France's Updated Habitual Residence Criteria: Implications For Residence Permit Holders

The concept of "habitual residence" in France has been recently defined by a new immigration law enacted on 26 January 2024, which introduced important changes to the criteria for obtaining and renewing French residence permits.

This blog examines the implications of this reform, the necessary conditions and the groups of individuals affected by this new, key factor of habitual residence.

Habitual residence: A pre-existing notion

The notion of habitual residence is not new. Such a requirement is provided by the Civil Code (Article 21-17) for citizenship applications, or the Labour Code (art. L 3261-2) for the coverage of the employee's public transport costs. It also overlaps with the concept of tax residency.