PR in France for Indians: the 5-Year Card and Which Years Count

  • Last Updated on: September 24, 2026 by
  • Swapna Kanchikacherla
PR in France for Indians
PR in France for Indians

PR in France for Indians is a translation, not a document. France issues no permit called PR, and the two cards that do the job are the ten-year carte de resident (resident card) and the EU long-term resident card. As of 2026, that EU card asks for at least 5 years of legal and uninterrupted residence in France (Service-Public.fr, “EU long-term resident card”). The years you spend on a student card are not among the five, so four lawful years in France can still leave you at year zero. Below: the one route open to your profile, the article of law that excludes your student years, and the real length of the post-study permit.

Written by
Swapna Kanchikacherla
Head of European Desk
Specialises in Germany and France student admissions and visa documentation, with a focus on Campus France, APS, blocked-account and proof-of-funds files.
9 Years, 1100 Visas
Reviewed by
Sridhar Kongara
Managing Director
Mr. Kongara Sridhar, Director of AOEC India, has over 12 years of experience in overseas education consulting, admissions, and student visa guidance.
Over 12 years Experience

Key Takeaways

  • France issues no PR visa: permanent status means the ten-year carte de resident or the EU long-term resident card.
  • The EU card needs 5 years of legal, uninterrupted residence plus income of at least EUR 1,867.02 gross a month (about INR 2,06,235).
  • Years on the student residence card do not count: article L.426-18 of France’s immigration code excludes them by name.
  • Eligible Indian graduates get the APS for up to 2 years (1 year, renewed once). Apply at your prefecture, free, before your student card expires.
  • With a job offer at EUR 39,582 gross a year (about INR 43,72,307), file for the talent passport instead.
  • The first EU long-term resident card costs EUR 350 (about INR 38,662), the renewal EUR 250 (about INR 27,616).
Table of Contents
France PR routes for Indians, by profile Scroll here ↓ The APS: the post-study year Indian graduates actually get Scroll here ↓ Which of your France years count toward the resident card Scroll here ↓ The French level your card needs, and who is exempt Scroll here ↓ What each card costs, and what resets your clock Scroll here ↓ Frequently Asked Questions Scroll here ↓

France PR routes for Indians, by profile

In 2026, a job paying EUR 39,582 gross per year (about INR 43,72,307) opens the talent passport residence card (Service-Public.fr). The contract must run longer than 3 months, and the diploma must be at least equivalent to a master's. Below that salary, settlement runs through the slower five-year route instead.

Your situation right nowRoute actually open to youWhere and when you fileYears counting toward settlement
Final year of a French master’s, no job yetAPS, up to 2 years (1 year, renewed once)Prefecture, paper file, before your student card expiresNo
On an APS, job in your field paying 1.5x the June 2026 SMIC, France’s minimum wage: EUR 2,800.53 a month (about INR 3,09,352)Salarie card, labour-market test waivedANEF, 4 to 2 months before expiryYes, from this card on
Job offer at EUR 39,582 gross a year (about INR 43,72,307), master’s-level diplomaPasseport talent, salarie qualifieANEF, contract longer than 3 monthsYes
Three or four years into a salarie or talent cardRenew as normal, no language level, no civic examANEF, 4 to 2 months before expiryYes
Five countable years, income at least the SMICEU long-term resident cardANEF, 4 to 2 months before expiryComplete
Graduate of a French higher education institution, two years residentNaturalisationPrefecture, any time after two yearsDifferent track
Married to, or joined in France by, a French or settled family memberCarte de sejour vie privee et familialePrefecture, 4 to 2 months before expiryYes
Holding an EU Blue CardEU long-term resident cardANEF, 4 to 2 months before expiryYes
Two consecutive resident cards already heldCarte de resident permanentPrefecture, on renewalComplete

Your salary sets the timetable. Clear the talent-passport bar and your five years start counting from your first contract. Fall below it and the APS (autorisation provisoire de sejour, a temporary residence permit) gives you time to get there. Your course choice decides which row you sit in, and our study in France guide covers that side.

