In January 2024, French politicians passed a new immigration law that included several language requirements, likely to come into effect in 2026. Anyone applying for a carte de séjour lasting more than one year will need to demonstrate a French level over A2 on the international language scale, meaning that you can understand frequent phrases and expressions related to areas of personal and family information, shopping, work and leisure.
If you’re applying for a 10-year carte de résident (in most cases, this would be after you’ve lived here for five consecutive years), it’s likely you’ll need to demonstrate at least B1 level, which means you can understand communicate without effort, and can guess the meaning of occasional unknown words from the context. At B1 level, you can understand the main points of conversation in French on matters that you would regularly encounter in work, school and leisure situations, and that if you were travelling alone around France, you could handle most situations likely to arise.
Anyone applying for French citizenship will need to demonstrate at least A2 level in French, which is upper intermediate. It means you can express yourself fluently and spontaneously, and understand the main ideas of complex texts, including some technical discussions. you can find out more about this on the government website OFFI – French Office for Immigration and Integration.
There are certain exemptions, such as British people who moved to France before Brexit and are covered by the Brexit agreement, but it’s clear that the standards expected for French fluency have risen if you want to work and settle here.
