Descent Gives You a Ten-Year Card in Two Directions, and Birth in France Can Make You French Without Asking
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Guatemala on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
147 exceptions recorded across 54 countries · none match Guatemala to France · Residency through ancestry
France does not have a residence permit for a grandchild. What it has, in two articles of the CESEDA, is a ten-year carte de résident running in both directions along one generation: article L. 423-12 for the foreign child of a French national who is between eighteen and twenty-one or dependent on their parents, and article L. 423-11 for the dependent parent of a French national and of their spouse. Both require the long-stay visa of article L. 411-1 and lawful stay, and neither carries an integration condition. Descent before that generation is a question of nationality rather than of residence, and the Code civil answers it generously at one remove and not at all at two: article 18 makes a child French if at least one parent is French, and article 19-3 makes a child born in France French if at least one parent was also born in France. Where neither applies, article 21-7 gives French nationality at majority to a child born in France to foreign parents who has lived there five years since the age of eleven, and article 21-11 lets them claim it from sixteen, or from thirteen with a residence condition running from the age of eight. Article L. 426-1 of the CESEDA joins the two codes: someone who meets the article 21-7 conditions gets a ten-year carte de résident.
At a glance
- Child of a French national
- A ten-year carte de résident, between eighteen and twenty-one or while dependent on the parents
CESEDA article L. 423-12, subject to the long-stay visa of article L. 411-1 1° and to lawful stay.
- Parent of a French national
- A ten-year carte de résident for a dependent parent of a French national and of their spouse
CESEDA article L. 423-11, on the same visa and lawful-stay conditions.
- Grandparent or grandchild
- No residence card in articles L. 423-10 to L. 423-12
Those articles were read in full. They reach a parent, a child and the parent of a French minor child, and no generation beyond.
- A French parent
- Makes the child French, wherever the child was born
Code civil article 18. Article 18-1 then lets a child not born in France repudiate it in the six months before majority and the twelve after, where only one parent is French.
- A parent born in France
- Makes a child born in France French
Code civil article 19-3, the double jus soli. Article 19-4 gives the same right of repudiation where only one parent was born in France.
- Born in France to foreign parents
- French at majority, on five years' habitual residence in France since the age of eleven
Code civil article 21-7. The five years may be continuous or not.
- Claiming it earlier
- From sixteen by declaration, or from thirteen with the residence condition running from the age of eight
Code civil article 21-11, which requires the minor's consent on the thirteen-year route.
- A card that follows from the nationality rule
- Meeting the article 21-7 conditions gets a ten-year carte de résident
CESEDA article L. 426-1, and it is exempt from the regularisation fee under article L. 436-4.
- Integration test on these cards
- Not required - articles L. 423-11 and L. 423-12 are absent from the list in article L. 413-7
Article L. 413-7 names articles L. 423-6, L. 423-10 and L. 423-16 and the long-term residence cards; it does not name L. 423-11 or L. 423-12.
Requirements
- For the child of a French national: aged eighteen to twenty-one or dependent, a long-stay visa and lawful stay
- For the parent of a French national: being a dependent parent of the French national and of their spouse, a long-stay visa and lawful stay
- Legally established filiation, including by adoption, verified by the public prosecutor where the adoption was pronounced abroad
In detail
Two codes, one family
A reader looking for a route by descent meets the question in two places and they answer differently. The CESEDA is about who may live in France, and it reaches exactly one generation each way: the child of a French national under article L. 423-12, the dependent parent under article L. 423-11, and the parent of a French minor child under article L. 423-7. The Code civil is about who is French, and it reaches further back without anyone applying: a French parent under article 18, a parent born in France under article 19-3. The practical consequence is that a person with a French grandparent usually has no residence route and may nonetheless already be French, if the line of article 18 was never broken - which is a question about documents rather than about immigration.
Country-level policy
The CESEDA does not claim to be the whole of French immigration law and says so in its first article. Article L. 110-1 states that the code governs entry, stay and removal subject to Union law and to international conventions. Article L. 411-1, which lists the residence documents a foreigner needs for a stay over three months, opens with the same reservation - subject to France's international engagements or to book II. Article L. 412-1, which makes a first card conditional on a long-stay visa, opens with it again. And article L. 436-6 extends the residence-permit taxes to titles provided for by treaties or agreements "sauf stipulations contraires prévues par ces traités ou accords". That is the mechanism by which a bilateral agreement can govern a nationality instead of the code: it is not an exception the administration grants, it is a reservation the code makes about itself, repeated at each of the points where the code would otherwise bite.