The EUR 39,582 line separates a card you renew every year from one that treats you as settling. Which sectors pay it is the subject of jobs in France after a master’s.

From our counselling desk: the EUR 39,582 threshold does not change the job you do, it changes the route you take to settle. A graduate who clears it moves straight onto a talent passport and starts the five-year count on the first contract. A graduate just under it goes through the APS first, and has to land work related to their training at 1.5x the minimum wage before that count starts. If a first offer falls just below the line, ask the employer to close the gap before you sign.

The APS: the post-study year Indian graduates actually get

The twelve-month, non-renewable figure you will have seen quoted describes a different permit, the RECE card, and Indian graduates don’t use it.

Under the France-India migration and mobility partnership, eligible Indian graduates get a stay of one year, renewable once (Decret n. 2021-1321, France-India Migration and Mobility Partnership, Annexe I art. 3.2). Two years, not one. Eligible means a diploma at least equivalent to a master’s, earned either at a nationally accredited French institution or at an Indian institution running an international joint degree with a French one.

The treaty sets three clauses around that time:

  1. Your job must relate to your training.
  2. It must pay at least one and a half times the monthly minimum wage, a multiple rather than a fixed euro figure, so the floor rises with every SMIC revaluation.
  3. At the end of the one or two years, a job or a signed job promise meeting those conditions lets you stay on to work, and the employment-situation test cannot be raised against you.

That third clause is worth more than the extra year. A French employer hiring a non-EU worker normally faces the employment-situation test, where the prefecture weighs local unemployment in the role first. The treaty switches that test off, which is why an APS holder with an offer usually gets the card.

The application goes on paper to your prefecture and the procedure is free (Campus France, “Temporary Resident Permit (APS)”). Until you sign a contract, you may work on the same terms as a student, up to 964 hours a year. Which French programmes qualify is covered in masters in France for Indian students.

The RECE card (recherche d’emploi ou creation d’entreprise, job search or business creation) is for graduates of countries with no migration agreement with France. India has one, so you file for the APS instead. The step-by-step sits in our France post-study work visa walkthrough.

Which of your France years count toward the resident card

Years held on the student residence card do not count toward the five. Since 28 January 2024, article L.426-18, 5 of the Code de l’entree et du sejour des etrangers et du droit d’asile (CESEDA), France’s immigration code, names the etudiant card among the excluded permits (Legifrance). A master’s therefore adds nothing to the settlement clock.

The exclusion catches every foreign student in France. What decides your timeline is the card that comes next.

  • Counts: the long-stay visa acting as a residence permit, and the visitor, private and family life, employee, entrepreneur, talent and resident cards.
  • Does not count: the etudiant card, excluded by name in the code.

This is the part that decides how long PR in France for Indians takes you: two years on a student card leave you two years legally resident and at year zero of the five. The count starts, for certain, the day you move onto a salarie or talent card.

Income is the second gate. As of 2026, your resources must reach at least the SMIC. Since 1 June 2026 that is EUR 1,867.02 gross per month (Service-Public.fr, “Smic”). The file asks for proof of sufficient, stable and regular resources over the last 5 years, not one good payslip.

Parents funding a French master’s should read that twice: the five-year clock is an employment record, not a study record. The document chain that starts it is in France student visa requirements.

The French level your card needs, and who is exempt

What French you must prove depends on the card you’re applying for, and on where you studied. Since 1 January 2026 the bar runs by permit tier:

  • A2, the elementary level, for a first carte de sejour pluriannuelle (multi-year residence card), if you are under 65.
  • B1, the independent-user level, for a first carte de resident, again if you are under 65.
  • B2, spoken and written, for naturalisation, on a TCF or TEF certificate less than 2 years old.

What takes you out of the A2 bar is your study history, not the card you move onto. One academic year of higher education in France dispenses you from signing the contrat d’integration republicaine (CIR, the integration contract a new resident normally signs). A French master’s clears that on its own, under CESEDA article L413-5. The language requirement for a first multi-year card follows the CIR, so the dispensation carries the level with it. The etudiant card and the passeport talent are exempt as well. Your card decides the B1 bar later, at the resident-card stage.

