France Long-Stay Visa Income Requirement

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France's long-stay visitor file asks a single person to show €1,477.93 net a month, which Service-Public also states as €17,735.19 over the year. That floor, verified on the page on 1 June 2026, is the resource test for the temporary visitor residence card, and it is the number to prepare before you apply for the long-stay "visiteur" visa that leads to it.

Clearing the floor does not tell you whether the month is comfortable. Rent, food, and a year of insurance sit on top of it, and the France guide for US expats walks through what a month in the country costs once that visa math is done. The card lasts one year at most, and a renewal asks you to prove the same resources again.

Americans are in the "other nationality" group on that page. EU, EEA, and Swiss citizens do not use this visitor card, and Algerian nationals use a different one-year visitor certificate. A stay longer than 90 days is not visa-free for a US passport. France-Visas says nationality does not exempt you, and the long-stay visa itself runs from three months to one year.

What income does a France long-stay visa require?

For one person, the published minimum is €1,477.93 net per month, measured across a full year, and the file should show resources of €17,735.19. Those two figures are the ones on the visitor-card page. France-Visas describes the matching visa as a long-stay visitor visa, usually issued as a long-stay visa that counts as a residence permit (a VLS-TS), which you validate online after you arrive.

The consulate can adjust the document list for your nationality. France-Visas says the exact papers are in the visa assistant and can be adapted to the country where you apply. Treat €17,735.19 as the amount you should already be able to show, then confirm the US post's list before the appointment, rather than hoping a local clerk will accept a lower number.

Test	Who it hits	Official figure	Do not confuse it with
Visitor resources	One person on the visitor card	€1,477.93 net a month, €17,735.19 a year	A household budget or a couple's combined guess
Long-stay visa fee	Standard dossier	€99	A refundable deposit
VLS-TS validation	Within 3 months of arrival	Visitor tax of €300 (the €350 card price includes a €50 stamp skipped at validation)	An optional registration
Visitor card	First issue, then renewal	€350, then €250	The €99 visa fee
Short-stay border cash	A short trip, at the border	€65 a day with a hotel booking, €120 without, €32.50 if you are hosted	The annual visitor income test

Data note: the euro floor was checked on the Service-Public page verified 1 June 2026. The fee split comes from the prefecture tax table applicable 1 July 2026. Both can change.

What proof counts, and what is left out?

Your own resources can be an annuity, a pension, or real-estate income. The document list names bank certificates, a surety from a solvent person, and a pension voucher for a retiree. A family member's resources can be used as well. If someone else is supporting you, the file wants that person's resource proof, a certificate of financial support, and the guarantor's identity document.

Family allowances are excluded. The page says they are paid to maintain children, so they do not help you reach €17,735.19. Housing is not a side issue either: the assessment of your resources also looks at housing conditions, and at any surety your family offers.

A spouse or a guarantor

The €1,477.93 figure is written for one person. Nothing on the page tells you to double it for a couple, and nothing tells you that one pension automatically covers two visas. If you both need long-stay visas, open the France-Visas assistant for the US post and see how that post wants the household shown. A guarantor is allowed. A guess is not.

Bank certificates are on the accepted list. If the pension lands in a US account that still works once you have a French address, such as Charles Schwab, that statement can be one of the papers, next to the pension voucher itself. Print the months that add up to the annual figure, not a single good month.

Can you work on a France visitor visa?

No. France-Visas says you must formally commit to exercising no professional activity during your stay in France. Service-Public puts the same ban in job language: you may not work as an employee, a trader, a self-employed registrant, a craftsperson, or in a liberal profession.

A US client does not create a loophole. The promise covers professional activity during the stay, not only a French payroll. Remote invoices, a retained freelance practice, or a business you keep operating from a French apartment are the opposite of the file you are signing. People who need to keep working should look at a status that allows it. Spain's non-lucrative visa is a different no-work income test, not a remote-work permit, so read the work rule on whichever country you actually want.

Say your pension is €1,600 a month

Say you are single, the pension voucher shows €1,600 net a month, and you will not work in France. That month is above the €1,477.93 floor. Over twelve months the same pension is €19,200, which is above the €17,735.19 annual figure the card page asks you to document. This is a hypothetical file, not a prefecture decision. Housing conditions can still pull a borderline case the other way.

The €1,600 file still needs the rest of the stack. Health insurance has to cover the stay. You need a proof of address less than six months old when you reach the card stage, a handwritten statement that you will not work in France, and the civil-status papers the prefecture lists. The visa stage, before you ever see the prefecture, wants your situation (retired, on leave, or similar), resources, accommodation, and medical coverage.

