Hello all,
Thank you for this community. I’m American considering moving to France on a Profession Libérale visa. There has been so much change to the rules since June 2025 so I’m looking for people with relatively recently experience or the ability to forecast, haha, although I realize the visa landscape is still in flux. I would be starting a new business for myself and as a newcomer even reaching the annual SMIC level of around 17,000 euros seems daunting (my understanding is that this is 17,000 net after expenses). What happens year on year if you don’t reach that? I understand there’s some flexibility in the first year or so, but how about in years 2, 3, 4 etc?
Related question, if one moved to France on a visitor visa, does not work and lives on savings is this still a path to a 5 year card, or is that no longer possible?
Thank you!
I don’t have recent experience (been here too long and now naturalised so no need for visas) but I read a lot!
Anyway, people on visitor visa can keep doing so for years and gain permanent residency if they have the funds. That’s not an issue.
But with a PL visa if you don’t achieve the financial threshold (and remember SMIC increases each year) the blunt position is that your renewal will be refused and you will be asked to leave. There have been couple of quite high profile cases this year of this happening on the second renewal. Of course if you have the funds you can return to your home country and get a visitor visa, but the immigration agents might be suspicious that you would continue working.
This is not set in stone, so each case is assessed individually and agents can be more or less lenient according to circumstances. However it is taken seriously so one should make sure one’s business planning is solid.
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Thank you! This is helpful.