The number of Americans moving to France is increasing, however at the same time the number of Britons relocating is falling, new government data reveals.
The information comes from preliminary data on the number of residency cards and visas delivered to residents in France and visitors in 2024, published by the Interior Ministry today (February 4).
The number of first residency cards issued to Americans increased to 13,000, up 5% from the previous year.
It makes Americans the fifth-largest recipients of new French residency cards, behind Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, and Chinese nationals. Despite the increasing numbers, in 2022 they were fourth, ahead of China, which overtook them in 2023.
Read more: Are Britons and Americans still moving to France? Latest data
At the same time, only an estimated 8,400 first-time residency cards were issued to Britons, down some 10% from the previous year (9,339) and 24% compared to 2022 (11,174).
The year 2021 was an outlier, seeing 99,954 first residency cards delivered to Britons, as those who had been living in France before Brexit applied to secure their residency.
It is the third consecutive year that the number of Britons receiving new residency permits fell. The UK does not make it onto the top ten list of nationals receiving new French residency cards in 2024.
However, the statistics also show the total number of valid cards held by Britons steadily climbing, as newcomers are added to those already living in France, who mostly hold five or ten-year Brexit Withdrawal Agreement cards (an estimated 169,991 residency cards were held by Britons as of December 31, 2024, up 3,677, or 2.2%, on 2023).
Prior to 2021 Britons did not need a residency card to live in France as the UK was a member of the European Union.
In total, 336,710 new residency cards are estimated to have been issued in 2024, up 1.8% from 2023.
Other than new arrivals, some of these likely relate to children in foreign families (other than those with French nationality) who have reached age 18 and thus need their own cards.
Renewal numbers up
The number of residency permits renewed in 2024 also increased, with 879,790 renewals.
Over 325,000 of these were renewals of cards issued for family reasons, although this is 2.5% fewer than in 2023. The number of renewals linked to economic reasons (for work, etc) increased by 10.5%.
However, neither Britons nor Americans made the top 10 list for the number of cards being renewed, which is dominated by African country nationals, and Chinese people.
Just under 5,000 renewals were issued to Britons in 2024, although this number increased from 3,400 in 2023.
This number is set to increase significantly over the next two years as original five-year Withdrawal Agreement cards (given to those living in France at the time of Brexit who had not been living in the country for at least five years) are coming up for renewal.
Neither Britons nor Americans made the overall list of top nations to be granted a visa, figures reveal.
This list is dominated by nations where all citizens require a visa to visit France, even tourists on a short-stay visa. In comparison, Britons and Americans benefit from visa-free status, and do not need a visa for tourist visits provided they remain within the 90/180 day EU rules.
Read more: How does EU's 90/180-day rule work when visiting France?
Issue of long-stay visas was slightly (2.8%) down compared to the previous year, however numbers of ‘visitor’ visas (eg. for retirees and early-retirees), were up, at 33,700, compared to 33,558.
Visas for family reasons were the most numerous, followed by visas for those coming to do salaried jobs.
Parisian suburbs have largest percentage of residency card holders
The figures estimate that the overall proportion of people living in France who are foreign citizens with residency permits is 7.6% (note that not all residency cards have to be renewed annually).
However, there are large variations depending on geographical area, as only 18 departments record a figure above this average – this is mostly overseas departments together with departments in and around the capital.
The department with the highest number of residents being residency card holders was Seine-Saint-Denis, where 26.9% of the population holds such a card.
Departments with larger cities also have an above average number of foreign citizens holding residency cards.
In many departments in the centre and west only 3.2% or fewer overall inhabitants have a residency permit.
A full list of the data can be found here (for residency permits) and here (overall visa numbers) from the Interior Ministry.
