Country-wide policy
Every Income Test for a Residence Permit Is Pegged to One of Two Benchmarks, and One of Them Names a Law Repealed in 2018
The Act of 29 August 2008 almost never states an amount. It requires resources and leaves a grand-ducal regulation to measure them, and that regulation - consolidated to 1 July 2024 - uses two benchmarks. The first is the salaire social minimum for an unskilled worker, which it applies to the private-reasons permit, to family reunification, to long-term resident status and to short-stay means. The second is the revenu minimum garanti, which it caps the free-movement resources test at and sets the student threshold as 80 per cent of. The revenu minimum garanti no longer exists: the Act of 28 July 2018 repealed the Act of 29 April 1999 that created it, and the Code de la sécurité sociale instructs readers that wherever a legal or regulatory text uses the term, the revenu d'inclusion sociale is to be read instead. Guichet.lu already describes the test in the new benefit's name while the regulation still names the old one.
Topics it changes
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency as a student
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
What it requires
- Expect a benchmark rather than a figure: no instrument read here states a euro amount
- Read the revenu minimum garanti in the regulation as the revenu d'inclusion sociale
- Check which of the two benchmarks applies to your route, because they are not the same number
At a glance
- Benchmark for the private-reasons permit
- The monthly salaire social minimum for an unskilled worker
Article 7 of the grand-ducal regulation of 5 September 2008.
- Benchmark for family reunification
- The salaire social minimum for unskilled employees
Article 6(1) of the same regulation, which requires the sponsor to have it and keep it.
- Benchmark for long-term resident status
- The monthly salaire social minimum for an unskilled worker, over the five years before the application
Article 8(1) of the same regulation.
- Benchmark for a student
- 80 per cent of the revenu minimum garanti
Article 4(1) of the same regulation.
- Ceiling on the free-movement resources test
- The revenu minimum garanti, which may not be exceeded
Article 2(1) of the same regulation.
- Status of the revenu minimum garanti
- Abolished; the Act of 28 July 2018 repealed the Act of 29 April 1999 that created it
Point 13 of the notes to the Code de la sécurité sociale, which instructs readers to substitute the revenu d'inclusion sociale.
- What the administration says
- The revenu d'inclusion sociale, for the personal-ties limb of the private-reasons permit
Guichet.lu's procedure page for that permit, last modified 1 October 2026.
What the law says
«Les ressources suffisantes exigées en vertu de l’article 6, paragraphe (1), points 2 et 3 et de l’article 18 de la loi sont appréciées en tenant compte de la situation personnelle de la personne concernée. En aucun cas, le montant exigé ne peut excéder le montant du revenu minimum garanti défini par la loi modifiée du 29 avril 1999 portant création d’un droit à un revenu minimum garanti.»The ceiling, and the first of the two references to the repealed Act.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's official legal publisher, run by the Service central de législation. It issues the Journal officiel and, separately, textes coordonnés. Everything is addressed by ELI, and the address that matters is on the data host rather than the site: legilux.public.lu is an Angular single-page application that answers every address with the same 2,118-byte shell, while data.legilux.public.lu serves the documents. The live forms are data.legilux.public.lu/eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<id>/jo/fr/{html,pdf} for an act as published and .../consolide/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/{html,pdf} for a consolidation, where the date must be an exact consolidation date - any other date answers 404. Codes are addressed differently again, as /eli/etat/leg/code/<name>/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/pdf. The same host answers an Accept: application/rdf+xml request for any ELI with the record's metadata, and there is a SPARQL endpoint at data.legilux.public.lu/sparqlendpoint which is how a consolidation date is found rather than guessed: ?v jolux:isMemberOf <work ELI> ; jolux:dateApplicability ?d returns every consolidation of an act.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are documentary. The Journal officiel as published is what has legal force, and the Code de la sécurité sociale prints that on its own notes page. The two manifestations of one consolidation are not the same document: the HTML carries the change markers and the amending-act headings - 'Art. 78. (L du 21 avril 2023)' - and breaks sentences with marker digits like '145 > quinze heures 145 <', while the PDF prints clean article text and drops both the markers and the headings. A quotation has to be taken from whichever one the sentence survives in. The consolidations also carry defects of their own: article 33 of the Act of 29 August 2008 is printed twice over in both manifestations, once as the original single sentence and once again as paragraph (1) with the same words. It cannot be cited for the income tax Act at all - it holds consolidation metadata for the Act of 4 December 1967 up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any consolidation after 2011, so the only current coordinated text of it is the tax administration's. Code recueils are PDF-only, and two of them set the publisher's own apparatus inside the text column: the Code de la sécurité sociale prints source references like 'L. 27.7.92' mid-sentence, and the Code de la route prints case-law annotations frozen at 2 September 2013 alongside articles consolidated to 2026. The Legilux record of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 tags its expression as French while the text it serves is German from beginning to end.