How does citizenship by investment work in France, and what does it cost?

France has no citizenship-by-investment programme. Unlike a handful of countries that sell passports for a direct contribution, France does not allow you to acquire citizenship through investment, and you should treat any offer suggesting otherwise with caution.

What France does offer investors is a residence route: the Talent — Business Creation & Investment card, which covers entrepreneurs, holders of a recognised innovative project, and direct economic investors, each with its own financing or investment threshold. That card provides residence (and a Talent — famille card for the family), not citizenship.

French citizenship comes only through naturalisation, which requires meeting the same residence, language, civic and integration conditions as any other applicant — generally five years of legal habitual residence, French at the required level (B2 from 2026), a civic-exam pass, and stable income. In other words, an investor can build a path to citizenship over time through lawful residence, but never by payment alone. Confirm the current requirements on service-public.gouv.fr, and ACME can help you plan a residence-then-naturalisation path if that is your goal.