Visa D Visiteur is an annual residence permit for those who don’t work under a French employment contract. The programme is suitable for retirees, financially independent people, French property owners and remote workers. The key criterion when evaluating your application is regular trips to France over the past year.

What the Visiteur Visa Offers

Visa Visiteur is an annual residence permit that can be renewed, and after five years gives you the right to apply for a ten-year card, and then citizenship. With this visa, you get full access to French healthcare, banks and state schools for children. The visa provides freedom of movement throughout the entire Schengen area (29 countries) without the 90 in 180 days rule — you live in France and travel across Europe on your own schedule.

Income Requirements: Law and Practice

The law sets a minimum equal to the French minimum wage — as of 1 June 2026 this is €1,478 per month. In practice, consulates approve from €3,000 per month of stable income per applicant, or from €30,000 in savings if there is no regular income. For a family, the amount increases proportionally. There is no published table for self-verification — funds are assessed individually.

Accepted sources of income include pensions, annuities, dividends, royalties, interest from deposits and salary from a foreign employer. The key word is regularity. A one-time large transfer from a family member counts as an argument only in the context of the overall picture of your file. Cryptocurrency is practically not accepted.

Travel History as the Deciding Factor

In the past, people who had never been to France would get a visa through this programme without questions. Now it’s almost impossible. The consulate carefully looks at when you were last in the country and how many times you have been there in the past year. If you have fresh entry stamps to France and have travelled there regularly, this works more powerfully than almost anything else you can do over a year to strengthen your file.

Other ways to prove your connection to the country: proof of ownership of French property, a long-term rental agreement, confirmation that your children, parents or partner live in France. Together these documents create a picture that shows the consulate why you need this status.

Ideal Candidates for the Programme

Four profiles go through with almost no resistance. The first are people who travel to France frequently (more than twice a year), rent accommodation for long-term stays and speak French at least at a basic conversational level. The second are French property owners: these are the easiest cases of all. The third are retirees with passive income from rent, investments or pensions aged 55 and over. The programme was written specifically for these people.

The fourth profile is families where one spouse works remotely for a foreign company and the other wants to access French education for their children. Children enrol in free state schools, the second spouse gets a resident card, and then can renew it and apply for a ten-year card.

Changes in 2026

From late 2025, France has a new social insurance financing law. It provides for a separate annual contribution for access to the state Sécu insurance (PUMA) for people living under a long-term Visiteur visa and not working in the local market. The specific amount of the contribution is not yet known — the law created the obligation, but the final figure is set by a separate decree that has not yet been issued by mid-2026. All the figures circulating in chats are just speculation. Before you are connected to state insurance (minimum 3 months of residence plus processing time), you are in any case living on private insurance.

The second change concerns the path to citizenship. From 1 January 2026, French language at B2 level is required for naturalisation instead of the previous B1, plus a civic examination is mandatory. This applies to all applications submitted after 31 December 2025. When renewing your card, the consulate checks whether you have actually lived in France — the status is given to those who live here, not those who keep it as a backup.

Who the Programme Is Not Suitable For

Visa Visiteur is not suitable for those who have no connection to the country. Such an application is now weak, and it’s better to spend six months building a connection than to receive a refusal.