working & staying after study
Twelve months to find work or start a business, with no hours cap — but only if you graduated at master's level. That single condition should shape your degree plan from the start.
Formerly the APS, now Recherche d'emploi ou création d'entreprise. Graduates of recognised French institutions can extend their stay to look for work or start a business.
Duration: a 12-month residence permit to seek employment or start a business
What it permits: full-time work in any job — the annual hours cap that applies during study does not apply here
Renewability: generally non-renewable — you get one
How and when to apply: online through ANEF, before your student permit expires — recommended 2–4 months ahead; processing runs roughly 6–10 weeks
Note the removal of the hours cap. During your studies you are limited to an annual quota; on RECE you may work full-time in any job while you search — which makes the twelve months genuinely usable rather than a period of enforced poverty.
The most important sentence on France's pages, and the one most likely to change what you apply for.
The RECE permit is master's level only — RNCP Level 7 or above. A Licence (bachelor) graduate generally cannot access it, and must continue to a master's to unlock post-study work.
So a three-year Licence in France, taken on its own, leaves you with no post-study work route. If working in France afterwards is part of why you are going, you need to plan a master's — which changes the length, the cost and the visa arithmetic of the whole project.
This is knowable before you apply and expensive to discover afterwards. It is also, notably, the opposite of Ireland, where an honours bachelor's still earns twelve months.
With a qualifying offer during those twelve months, you switch to a longer-term permit. One 2026 change matters here more than the rest.
A 2026 update adds an A2 French requirement for converting to a longer-term permit.
That converts French from a practical advantage into a formal requirement for staying. Combined with the fact that most of the French job market operates in French anyway, the message is consistent: you can study here in English, but you cannot really stay here in English.
If remaining in France is your goal, treat French as part of the degree — begun before you arrive, continued throughout, and at A2 or better by the time you graduate.
France offers a real, structured post-study route with unusually good work rights during it. It is shorter than Ireland's 24 months for master's graduates, shorter than Germany's 18, and shorter than Australia's or Canada's — but it is unconditional within its window, which several of those are not.
The two conditions are what to weigh: master's level to qualify at all, and A2 French to convert onward. Neither is onerous if planned for. Both are close to fatal if discovered at graduation.