Employee visa or talent card (formerly passeport talent): the steps to take on arrival in France

Information checked on 25 October 2026.

Arriving in France for a job, with a « salarié », « travailleur temporaire » or « talent » visa? Within 3 months of arrival, validate your VLS-TS online (a €300 fee for an employee); if your talent visa is only valid for 3 months, apply for your talent card on the ANEF within 2 months of entry. Then come OFII (for employees on a permanent contract), social security registration, which your employer starts, the bank account, and a residence card application to file at the latest 2 months before the visa ends.

This guide is part of our series on the steps to take after arrival. To compare with other visas, see arriving in France on a long-stay visa, and for other countries, arriving in Europe on a long-stay visa.

Which visa do you have?

The mention on the visa sticker in your passport decides everything else. The « talent » card replaced the former « passeport talent », a name still in circulation.

The talent card thresholds, according to service-public (page checked on 1 June 2026):

• qualified employee: a diploma at least equivalent to a master's obtained in France, or a job in an innovative company, and a salary of at least €39,582 gross per year;
• EU Blue Card: a diploma certifying at least 3 years of higher education (or 5 years of experience), a contract of at least 6 months and a salary of at least €59,373 gross per year;
• medical and pharmacy professions: authorisation to practise and at least €41,386.48 gross per year;
• researcher: a diploma at least equivalent to a master's and a hosting agreement from a research body.

Algerian nationals fall under the 1968 Franco-Algerian agreement (certificat de résidence), and Tunisians have their own rules from the 2008 agreement: check your case on service-public.

Before departure: the work authorisation

For an employee or temporary worker visa, the employer applies for the work authorisation online, before you enter France. They must show that the job is on the list of shortage occupations, or that the vacancy was published for 3 consecutive weeks in the previous 6 months without a valid applicant. The salary cannot be below the SMIC (the French minimum wage) or the minimum of the collective agreement. If the préfecture does not reply within 2 months, the application is implicitly refused.

The employer also pays a tax at the first admission to stay: it is their cost, not yours. For the talent card, no work authorisation is required and the employer is exempt from this tax.

Shortage occupations

The list in force is the one set by the order of 21 May 2025, published in the Journal officiel on 22 May 2025. It is drawn up region by region: a shortage occupation in Île-de-France is not necessarily one in Occitanie. When the job is on the list, the employer does not have to publish the vacancy beforehand. The law of 26 January 2024 provides for an update at least once a year: as of 25 October 2026 we found no new list for mainland France, so check Légifrance before relying on it.

The same law created an exceptional admission to stay for people already in France without a permit who work in these occupations, planned until 31 December 2026. It does not concern a newcomer holding a visa.

The first 3 months: validating the VLS-TS

Employee and temporary worker. Your visa serves as a residence permit for its duration (one year at most) and you can work from arrival. It must be validated online on the ANEF website within 3 months of entry, with a €300 fee for an employee according to service-public, on top of the visa fees. Without validation, you lose the regularity of your stay and the right to return to the Schengen area after a trip. The steps are the same as in our guide validating your VLS-TS: have your passport, date of entry, French address and bank card ready.

Talent. Two cases, according to service-public:

• a stay of less than one year: you receive a « talent » VLS-TS, to validate online within 3 months;
• a stay of one year or more: you receive a 3-month « talent » visa, and you apply for your talent card online on the ANEF within 2 months of entry. A digital receipt is issued when you apply. The card costs €350 (€300 tax and €50 stamp duty), paid in tax stamps.

OFII: integration contract and medical check

With a « salarié » VLS-TS, you sign the republican integration contract: interview, French test, 24 hours of civic training and, if needed, language training. You are exempt if you have completed at least one year of higher education in France. The « travailleur temporaire » and « talent » permits are not covered. Everything is explained in our guide OFII appointment and the republican integration contract.

For the employee card, service-public lists the medical certificate issued by OFII among the documents requested when the permit is handed over: if OFII calls you in for a medical check, go and keep the certificate. For the talent card, the official pages we consulted do not mention it; follow any appointment you may receive.

Social security: the employer starts the process

As an employee, you are covered by the general scheme from the day you are hired. According to the Assurance maladie (French health insurance), your employer carries out the steps to open your rights. As you were born abroad, the CPAM will ask for an identity or residence document and a full birth certificate (complete copy), translated into French except in some cases. Bring it from home: it is the document most often missing.

