France Tightens Residence Permit Rules: Language and Values Tests Required by 2025

Mastering the French language and adhering to the principles and values of France. These are the two new conditions imposed by the French government to obtain residence permits. This tightening of the conditions for granting residence permits aims to accelerate the "implementation" of the Darmanin law, adopted at the end of 2023, said Othman Nasrou, the Secretary of State for Citizenship, on Tuesday.

In his intervention on the set of Public Sénat, he recalled that under this law, applicants for residence permits in France would have to undergo a French exam as of January 1, 2026. But the government plans to bring forward the application of this provision of the Darmanin law by a year. "I will ask the prefects that we be operational as of July 1, 2025 on an experimental basis," he said in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien.

Othman Nasrou added that applicants will be subject to a second test to ensure their adherence to the principles and values of France. "We will put in place civic tests to verify adherence to a certain number of republican principles and values," affirmed the Secretary of State of Moroccan origin, on Tuesday on the set of BFMTV.

This test will assess the knowledge of the history of France of foreign applicants for residence permits or a residence card, and verify their adherence to certain key principles, including secularism. It will be a matter of "asking questions to verify that these are not simply content that has been listened to, but rather that has been truly understood," supported Nasrou, who wishes that these two tests be mandatory in all other cases of regularization, including asylum applications.