Jordan Bardella, president of France’s Rassemblement National (RN), has announced that if his party comes to power in 2027 it will refuse to renew residence permits for foreigners who have been without a work contract for more than six months.
Speaking on BFMTV’s Face à BFM programme on the evening of November 10, Bardella said: “After six months, a foreigner who does not have a work contract will not have their residence permit renewed, as is the case in the United States or in many countries around the world.”
US rules currently give holders of H-1B and certain other work visas up to 60 days after a job loss to find a new sponsor, change status or leave; the Department of Homeland Security has proposed scrapping that grace period.
He presented the measure as part of a broader effort to halt immigration, which he argued “destabilises the major balances of French society, our social model” and weighs on “security in our streets [and] the defence of our identity”.
Interior ministry figures show a record 4.47 million valid residence permits in France at the end of 2025.
The proposal tightens the RN’s previous stance.
During the 2022 presidential campaign the party had pledged to withdraw residence authorisation from any foreigner who had not worked for a year in France.
The new six-month threshold halves that period.
On the same day, Reconquête! candidate Éric Zemmour, who made his presidential bid official on TF1, went further, calling for the expulsion of foreign nationals unemployed for more than six months, including those legally resident in France.
In September he had set that threshold at one year.
Under current French rules, holders of certain residence permits (particularly those marked “employee”) do not automatically lose their right to stay if they become unemployed. Recent changes have even strengthened protections for some workers who lose their jobs involuntarily.
Under decree no. 2026-1001, in force since October 30 and applying the EU’s Single Permit Directive, holders of the “temporary worker” card keep their right to stay through up to three months of involuntary unemployment.
Bardella’s plan would make the existence of a work contract a decisive condition for renewal after six months without employment.
The announcement forms part of the RN’s early positioning ahead of the 2027 presidential election, in which Marine Le Pen is the party’s candidate and Bardella is widely expected to play a central role if the party wins.
Less than a year out from France’s next presidential elections, National Rally (RN) party chief Jordan Bardella is doubling down on a core plank of its: Welfare for nationals, first and foremost.https://t.co/TlRlS7VwD3
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 4, 2026
