France’s investor residence card sets a €300,000 fixed-asset floor

France gives foreigners who make a direct economic investment in the country a multi-year residence card, now issued under the mention “talent-porteur de projet“. Applicants must invest, or undertake to invest, at least €300,000 in a business’s fixed assets, and create or preserve jobs or undertake to do so. The card must be withdrawn if the investment operation or undertaking shows no start of execution within one year of the card’s issue.

Where the route sits in the law

Article L421-16 of the code governing foreigners’ entry and residence (CESEDA), as rewritten by the immigration law of 26 January 2024, gives a card of up to four years to three kinds of applicant: a person with a master’s-equivalent qualification or at least five years’ comparable professional experience who has a real and serious project and creates a company in France, the holder of an innovative project recognised by a public body, and a foreigner who “makes a direct economic investment in France”. The card allows commercial activity linked to the project that justified it.

The investor limb is not new. Until the 2024 law, it sat in a separate article under the old name “passeport talent”. Decree 2025-539 of 13 June 2025, in force from 16 June 2025, renamed the card and re-pointed the two investor articles to the new provision. It did not change their conditions.

What counts as the investment

Article R421-35 sets two cumulative conditions. Acting personally, or through a company the applicant runs or in which the applicant holds at least 30% of the capital, the applicant must:

• make, or undertake to make, an investment in France of at least €300,000 in tangible or intangible fixed assets (“immobilisations corporelles ou incorporelles”);
• create or safeguard jobs, or undertake to do so, within the four years following the investment.

Neither Article L421-16, nor Article R421-35, nor the list of supporting documents annexed to the code names the purchase of a home or a subscription to a fund as a qualifying investment.

The application file, as the government’s service-public.fr guidance sets it out, includes proof that the applicant personally runs a company, holds at least 30% of its capital or has invested personally; proof of the investment or the undertaking to make it; and a letter of undertaking with a yearly job-creation plan and an investment plan. At renewal, the annexed list asks for proof that jobs were created or kept and that the €300,000 investment has actually been made.

Duration, withdrawal and family

The card’s validity is set according to the purpose of the stay and the applicant’s project, up to four years. Article R421-36 requires it to be withdrawn in two cases: when the investment operation or undertaking has shown no start of execution within one year of the card being issued, or when the funds are shown to come from illicit activity. For every card under Article L421-16, the consulate or prefecture also checks that the activity is compatible with public security, public health and public tranquillity and, where applicable, that no conviction or decision prohibits the applicant from carrying on a commercial activity in France.

A spouse aged 18 or over receives a family card for the time left on the investor’s card, and under the “accompanying family” procedure the spouse and minor children can come without going through family reunification. If the investor’s card is withdrawn under Article R421-36, the family cards are withdrawn with it.

On issue, service-public.fr puts the cost at €350 in fiscal stamps: a €50 stamp duty and a €300 tax. The code sets the tax on a renewal at €200.

The company-creation route

The same card has a creation route with a lower financing threshold. An applicant with a master’s-level degree, or five years’ professional experience at a comparable level, must have a real and serious project, create a company in France, show at least €30,000 of financing for it and have resources of at least the full-time minimum wage, which service-public.fr, in guidance verified on 1 June 2026, gives as €22,404.20 gross a year. That route, unlike the investor route, first needs an opinion from the economy ministry on whether the project is real and serious.

The two limbs lead to the same card and the same four-year ceiling. The creation limb sets conditions on qualifications, the project and its financing; the investor limb sets an investment threshold and employment obligations.

After four years

The card is renewable. Within the talent articles of the code, only EU Blue Card holders and their families are given a dedicated path to a resident card; the investor limb has none of its own. Under the general rule in Article L426-17, and subject to the exceptions in Article L426-18, a foreigner with at least five years’ uninterrupted legal residence in France on temporary or multi-year cards, stable, regular and sufficient resources at least equal to the minimum wage, and health insurance is issued a ten-year “EU long-term resident” card. The original investment amount alone does not establish eligibility, which remains subject to the residence, resources and insurance requirements and the exceptions in Article L426-18.

Names that have not caught up

Readers comparing offers will meet both names. Several provisions of the consolidated code still call the scheme “passeport talent”: the article on the family card, the article on public-order checks, and the annexed document list, which still cites the pre-2024 article number. The current legal designation is “talent-porteur de projet”, and Articles R421-35 and R421-36 set out the investor-specific requirements and withdrawal grounds.