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Published: 27 December 2018 13:43 CET

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Thousands of Brits still move to France despite post-Brexit paperwork

The days of EU freedom of movement are over for UK nationals (unless they also have the passport of an EU country) and now moving to France requires first getting a visa and then requesting a carte de séjour residency card once here.

Getting a visa comes with a raft of requirements including proof of being able to be financially self-sufficient via either a job, a pension or savings.

However it seems that these requirements are not putting off everyone – and around 9,000 Brits made the move to France in 2023.

French statistics

The French interior ministry has published its provisional immigration data for 2023, which provides the first clear post-Brexit picture of how many Brits move to France.

Although the Brexit transition period ended at the end of 2020, figures on residency cards from 2021 and 2022 include British long-term residents in France being issued with a residency card under the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

The figures from 2023 therefore provide the first clear indication of how many Brits move to France since Brexit.

And thousands did – 9,261 UK nationals were issued with a first-time carte de séjour residency card in 2023. Although this number may include a small number of family members of British residents who were resident before Brexit, the great majority of these are people moving to France for the first time.

It is not possible to compare this with pre-Brexit patterns since before the UK left the EU Brits were not required to get a visa or residency card to live in France, and there is therefore no comparable data.

How many Brits live in France now?

The interior ministry data does, however, give an idea of the total number of Brits living in France – prior to Brexit, this was difficult to estimate due to EU freedom of movement.

In 2023, French authorities noted that there were 166,314 Brits holding residency cards in France, a 2.5 percent increase from 2022, when there were 161,194.

The real figure is probably slightly higher because it does not include Brits who have dual nationality with an EU country – eg British-Irish or British-French dual nationals – since they are not required to have a residency card.

In 2020, a study by the French national statistics body, INSEE used pre-Brexit data and estimated that there were 148,000 Britons in France. This also found that a large number of Brits in France were in western and south-west France, particularly in départements of Charente, Dordogne and Haute-Vienne.

Brits becoming French

In 2023, 1,522 Brits gained French nationality, with 767 going via décret (by residency) while another 755 gained French nationality via déclaration, the category for those who are either married to a French person or can prove family ties (eg parent of a French child).

In comparison, in 2022, 2,206 Brits became French, and in 2019, 3,557 did.

Acquiring French citizenship is a long process – the application takes an average of between 18 months and two years, while those applying through residency need to have lived in France for five years (cut to two years if they have completed higher education in France).

The post Brexit period saw a spike in Brits applying to become French – many had lived in France for many years but had never considered it necessary before since they already had the right to live in France.

What Brits do in France

Unfortunately, the data did not specify the types of residency cards given to Brits in 2023.

However, Eurostat data from 2022 did break down first time residency permits into four categories; work, study, family reunification or ‘other’ – which includes retirees and others who don’t intend to work or study in France.

While their data differs slightly form the interior ministry numbers, they found that a little under half (3,182 out of 7,927) of first-time residency cards for Brits were work-related.

After that, students came in second place, with 1,901 came to study in 2022.

France has been working hard to market itself as an international study destination and around 400,000 foreign students come here each year. It is the fourth most popular country for foreign students – and the top non-English speaking country.

Although Brexit has made studying in France more complicated for British students, the fact that French is still widely taught in British schools makes it a natural destination for those who want to study abroad.

The third biggest group of Brits was the ‘other’ category which includes retirees and had 1,760 people. Meanwhile, 1,084 people came via family reunification – ie joining a spouse, partner or parents already resident in France, according to Eurostat.

How do Brits compare overall?

In comparison to general immigration data, Brits are somewhat different and are more likely to move to France to work than to study.

In 2023, the interior ministry data for all non-EU nationals moving to France showed that the largest group were students. After that, the second largest category was ‘family’ related residency cards, and the third was work-related.

Brits reverse that trend being most likely to move to France to work.

As for the number of Brits moving to France, there are fewer Britons coming here than Americans. In 2023, 12,153 Americans were issued a first-time residency card – although that number includes a significant number of students doing a study abroad programme who don’t actually intend to make France their home.

Brits come in 10th place for the largest nationality represented in new residency cards issued, behind Indians who made up 9,819 first-time cartes de séjour. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, China and the United States were the top five (in order).

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