Residence-permit fees to jump on 1 May: France publishes new tariff schedule for cartes de séjour and naturalisation

The French government has quietly published a notice in the Official Bulletin – highlighted by the public-service portal Service-Public.fr on 22 April – confirming steep increases in the taxes foreigners must pay when a residence permit is issued or renewed. From 1 May 2026, the standard fiscal stamp (timbre fiscal) for a first carte de séjour – whether temporary, multi-year or the 10-year carte de résident – rises from €225 to €350. The discounted rate for students, seasonal workers and certain family-reunification cases doubles from €75 to €150. Renewal fees climb to €250 (or €100 at the reduced rate), while long-stay visas that serve as residence permits will cost €300 (up from €200). The finance law also hikes naturalisation and re-integration fees almost five-fold, from €55 to €255, and introduces a €100 levy for provisional stay permits. Only trafficking-victim protection cases and some beneficiaries of temporary protection are exempt. Why it matters for global mobility: employers that sponsor foreign talent through passeport-talent or intra-company transferee routes will see onboarding costs surge. A family of four moving on an EU Blue Card plus dependants, for example, will now face €1,400 in initial taxes instead of €900. HR teams should update relocation budgets, while assignees awaiting approval after 1 May must be warned that higher amounts will be due upon collection of their cards. Immigration lawyers note that the timing – just weeks after language-test and civic-integration rules were tightened – confirms a broader shift toward making migrants shoulder a larger share of administrative costs. Prefectures have been instructed to display the new tariffs from next week, and the France-Visas payment portal will update its e-stamp interface on 30 April.