Prospective long-stay ‘visitor’ migrants to France must now prove at least €1,477.93 in net monthly resources—up from roughly €1,443—after Service-Public quietly updated its checklist to reflect the mid-year rise in the French minimum wage (SMIC). Specialist portal Country To Live flagged the change on 23 September, noting that the annual requirement for a single adult now tops €17,735. Although the threshold has risen automatically with each SMIC adjustment since 2021, many consular lists and guidance documents still cite the older figure, leading to confusion among retirees, remote workers and accompanying spouses who rely on savings or foreign income. Consulates may demand evidence well above the statutory floor, but applicants presenting bank statements that just meet last spring’s figure risk refusal for “insufficient resources”. The hike also affects renewals: prefectures generally request proof of ongoing means at the updated level when issuing the one-year visitor carte de séjour or validating VLS-TS visas. HR teams who use visitor status for non-productive assignments—common for accompanying family members—should therefore budget higher maintenance allowances and update internal policy matrices. Immigration advisers suggest recalibrating budgets for couples to approximately €2,200-€2,300 net monthly, factoring in medical insurance and housing costs, and to verify local prefecture expectations, which can exceed national guidance in high-cost areas such as Paris or the Côte d’Azur.
Source: Country To Live