The exam is the part your degree does not cover: a pass in the civic examination is mandatory for a first multi-year card and a first resident card. The examen civique is 40 multiple-choice questions in French over 45 minutes, and you need 32 correct answers to pass (Ministere de l’Interieur). You sit it before you file, retake it as often as you need, and the pass certificate never expires. Renewals need neither the level nor the exam.

One rule catches Indian applicants out: a diploma awarded abroad is not accepted as proof of French, even from a French-speaking country. The English test at admission is a different question, handled in study in France without IELTS. Book the French test early; a missing attestation stalls the whole file. The naturalisation file runs on its own proofs and timelines, and French citizenship for Indians covers it.

What each card costs, and what resets your clock

Card fees in 2026 are fixed nationally, so the cost of settling is predictable. The first ten-year carte de resident costs EUR 350 (about INR 38,662): a EUR 50 stamp duty plus a EUR 300 tax (Service-Public.fr, 10-year resident card of a foreigner in France). The wait is not.

Card or stageOfficial fee
RECE card (not the Indian route)EUR 150 (about INR 16,569)
First 10-year carte de residentEUR 350 (about INR 38,662): EUR 50 stamp, EUR 300 tax
EU long-term resident card, first issueEUR 350 (about INR 38,662)
EU long-term resident card, renewalEUR 250 (about INR 27,616)
Permanent resident cardEUR 350 (about INR 38,662)
Late filing, addedEUR 180 (about INR 19,883)
Entered without a long-stay visa, addedEUR 300 (about INR 33,139)

File through ANEF (Administration numerique pour les etrangers en France, the national online permit portal) no earlier than 4 months and no later than 2 months before your current document expires. Miss that window and you pay an extra EUR 180. How long it takes depends on your prefecture: decision times are set locally rather than published nationally.

Time out of France resets the clock. A long project back in India or a family illness adds up, and nobody flags the total until you file:

  • As of 2026, the five years survive absences of no more than 6 consecutive months, and no more than 10 months in total.
  • The permanent resident card needs a signed self-declaration (attestation sur l’honneur) that you have not stayed more than 3 consecutive years outside France in the last 10 years.

Permanent is only a name: the card is valid 10 years and renewable, and the original conditions must still be met at renewal. France offers it once you’ve held two consecutive resident cards.

Get one India-specific thing moving early. The file we see stall on our France desk is the one waiting on a certified French translation of an Indian-issued birth certificate, which every one of these applications needs.

Card fees are one line in the bill. What PR in France for Indians really asks for is the funds you show at each step, and proof of funds for a France student visa is where that chain begins.

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Frequently Asked Questions

No. Settlement needs five countable years, and a master’s supplies none of them. The usual sequence is the APS, then a salarie or talent card, then the EU long-term resident card. Naturalisation is a separate track and asks a minimum of 5 years of residence, cut to 2 for graduates of a French higher education institution.

No. The etudiant card is excluded by name, and so are the student mobility-programme card and the stagiaire (intern) card listed in the same article of the code. A French degree finished on an internship permit adds nothing either. Your count starts with your first working card.

No. They are different permits. The RECE card is valid for 1 year, cannot be renewed, and costs EUR 150 (about INR 16,569). India holds a migration agreement with France, so eligible Indian graduates apply for the APS instead, which the prefecture issues free and which renews once.

No. A diploma awarded abroad is not accepted as proof of French, even one from a French-speaking country. On the citizenship file the accepted proof is a TCF or TEF certificate issued less than 2 years ago, so the certificate expires and your degree counts for nothing here.

Not in the way the name sounds. It is valid 10 years, you renew it, and the original conditions must still be met when you do. Renewal runs through ANEF, 4 to 2 months before the card expires, and long spells outside France can still cost you it.

Ardent Overseas has guided Indian students into European study since 2014, with counselling offices in Hyderabad and Tirupati. Our France desk works the whole chain: Campus France applications, the Etudes en France procedure, the visa file, and the post-study permit step where the five-year count begins.

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