(2025 by Dr. Sharbatanu Chatterjee) : The 'titre de séjour', also known as a residence permit, is a document that authorises your stay in France, as a non-European foreigner. When and if you hear French media talk about someone's 'papiers' amidst an environment of constant vilification of those without their 'papiers', it is this 'titre de séjour' that they are talking about. In some countries, this is known as a 'long-term visa'. In France, and most of Europe, you get a visa for 3 months to enter the country, and then, within those three months, you have to apply for a titre de séjour. It looks like a small credit card, similar in shape to the identity card that French citizens get.
If you are a European foreigner (i.e. a citizen of the European Union who is not a French citizen), congratulations, you do not need a titre de séjour. The lottery of life has given you a EU citizenship, which allows you to live and work anywhere in the European Union.
If this is your first time in France, you will need to apply on the website of https://administration-etrangers-en-france.interieur.gouv.fr/ or ANEF, which was put in place in 2020, within 3 months of entering French territory with your visa to get a titre de séjour. The website has been recently flagged as being a major reason behind artificial delays, natural incompetence, and bugs, which have by mistake, put foreigners in the situation of 'irregularity'. Source - https://www.defenseurdesdroits.fr/rapport-administration-numerique-pour-les-etrangers-en-france-anef-2024.
For PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, you are entitled to a special kind of titre de séjour which was called 'passeport talent chercheur' till 2025, and is called just 'talent chercheur' since the new immigration law of 2024 came into effect in 2025. You need to collect the following documents and upload it on ANEF :
- 3 recent ePhotographs (you have to take it at a Photomaton)
- Your passport with the visa
- Your proof of address in France
- Your 'convention d'accueil' (which is a document you would have been given for your visa by the HR)
- Your Master's or equivalent degree (since this category is meant for 'highly qualified' people)
- This is important : A signed document that says that you engage in a contract to respect the values of the French Republic, that is found here : https://www.immigration.interieur.gouv.fr/Immigration/Contrat-d-engagement-a-respecter-les-principes-de-la-Republique
You may follow the steps mentioned in the following (which is usually updated, but currently, does not mention the contract in the last point above) : https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F16922
Once you do it, you get a document called a 'confirmation de depôt' which proves you have submitted your document. This does not give you rights to stay in France but just acts as a temporary proof of you being in the process of getting your papers. Following this, if any documents are missing (for example, the contract to respect the values of the French Republic) you will get a notification to upload the missing documents.
Then, if chance favours you, you get a notification soon that your application has been accepted, and you get another document called an 'attestation de décision favorable' which is basically equivalent to your titre de séjour. It is mentioned on this document that you have the rights to stay in France, move across the Schengen Area, and that you will get your physical card within a few months, upon payment of a certain amount of money in the form of what is called 'timbre fiscal'. You can buy it online or at a corner shop ('tabac').
You then wait till you do get (or don't) the SMS informing you that your card is ready. For around 50% of people, they never get the promised SMS that the card is ready. You then have to play a game called 'find a rendez-vous slot at the préfecture', which is different based on your address. On the day that you finally find a rendez-vous slot, take the documents asked, and the money in form of timbre fiscal (the LJP can pay or reimburse this), stand in line for a few hours, and you will finally be a true paper-holding resident of the Fifth French Republic.
Since 2023, the Sorbonne Université no longer takes charge of or helps in the creation or renewal of your titre de séjour if you live in the commune of Paris (i.e. if you address postal code starts with 75). It used to do before. Please thank the people of the Zemansky tower for their service.
PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING POINTS
- Your manager (boss) in the laboratory should help you with these administrative hassles, especially as none of them have a personal experience of this.
- It is your rights to be reimbursed for the price you pay for both the visa (depends on the country you apply from, this costs around 100€) and the timbre fiscal (basically money that you pay online) for the titre de séjour which keeps increasing with each new immigration law passed by the legislative bodies of the Fifth Republic. As of 2025, it is 225€ for the first titre de séjour, and €225 for each subsequent one, irrespective of the length of the residence (3 months or 3 years).
- Usually, the titre de séjour expiration date is the same as that of your contract. Importantly, since 2020, an application for a renewal of a titre de séjour should be made before 2 months of the end of the previous titre de séjour, failing which, one gets a fine of 180€. This fine is not explicitly mentioned as one on the . In almost 100% of the cases, no worker in France receives the documents required to extend their contract 2 months before, so they are fined implicitly, and asked for 405€ instead of 225€. In almost 100% of the cases, this is not the fault of the worker, but the administration. The author of this page, Dr. S. Chatterjee, is currently in contact with legal and administrative teams to contest this automatic fining that affects non-European foreigners in France, and will update this page when done.