Article L. 412-1 of the CESEDA makes the first issue of a temporary or multi-year card conditional on producing the long-stay visa of article L. 411-1 - so the ordinary route into France is a consulate abroad, not a préfecture. The visa itself may not last more than a year, and article L. 312-2 lets it carry the rights of a temporary or multi-year card, which is what makes a single document serve as both entry title and residence permit for the first year. The exceptions are many and they are listed rather than reasoned: article L. 412-2 exempts twelve categories outright, including the private and family life cards, the cards issued on exceptional admission under articles L. 435-1 to L. 435-3, the European Blue Card issued on intra-Union mobility and the talent family card; article L. 412-3 lets the administration grant three more without the visa, including the student card. Several individual articles say the same thing in their own text - article L. 423-2 for a marriage celebrated in France, article L. 423-7 for the parent of a French child, article L. 425-9 for a seriously ill foreigner. And article L. 412-4 closes the loop: where a consulate has issued the long-stay visa matching a talent card, the préfet issues the corresponding card.
A foreigner admitted to stay in France for the first time who wants to remain durably enters a personalised republican integration pathway and signs a contract with the State undertaking to follow the training prescribed to them. Article L. 413-3 says what the pathway contains: civic training on the values, principles and institutions of the Republic and on the organisation, history and culture of French society; language training; professional orientation and support, which is itself conditioned on attendance and seriousness in the first two; and support adapted to the person's needs. The civic training ends in an examination, which may be retaken at any time if the mark falls below the thresholds. Those thresholds then decide residence. Article L. 433-4 makes the step from a one-year card to a multi-year one conditional on attendance, on a pass mark fixed by decree, and on a level of French described as understanding frequently used expressions, communicating in routine tasks and discussing immediate needs. Article L. 413-7 asks for more for the ten-year carte de résident: a higher examination result and a level of French described as understanding reasonably clear conversation, producing simple connected speech and setting out an idea briefly. And article 21-24 of the Code civil asks for more again for naturalisation. Three thresholds, three descriptions, three different moments.
French residence documents form a ladder and the code states each rung's length in one article. Under article L. 411-3 a long-stay visa and a carte de séjour temporaire each last at most a year, a carte de séjour pluriannuelle at most four, and a carte de résident ten. Article L. 433-4 is the step from the first to the second: a year of lawful stay, attendance at the integration training, a pass mark and a level of French produce a multi-year card bearing the same wording. The ten-year rung is reached either through a family or personal route - articles L. 423-6, L. 423-10 to L. 423-12, L. 423-16, L. 426-1 to L. 426-3 and L. 426-10 among them - or through time, under article L. 426-17, which gives the résident de longue durée-UE card after five years of lawful uninterrupted residence on resources at least equal to the minimum wage and with sickness insurance. Above all of them sits article L. 426-4: a carte de résident permanent of indefinite duration, granted on request at the expiry of a carte de résident and granted as of right at the second renewal of one - and issued to a holder over sixty even if they do not ask for it. The ladder also has a trapdoor: article L. 411-5 expires a carte de résident after three consecutive years abroad.
The CESEDA prices residence in its own text rather than in a schedule. Article L. 436-1 charges 300 euros on the first issue of a residence title and 200 euros on renewal, reduced to 100 and 50 for a listed group that includes the student cards, the seasonal worker card, the family reunification cards and the work-accident card; a provisional residence authorisation costs 100 euros. Some titles are outside it entirely - the retraité card of articles L. 426-8 and L. 426-9, the refugee and subsidiary protection cards, and the card for a seriously ill foreigner under article L. 425-9. Two further charges fall on people whose papers slipped: article L. 436-4 charges a regularisation visa fee of 300 euros, of which 100 is taken non-refundably at the moment of applying, on someone who entered without the required documents or stayed past three months without a card; article L. 436-5 charges 180 euros for a renewal asked for late. A stamp duty of 50 euros sits on top under article L. 436-7. And the employer pays separately: article L. 436-10 charges 55 % of the worker's gross monthly salary, counted up to 2.5 times the gross monthly minimum wage, on a hire of twelve months or more.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Guatemala
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«S'il est âgé de dix-huit à vingt et un ans, ou qu'il entre dans les prévisions de l'article L. 421-35, ou qu'il est à la charge de ses parents, l'enfant étranger d'un ressortissant français se voit délivrer une carte de résident d'une durée de dix ans sous réserve de la production du visa de long séjour prévu au 1° de l'article L. 411-1 et de la régularité du séjour.»The foreign child of a French national. The age window and the dependency test are alternatives, not cumulative.