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Les ressources personnelles suffisantes doivent atteindre un montant au moins égal au salaire social minimum pour salariés non qualifiés calculé à partir du taux fixé au 1 er janvier de l’année en cours au prorata du nombre de jours de séjour envisagés.»The short-stay means test, pro-rated over the days of the intended stay, which is the only place the regulation does arithmetic.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's official legal publisher, run by the Service central de législation. It issues the Journal officiel and, separately, textes coordonnés. Everything is addressed by ELI, and the address that matters is on the data host rather than the site: legilux.public.lu is an Angular single-page application that answers every address with the same 2,118-byte shell, while data.legilux.public.lu serves the documents. The live forms are data.legilux.public.lu/eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<id>/jo/fr/{html,pdf} for an act as published and .../consolide/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/{html,pdf} for a consolidation, where the date must be an exact consolidation date - any other date answers 404. Codes are addressed differently again, as /eli/etat/leg/code/<name>/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/pdf. The same host answers an Accept: application/rdf+xml request for any ELI with the record's metadata, and there is a SPARQL endpoint at data.legilux.public.lu/sparqlendpoint which is how a consolidation date is found rather than guessed: ?v jolux:isMemberOf <work ELI> ; jolux:dateApplicability ?d returns every consolidation of an act.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are documentary. The Journal officiel as published is what has legal force, and the Code de la sécurité sociale prints that on its own notes page. The two manifestations of one consolidation are not the same document: the HTML carries the change markers and the amending-act headings - 'Art. 78. (L du 21 avril 2023)' - and breaks sentences with marker digits like '145 > quinze heures 145 <', while the PDF prints clean article text and drops both the markers and the headings. A quotation has to be taken from whichever one the sentence survives in. The consolidations also carry defects of their own: article 33 of the Act of 29 August 2008 is printed twice over in both manifestations, once as the original single sentence and once again as paragraph (1) with the same words. It cannot be cited for the income tax Act at all - it holds consolidation metadata for the Act of 4 December 1967 up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any consolidation after 2011, so the only current coordinated text of it is the tax administration's. Code recueils are PDF-only, and two of them set the publisher's own apparatus inside the text column: the Code de la sécurité sociale prints source references like 'L. 27.7.92' mid-sentence, and the Code de la route prints case-law annotations frozen at 2 September 2013 alongside articles consolidated to 2026. The Legilux record of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 tags its expression as French while the text it serves is German from beginning to end.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«le demandeur d’une autorisation de séjour à des fins d’études doit justifier de ressources mensuelles correspondant à 80% au moins du montant du revenu minimum garanti défini par la loi modifiée du 29 avril 1999 portant création d’un droit à un revenu minimum garanti.»The second reference to the repealed Act, this one carrying a percentage.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's official legal publisher, run by the Service central de législation. It issues the Journal officiel and, separately, textes coordonnés. Everything is addressed by ELI, and the address that matters is on the data host rather than the site: legilux.public.lu is an Angular single-page application that answers every address with the same 2,118-byte shell, while data.legilux.public.lu serves the documents. The live forms are data.legilux.public.lu/eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<id>/jo/fr/{html,pdf} for an act as published and .../consolide/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/{html,pdf} for a consolidation, where the date must be an exact consolidation date - any other date answers 404. Codes are addressed differently again, as /eli/etat/leg/code/<name>/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/pdf. The same host answers an Accept: application/rdf+xml request for any ELI with the record's metadata, and there is a SPARQL endpoint at data.legilux.public.lu/sparqlendpoint which is how a consolidation date is found rather than guessed: ?v jolux:isMemberOf <work ELI> ; jolux:dateApplicability ?d returns every consolidation of an act.