Build the stack in this order

1. Add the pension, annuity, and rent income you can document for a full year, and stop if the total is under €17,735.19 unless a family member or guarantor covers the gap.
2. Leave family allowances out of the total.
3. Match the income to housing you can actually show: a lease, a host, or another address the post accepts. The resource review looks at housing, not only the bank balance.
4. Get health insurance that covers the whole stay, including hospital care. At the border, France-Visas also describes cover for medical, hospital, and death costs, plus medical repatriation. The travel versus international health comparison is the practical split between a short trip policy and a plan built for a year of living there.
5. Write the no-work commitment by hand when the card file asks for it, and do not sign it if you intend to keep a practice going.
6. Run the France-Visas assistant for a US passport so the appointment list matches your post, then pay the visa fee only when that list is in hand.

What you pay, and the three-month clock

The France-Visas FAQ sets the long-stay dossier fee at €99. The short-stay fee on the same page is €90. The fee is not refunded if the visa is refused or you withdraw the application. Children under 6, children from 6 to 12, spouses of French nationals, and some students can pay less or nothing, so read the exemption lines before you assume €99 is your number.

After a yes, the clock that matters is validation. A VLS-TS has to be validated within three months of arrival on the online portal for foreign nationals. France-Visas is blunt about the miss: you are no longer legally present, and you cannot re-enter the Schengen Area. The screen asks for the visa details, the date you entered, your address in France, and payment of the residence-permit issuance fee. A temporary long-stay visa (VLS-T) is the other pattern, used when you are sure you will leave when the visa ends and will not extend.

Which euro amount belongs to which step

A prefecture tax table updated on 29 June 2026, with amounts from 1 July 2026, says validating a long-stay visa that counts as a residence permit costs the same as the permit, except the €50 stamp. On the visitor line, first issue is €350, shown as €300 tax plus €50 stamp, and renewal, including after a VLS-TS, is €250, shown as €200 tax plus €50 stamp. Service-Public states the same card prices: €350 the first time the card is issued, €250 when it is renewed. Pay what the validation screen charges for your visa. Adding €99, €300, and €350 into one "startup cost" double-counts steps you may not hit in the same year.

The card, when you need one, is filed online at the earliest four months and at the latest two months before the visa or permit expires. The same window applies to renewal. Silence for four months is an implicit refusal. A late filing adds €180, unless you have force majeure or you still hold a valid visa. The card is good for one year and the resource proof is required again.

While the long-stay visa is valid, France-Visas treats it like a Schengen visa for trips outside France: up to 90 days in any 180-day period. The European Commission describes that same short-stay limit as 90 days within 180 days. The visitor income test does not replace it when you leave France for Spain or Italy.

At the border, have a passport issued less than 10 years earlier and still valid for at least three months after the departure date you plan, plus the visa, proof of where you will sleep, and the insurance certificate. Holders of a long-stay visa are outside the short-stay Entry/Exit System registration described on that arrival page, which is aimed at trips of up to 90 days in 180.

What to finish before you book the appointment

The French file and the US tax return answer different questions. A pension or Social Security benefit that helps you reach €1,477.93 is still unearned income on the US side. The IRS foreign-earned-income page puts pensions, annuities, and Social Security benefits in the unearned column, so they are not foreign earned income and they do not go on the foreign earned income exclusion. Signing a promise not to work in France does not switch off a US filing duty on the pension you used as proof.

Put the appointment off until three things are true. The documented year reaches €17,735.19 for each person the post expects to qualify, or a guarantor covers a stated gap. The insurance certificate matches the length of the stay, including hospital care and, for the border, repatriation. And you can sign the no-work line without planning to break it. If a spouse's pension is the only way the file works, collect that person's proof now, not after the consulate asks.

Where this leaves the file

Show €1,477.93 net a month and €17,735.19 for the year, on pension, annuity, rent, family resources, or a real guarantor. Pay the €99 long-stay fee only after the US document list matches that proof. Validate the VLS-TS within three months, and budget the visitor tax the screen asks for, using the July 2026 split of €300 tax against a €350 card price as the reference, not as a bill you invent in advance. Then keep the renewal window: four months early, two months before expiry, with the same income shown again.

A card you renew by proving €17,735.19 again is a different commitment from a stay that lets you work. Other passive-income floors that also bar local work sit with retirement abroad planning, and the France-Visas assistant is still the list that decides the appointment.

Data notes / sources checked

• Service-Public, temporary visitor residence card, verified 1 June 2026: €1,477.93 net a month, €17,735.19 a year, the no-work condition, card prices of €350 and €250, and the four-month to two-month filing window.
• France-Visas, private stay longer than three months: long-stay visitor visa as a VLS-TS, and the formal ban on professional activity.
• France-Visas, long-stay visa: stays over 90 days, the three-month validation, and 90 days in 180 outside France.
• France-Visas, arrival: the consequence of missing validation, and the short-stay daily amounts of €65, €120, and €32.50.
• France-Visas FAQ: €99 long-stay dossier fee, not refunded on refusal.
• Drôme prefecture tax table, amounts from 1 July 2026: VLS-TS validation equals the permit tax without the €50 stamp; visitor first issue €350 and renewal €250.
• European Commission, Schengen area, 27 May 2025: short stays of up to 90 days within 180 days.
• IRS, what counts as foreign earned income: pensions and Social Security benefits are unearned and are not excluded.