Student visa: €877.50 a month required since 1 August 2026, what changes

Information checked on 11 September 2026.

For more than twenty years the figure did not move: €615 a month. That was the amount of resources a student from outside the European Union had to prove to get a visa, and then a residence permit (titre de séjour). For applications filed since 1 August 2026, it is €877.50 a month, or €10,530 a year. For a family funding studies from Dakar, Douala or Abidjan, this is no technical tweak: €262.50 more every month, to be proven before departure. Here is what the text says, who is affected, and how to get organised. If the procedure is new to you, start with our complete Campus France guide.

The decree of 22 June 2026 in brief

The change comes from Decree No. 2026-526 of 22 June 2026, which updates and indexes the level of resources a third-country national must prove to be admitted to stay for study purposes. Its title sums it up in two words:

• Update: the threshold is now set at 47% of the gross monthly SMIC (the French statutory minimum wage), i.e. €877.50 a month when it came into force on 1 August 2026.
• Indexation: the amount is no longer frozen. It will automatically follow every increase in the SMIC.

The old €615 amount was set in 2002 and never raised since, while the cost of living clearly went up. The text covers "third-country nationals", meaning people who are not citizens of a European Union or European Economic Area country, nor Swiss. Students from sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb, Haiti or Lebanon are therefore all affected.

How the €877.50 amount is calculated

The choice of 47% of the gross figure is not arbitrary: according to the Bas-Rhin prefecture, it corresponds to about 60% of the net SMIC. In other words, the administration considers that a student needs at least a little over half of what a full-time employee on the minimum wage takes home.

For families in the CFA franc zone, the fixed parity (€1 = 655.957 FCFA) makes the maths simple: about 575,600 FCFA a month, and nearly 6.9 million FCFA a year, before bank fees and transfer charges. For currencies whose rate floats (dirham, dinar, gourde), keep a margin: if your currency falls between putting the file together and its review, your proofs must not slip below the threshold.

A threshold that now follows the SMIC

The SMIC is raised every 1 January, and during the year whenever inflation exceeds 2%. That is exactly what happened on 1 June 2026: it went from €1,823.03 to €1,867.02 gross a month. With indexation, every increase will move the student threshold too.

Two practical consequences:

• Don't copy a figure from a forum or last year's guide. In early September 2026, some local Campus France pages still showed the old €615 amount. Only the amount in force on the day you file counts, as shown on service-public.fr (the official French government information site).
• Plan generously if you leave in a year. A file prepared today for the 2027 intake may have to cover a slightly higher amount. This article will be updated at every increase.

Who is affected, and from when

First visa applications

Every visa file lodged from 1 August 2026 falls under the new threshold, whether or not you go through the Études en France procedure (Campus France's online application platform). Campus France Japan specifies that an applicant who entered their file online while the old amount was displayed may receive a request for additional documents rather than a flat refusal. If that is your case, ask your local Campus France office how the rule is applied in your country. The details of the file are in our article on applying for a student visa on France-Visas.

Renewing the residence permit at the prefecture

This is the question students already settled in France are asking. What is certain: service-public.fr states the €877.5 monthly threshold both for the first permit and for renewal, whether a temporary residence card or a multi-year card, and the préfectures (the local state offices that issue residence permits) apply it to applications filed since 1 August 2026, whether on the ANEF (the French online portal for foreign nationals) or outside it. Campus France also points this out on its renewal page.

At renewal, resources are "assessed according to your particular situation", and the prefecture also checks that your studies are real and serious: attendance, exam results, diplomas obtained.

What is less certain: what happens to a renewal application filed before 1 August and still under review. None of the official sources consulted deals with that specific case. Ask your prefecture and, if you are refused, turn to an association that assists foreign nationals or to a lawyer.

What counts as resources

The list of supporting documents from the France-Visas assistant, used by Campus France offices, accepts four forms:

• a scholarship certificate;
• a bank certificate of deposit in an account opened in France;
• a certificate of permanent and irrevocable transfer, or a blocked account;
• a statement of financial support (attestation de prise en charge) from a sponsor with sufficient, reliable and regular income, together with a copy of their ID.

A blocked account is therefore just one option among others, not an obligation. The exact documents, their form and local requirements vary from country to country: everything is detailed, with the pitfalls to avoid, in our article blocked account, statement of financial support, scholarship: proving your resources.

What this changes for families

The threshold is an administrative floor, not a budget. Campus France Mali admits as much: this monthly income is very low compared with the everyday cost of living. For a family, that translates into a few concrete decisions:

The effect adds up with the APL reform, the personal housing benefit paid by the CAF (the French family and housing benefits office). Since 1 July 2026, non-European students who do not hold a need-based scholarship (bourse sur critères sociaux) are no longer entitled to it, unless they are apprentices or have a professional activity alongside their studies. For most of them, rent is no longer reduced, just as the resources threshold rises: it is all explained in our article on APL for international students.

A student job can top up the budget once you are there, within the limits set by your residence permit, but it does not replace the proofs required before departure. See working in France as an international student.

What a month in Lyon or Lille really costs

The official figure says what the administration requires, not what a month of living costs. Between a CROUS room (the French student services agency) and a private flatshare, between central Lyon and its outskirts, between Lille and Paris, the gap runs to hundreds of euros. No simulator replaces the answer of someone who pays those bills every month.

That is where Compatri helps. Each community brings together compatriots from the same city: the Cameroonians of Lyon, the Senegalese of Lille, and so on. You can join the one in your future city before you even leave, for free, and ask members the question that helps a family decide most: how much do you really spend a month, rent included? The how-to is in our article joining your community before you leave.

Worth saying: Compatri is neither a visa agency nor a bank, and sells no blocked accounts. For anything to do with the right of residence, the official sources below are authoritative.

Official sources

• Decree No. 2026-526 of 22 June 2026 (Légifrance)
• International student: long-stay visa or residence permit (service-public.fr)
• Change in the minimum resources for international students (Bas-Rhin prefecture)
• SMIC raised on 1 June 2026 (info.gouv.fr)
• Renewing your student residence permit (Campus France)