilateral agreements change the conditions of work and the lists of occupations.
No residence card needed at all: EU free movement rules give the right to live and work in France.
EU temporary protection has been extended until 4 March 2028. Since 31 July 2026 new applicants must show they left in compliance with their military obligations; people who already hold the status are not affected.
No route to residence is closed by nationality: the procedure, thresholds and fees are the same as for all third-country nationals.
The place interval 28-46 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
Between leaguesThe league holds in fewer than half of the recalculations. Read this country as sitting between two leagues, not as a member of the upper one.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Access to entry: 87 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 65.7. The weakest is Agency processing: 35 against 48.7. Above the world average: 5 out of 7.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
The Interior Ministry's target is 55 days for a renewal; in 2025 the average was 117. While the file is pending, a temporary certificate lets you live and work; four months of silence from the prefecture counts as a refusal.
Yes, but it is harder: through entrepreneur or liberal profession status, or the Talent card for founding a business. France has no digital nomad visa.
Since 1 May 2026 a first card costs €350 per person: a €300 tax plus €50 stamp duty, or €100 at the reduced rate. Renewals are charged separately, and the employer pays a work authorisation tax from €55.
After involuntary job loss the card is renewed for a year, then for as long as benefit rights last. The risks lie elsewhere: changing employer needs a new work authorisation, and breaching the commitment to the principles of the Republic gives the prefect grounds to withdraw or refuse to renew the card.
A 10-year resident card after 5 years and B1 French. Citizenship is also possible after 5 years, but since 1 January 2026 it requires B2 French, spoken and written, and a 40-question civics exam with an 80% pass mark; dual citizenship is allowed.
The rules for working people are fairly friendly: a low entry bar, strong protection after job loss, and a spouse who can work at once. The problems are queues and a failing online platform, and language requirements rose in 2026.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.