You first receive a temporary number, then the Cnav assigns your permanent social security number. If only your permit was provided, you have 3 months to send the civil status document, otherwise benefits may be suspended after a formal notice. With the permanent number, create your ameli account, order your carte Vitale and register a médecin traitant (regular doctor) to be properly reimbursed.

Ameli states that holders of a « passeport talent salarié » permit deal with the CPAM de Paris for all their procedures. As for top-up insurance, every private-sector employer must offer collective supplementary health cover and pay at least half of it.

The bank and your salary

Your employer will ask for a RIB (bank details) to pay your salary: open an account in the first week. If banks refuse, the Banque de France can designate a bank required to open an account for you, under the right to an account. The tips in our article opening a bank account in France also apply to an employee.

Taxes: withholding at source, filing the following year

Income tax is withheld at source from your salary from the first payslip. Until the tax administration has sent your personal rate to the employer, the employer applies a non-personalised rate. In the spring of the following year, you declare the income received since your arrival date. For a very first return, follow the « international » section of impots.gouv.fr or contact the tax office for individuals where you live, which will tell you whether you must use the paper form 2042.

Family

Talent card. Your spouse and minor children do not have to go through family reunification: this is the simplified « famille accompagnante » (accompanying family) procedure. The spouse receives a « talent-famille » card, valid for the remaining term of your talent card, which allows any professional activity. Arriving on a long-stay visa, they apply on the ANEF within 2 months of entry; it costs €350.

Employee or temporary worker. You must go through family reunification, possible after 18 months of legal residence in France, with resources of at least €1,867.02 gross per month on average over 12 months for a family of 2 or 3. Our guide family reunification in France covers what follows.

Renewal, changing employer, losing your job

Employee (permanent contract). File the card application at the latest 2 months before the end of the VLS-TS, at the préfecture where you live or online, as it indicates. If you still hold the same job, you can obtain a 4-year multi-year card, provided, since 1 January 2026, that you attended the CIR, prove an A2 level in French and passed the civic exam (except after 65). Service-public states €250 (€200 tax and €50 stamp duty) for a renewal, and a €180 regularisation visa fee for late filing. Without a reply within 4 months, the application is implicitly refused.

Temporary worker (fixed-term contract). The card is renewed for the length of the remaining or new contract, with the same filing deadline.

Changing employer. The new employer must obtain a new work authorisation; you attach the previous employer's certificate for France Travail. Losing your job: if you receive benefits from France Travail, you can obtain a temporary « salarié » card for the duration of your entitlement.

Talent. The renewal is requested online on the ANEF, between 4 and 2 months before your card ends. Our guide renewing your residence permit in France sets out the timetable. If you were a student in France before this job, read our article on changing from student to employee status instead.

Summary

Finding your compatriots

A first job in France also means a city to get to know, often without a network. On Compatri, the members of your community know which bank opened an account without a payslip, what timeframe the préfecture announces, where the next meetups are held. Join for example the Cameroonians in France, the Senegalese in France, the Beninese in France, the Tunisians in France or the Moroccans in France, and all the communities in Paris, in Toulouse, in Lyon and in other French cities. To make the connection before you even leave, read how to join your community before you leave.

Compatri is not a government service and does not carry out any procedure on your behalf. Only the préfecture, OFII, the Assurance maladie and the official websites below are authoritative.

Official sources

• Service-public: employee or temporary worker residence card (FR)
• Service-public: « talent » multi-year residence card (FR)
• Service-public: « talent-famille » residence card (FR)
• Service-public: work authorisation for a foreign employee (FR)
• Service-public: republican integration contract (CIR) (FR)
• Service-public: social security registration for an employee arriving in France (FR)
• Service-public: family reunification (FR)
• Service-public: company supplementary health cover (FR)
• Assurance maladie: you are an expatriate worker in France (FR)
• Légifrance: order of 21 May 2025 setting the list of shortage occupations (FR)
• Ministry of Labour: publication of the updated list of shortage occupations (FR)
• impots.gouv.fr: coming or returning to France, how am I taxed? (FR)
• Digital administration for foreigners in France (ANEF)