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The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
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Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
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«L'étranger, parent à charge d'un français et de son conjoint, se voit délivrer une carte de résident d'une durée de dix ans sous réserve de la production du visa de long séjour prévu au 1° de l'article L. 411-1 et de la régularité du séjour.»The same card running upwards. It asks for dependency on the French national and on their spouse together.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
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«L'étranger qui remplit les conditions d'acquisition de la nationalité française prévues à l'article 21-7 du code civil se voit délivrer une carte de résident d'une durée de dix ans.»The hinge between the two codes. The residence card is granted on a test written in the Code civil for a nationality.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Est français l'enfant dont l'un des parents au moins est français.»Our translation - not official
A child of whom at least one parent is French is French.
Descent by one parent, in seven words. Article 18-1 adds the right to repudiate where only one parent is French and the child was not born in France.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Est français l'enfant né en France lorsque l'un de ses parents au moins y est lui-même né.»Our translation - not official
A child born in France is French where at least one of their parents was themselves born there.
Double jus soli: birth in France plus a parent's birth in France. This is the rule that makes many people French without their ever applying.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Tout enfant né en France de parents étrangers acquiert la nationalité française à sa majorité si, à cette date, il a en France sa résidence et s'il a eu sa résidence habituelle en France pendant une période continue ou discontinue d'au moins cinq ans, depuis l'âge de onze ans.»Birth in France to foreign parents, acquired at majority on a residence test that may be satisfied in pieces.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«L'enfant mineur né en France de parents étrangers peut à partir de l'âge de seize ans réclamer la nationalité française par déclaration, dans les conditions prévues aux articles 26 et suivants si, au moment de sa déclaration, il a en France sa résidence et s'il a eu sa résidence habituelle en France pendant une période continue ou discontinue d'au moins cinq ans, depuis l'âge de onze ans.»The same nationality claimed early, by declaration from the age of sixteen.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Dans les mêmes conditions, la nationalité française peut être réclamée, au nom de l'enfant mineur né en France de parents étrangers, à partir de l'âge de treize ans, la condition de résidence habituelle en France devant alors être remplie à partir de l'âge de huit ans. Le consentement du mineur est requis, sauf s'il est empêché d'exprimer sa volonté par une altération de ses facultés mentales ou corporelles constatée selon les modalités prévues au troisième alinéa de l'article 17-3.»And earlier still, from thirteen, with the residence condition moved back to the age of eight and the minor's own consent required.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The claim that no card reaches a grandparent or grandchild is bounded by the CESEDA's chapter on family members of a French national, articles L. 423-1 to L. 423-12, and by the list of residence documents in article L. 411-1, all read in full. It is not a claim about French law as a whole.
How an already-French descendant proves it was not read. Articles 30 and following of the Code civil put the burden of proof on the person whose nationality is in question and provide for a certificate of French nationality, and the procedure for obtaining one is outside the code.
- consolidatesCode de l'entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d'asile, consolidated text last modified 27 August 2026
Legifrance, Direction de l'information legale et administrative · consolidated to 2026-08-27
Known to be out of date. The address cited is the code's plan: it lists article numbers without their text, so a reader following it will not find the quoted words on that page and has to take the whole-code PDF offered under "Telecharger le code". Legifrance answers 403 to every request this project can make, including to that PDF, so the reading behind these quotations was downloaded by a person in a browser and cannot be refreshed by running a command. The PDF prints its own two dates on its last line - last modified and generated - and the cut-off recorded here is the first of them.
About this source
The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesCode civil, consolidated text last modified 29 July 2026
Legifrance, Direction de l'information legale et administrative · consolidated to 2026-07-29
Known to be out of date. The address cited is the code's plan: it lists article numbers without their text, so a reader following it will not find the quoted words on that page and has to take the whole-code PDF offered under "Telecharger le code". Legifrance answers 403 to every request this project can make, including to that PDF, so the reading behind these quotations was downloaded by a person in a browser and cannot be refreshed by running a command. The PDF prints its own two dates on its last line - last modified and generated - and the cut-off recorded here is the first of them.
About this source
The official consolidated text of French codes and statutes. Each code has a stable address built from a LEGITEXT identifier, and the page offers the whole code as a PDF under 'Telecharger le code', which is the only form that carries the text of the articles.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The domain is behind a bot challenge and answers 403 to every request this project makes, including to the PDF endpoint its own page links to - so every reading here was downloaded by a person in a browser and stored as `manual-read`, and cannot be refreshed by running a command. A browser is not reliable either: one page saved by hand came back as the challenge itself, 5,883 bytes titled 'Just a moment...'. The code page at /codes/texte_lc/ carries only the plan, article numbers in a list with no text, so a reader following a citation to it will not find the quoted words there and has to take the PDF. The PDF states its own two dates on the last line, the last modification and the day it was generated, and the cut-off recorded against a quotation is the first of those. What is not here at all is practice: French immigration decisions rest heavily on circulaires and on prefectural discretion, and neither is published in the code.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source