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are documentary. The Journal officiel as published is what has legal force, and the Code de la sécurité sociale prints that on its own notes page. The two manifestations of one consolidation are not the same document: the HTML carries the change markers and the amending-act headings - 'Art. 78. (L du 21 avril 2023)' - and breaks sentences with marker digits like '145 > quinze heures 145 <', while the PDF prints clean article text and drops both the markers and the headings. A quotation has to be taken from whichever one the sentence survives in. The consolidations also carry defects of their own: article 33 of the Act of 29 August 2008 is printed twice over in both manifestations, once as the original single sentence and once again as paragraph (1) with the same words. It cannot be cited for the income tax Act at all - it holds consolidation metadata for the Act of 4 December 1967 up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any consolidation after 2011, so the only current coordinated text of it is the tax administration's. Code recueils are PDF-only, and two of them set the publisher's own apparatus inside the text column: the Code de la sécurité sociale prints source references like 'L. 27.7.92' mid-sentence, and the Code de la route prints case-law annotations frozen at 2 September 2013 alongside articles consolidated to 2026. The Legilux record of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 tags its expression as French while the text it serves is German from beginning to end.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Pour l’application de l’article 81, paragraphe (1), point 1 de la loi , les ressources du ressortissant de pays tiers qui sollicite l’obtention du statut de résident de longue durée sont appréciées sur la période des cinq années précédant l’introduction de sa demande, par référence au montant mensuel du salaire social minimum d’un travailleur non qualifié.»Five years of history, measured against the other benchmark.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's official legal publisher, run by the Service central de législation. It issues the Journal officiel and, separately, textes coordonnés. Everything is addressed by ELI, and the address that matters is on the data host rather than the site: legilux.public.lu is an Angular single-page application that answers every address with the same 2,118-byte shell, while data.legilux.public.lu serves the documents. The live forms are data.legilux.public.lu/eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<id>/jo/fr/{html,pdf} for an act as published and .../consolide/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/{html,pdf} for a consolidation, where the date must be an exact consolidation date - any other date answers 404. Codes are addressed differently again, as /eli/etat/leg/code/<name>/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/pdf. The same host answers an Accept: application/rdf+xml request for any ELI with the record's metadata, and there is a SPARQL endpoint at data.legilux.public.lu/sparqlendpoint which is how a consolidation date is found rather than guessed: ?v jolux:isMemberOf <work ELI> ; jolux:dateApplicability ?d returns every consolidation of an act.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are documentary. The Journal officiel as published is what has legal force, and the Code de la sécurité sociale prints that on its own notes page. The two manifestations of one consolidation are not the same document: the HTML carries the change markers and the amending-act headings - 'Art. 78. (L du 21 avril 2023)' - and breaks sentences with marker digits like '145 > quinze heures 145 <', while the PDF prints clean article text and drops both the markers and the headings. A quotation has to be taken from whichever one the sentence survives in. The consolidations also carry defects of their own: article 33 of the Act of 29 August 2008 is printed twice over in both manifestations, once as the original single sentence and once again as paragraph (1) with the same words. It cannot be cited for the income tax Act at all - it holds consolidation metadata for the Act of 4 December 1967 up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any consolidation after 2011, so the only current coordinated text of it is the tax administration's. Code recueils are PDF-only, and two of them set the publisher's own apparatus inside the text column: the Code de la sécurité sociale prints source references like 'L. 27.7.92' mid-sentence, and the Code de la route prints case-law annotations frozen at 2 September 2013 alongside articles consolidated to 2026. The Legilux record of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 tags its expression as French while the text it serves is German from beginning to end.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«La loi du 28 juillet 2018 relative au revenu d’inclusion sociale (JO, Mém. A 630 du 30 juillet 2018) a abrogé la loi modifiée du 29 avril 1999 portant création d’un droit à un revenu minimum garanti. Dans tous les textes légaux et réglementaires utilisant les termes « revenu minimum garanti » il y a lieu de lire « revenu d’inclusion sociale ».»The substitution rule, published by the social security administration rather than by the immigration one.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's official legal publisher, run by the Service central de législation. It issues the Journal officiel and, separately, textes coordonnés. Everything is addressed by ELI, and the address that matters is on the data host rather than the site: legilux.public.lu is an Angular single-page application that answers every address with the same 2,118-byte shell, while data.legilux.public.lu serves the documents. The live forms are data.legilux.public.lu/eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<id>/jo/fr/{html,pdf} for an act as published and .../consolide/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/{html,pdf} for a consolidation, where the date must be an exact consolidation date - any other date answers 404. Codes are addressed differently again, as /eli/etat/leg/code/<name>/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/pdf. The same host answers an Accept: application/rdf+xml request for any ELI with the record's metadata, and there is a SPARQL endpoint at data.legilux.public.lu/sparqlendpoint which is how a consolidation date is found rather than guessed: ?v jolux:isMemberOf <work ELI> ; jolux:dateApplicability ?d returns every consolidation of an act.