Live On Your Own Money and Promise Not to Work: the Visiteur Card, Measured Against the Minimum Wage
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Greece 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 Greece to France · Residency on passive income
France has a permit for someone living on their own resources and it is called the carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention "visiteur". Article L. 426-20 of the CESEDA sets three conditions and they are tight. The resources have to be at least equal to the net annual minimum wage, the salaire minimum de croissance, and two named disability and old-age supplements are excluded from the count. You must hold sickness insurance covering the whole stay. And you must give an undertaking to carry on no professional activity in France at all - the article then says in its own words that, by way of exception to the general rule that a card lets its holder work, this one does not. It runs for one year. There is no multi-year version of it in the article, and the first issue needs a long-stay visa obtained from a French consulate before departure.
At a glance
- The permit
- Carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention "visiteur", valid one year
CESEDA article L. 426-20.
- How much money
- At least the net annual salaire minimum de croissance
CESEDA article L. 426-20. The code states the benchmark and not the amount: the figure is fixed outside the CESEDA and was not read here.
- What does not count towards it
- The adult disability allowance and the old-age supplement, both excluded by name
CESEDA article L. 426-20, referring to articles L. 821-1 and L. 815-24 of the code de la sécurité sociale.
- Health cover
- Sickness insurance covering the stay, as a condition of the card
CESEDA article L. 426-20, second paragraph.
- Working on it
- Not permitted, and the undertaking not to work is itself a condition
CESEDA article L. 426-20, third paragraph, and article L. 414-11 4°, which lists the visiteur card among the cards the general right to work does not reach.
- Fee on first issue
- 300 euros, and 200 euros on renewal
CESEDA article L. 436-1 I and II. The visiteur card is not in the reduced-rate list in the second paragraph of I.
- Moving to a long-term card
- Five years of lawful residence opens the résident de longue durée-UE card, on resources at least equal to the minimum wage
CESEDA article L. 426-17, which does not exclude years spent as a visiteur.
Requirements
- Resources at least equal to the net annual salaire minimum de croissance, counted without the adult disability allowance or the old-age supplement
- Sickness insurance covering the length of the stay
- An undertaking to carry on no professional activity in France
- A long-stay visa obtained before arrival, under article L. 412-1
How the process runs
- Step 1
Apply for a long-stay visa before leaving
The French consulate with jurisdiction over your residence
A first temporary card requires the long-stay visa of article L. 411-1, and the visiteur card is not among the exceptions in articles L. 412-2 or L. 412-3.
- Step 2
Show the money and the insurance
Resources at least equal to the net annual minimum wage, counted without the two allowances article L. 426-20 excludes, and sickness insurance for the stay.
- Step 3
Sign the undertaking not to work
The undertaking is part of the application, and the card carries the prohibition on its own terms.
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 Greece
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
«L'étranger qui apporte la preuve qu'il peut vivre de ses seules ressources, dont le montant doit être au moins égal au salaire minimum de croissance net annuel, indépendamment de l'allocation aux adultes handicapés mentionnée à l'article L. 821-1 du code de la sécurité sociale et de l'allocation supplémentaire mentionnée à l'article L. 815-24 du même code, se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention " visiteur " d'une durée d'un an. Il doit en outre justifier de la possession d'une assurance maladie couvrant la durée de son séjour et prendre l'engagement de n'exercer en France aucune activité professionnelle.»The whole test in two sentences: resources at the net annual minimum wage with two allowances excluded, sickness insurance, and an undertaking not to work.
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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«Par dérogation à l'article L. 414-10, cette carte n'autorise pas l'exercice d'une activité professionnelle.»The code says it twice. The undertaking is a condition of issue; this sentence makes the prohibition a feature of the card itself.
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
«La possession d'une carte de séjour temporaire, d'une carte de séjour pluriannuelle ou d'une carte de résident par un étranger résidant sur le territoire métropolitain lui confère, sous réserve des exceptions prévues à l'article L. 414-11, le droit d'exercer une activité professionnelle, sur ce même territoire, dans le cadre de la législation en vigueur.»The general rule the visiteur card is excepted from: holding a card confers the right to work.
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
«4° La carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention " visiteur " prévue à l'article L. 426-20 ;»The exclusion list, where the visiteur card appears by name.
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
«Une carte de séjour temporaire a une durée de validité maximale d'un an. Une carte de séjour pluriannuelle a une durée de validité maximale de quatre ans. Une carte de résident est valable dix ans.»The ladder of durations, which is what a visiteur is climbing: one year, then four, then ten.
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
«I. - La première délivrance d'un titre de séjour donne lieu à la perception d'une taxe dont le montant est fixé à 300 euros.»The tax on a first permit, stated in euros in the Act itself rather than in a schedule.
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 amount is not published here on purpose. Article L. 426-20 states the benchmark - the net annual salaire minimum de croissance - and the figure behind it is fixed by the code du travail, which Legifrance refused to serve to this project. Quoting a number for it would be quoting nothing.
The two allowances excluded from the count are named by article number in the code de la sécurité sociale, which was not read. What is recorded here is that they are excluded, which is what article L. 426-20 says.
A visiteur holds a card that does not authorise work, so the ordinary route onwards is time rather than activity: article L. 426-17 opens the ten-year résident de longue durée-UE card at five years of lawful residence.
- 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