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are documentary. The Journal officiel as published is what has legal force, and the Code de la sécurité sociale prints that on its own notes page. The two manifestations of one consolidation are not the same document: the HTML carries the change markers and the amending-act headings - 'Art. 78. (L du 21 avril 2023)' - and breaks sentences with marker digits like '145 > quinze heures 145 <', while the PDF prints clean article text and drops both the markers and the headings. A quotation has to be taken from whichever one the sentence survives in. The consolidations also carry defects of their own: article 33 of the Act of 29 August 2008 is printed twice over in both manifestations, once as the original single sentence and once again as paragraph (1) with the same words. It cannot be cited for the income tax Act at all - it holds consolidation metadata for the Act of 4 December 1967 up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any consolidation after 2011, so the only current coordinated text of it is the tax administration's. Code recueils are PDF-only, and two of them set the publisher's own apparatus inside the text column: the Code de la sécurité sociale prints source references like 'L. 27.7.92' mid-sentence, and the Code de la route prints case-law annotations frozen at 2 September 2013 alongside articles consolidated to 2026. The Legilux record of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 tags its expression as French while the text it serves is German from beginning to end.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Ces ressources doivent atteindre un montant au moins égal au montant actuel d’un revenu d’inclusion sociale»The administration applying the new benefit's name to the personal-ties limb while the regulation still names the old one.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Luxembourg government's citizen and business procedure portal. Each fiche sets out what an administration asks for, prints the date it was last modified on its face, and links the forms. It is where the administration's own reading of an instrument can be read against the instrument - the private-reasons immigration fiche states both resource benchmarks and uses the current name of the benefit the regulation still calls by its repealed one.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It is an administration describing the law it applies, not the law. Nothing on it was enacted, and a fiche that states a figure or a benefit name is evidence of practice and not of the rule. The site was restructured during 2026 and the old /fr/citoyens/immigration/plus-3-mois/... addresses now answer a 404 page that carries no status words the project's failure detector knows, so a dead Guichet address stores as a reading unless it is checked. Section index pages are client-rendered and the extraction service returns only the cookie banner and the data-protection notice for them; the deep fiche pages are server-rendered and read correctly by direct fetch. There is no fiche for the investor residence permit under the third-country section, so it cannot be cited for that route at all.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Les ressources sont évaluées par rapport au montant mensuel du salaire social minimum d’un travailleur salarié non qualifié»And the other benchmark, applied to the own-resources limb, which matches article 7 of the regulation.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Luxembourg government's citizen and business procedure portal. Each fiche sets out what an administration asks for, prints the date it was last modified on its face, and links the forms. It is where the administration's own reading of an instrument can be read against the instrument - the private-reasons immigration fiche states both resource benchmarks and uses the current name of the benefit the regulation still calls by its repealed one.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It is an administration describing the law it applies, not the law. Nothing on it was enacted, and a fiche that states a figure or a benefit name is evidence of practice and not of the rule. The site was restructured during 2026 and the old /fr/citoyens/immigration/plus-3-mois/... addresses now answer a 404 page that carries no status words the project's failure detector knows, so a dead Guichet address stores as a reading unless it is checked. Section index pages are client-rendered and the extraction service returns only the cookie banner and the data-protection notice for them; the deep fiche pages are server-rendered and read correctly by direct fetch. There is no fiche for the investor residence permit under the third-country section, so it cannot be cited for that route at all.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
No euro figure appears on any Luxembourgish record on this site, because no instrument read here states one. Both benchmarks are set elsewhere and indexed.
The two benchmarks are not interchangeable. A route measured against the minimum social wage asks for considerably more than one measured against the minimum income benefit, and the regulation uses each in specific places.
The regulation also still refers to article 78(1) points a), b) and c) of the Act, lettering the Act has not used since the Act of 21 April 2023 renumbered article 78(1) as points 1., 2. and 3. with a) and b) inside point 1.