A foreign national who has been married to a French national for at least three years will be issued with a ten-year residence permit provided that he or she has been legally resident in France for three years and that the spouses have not ceased living together since the marriage, that the spouse has retained French nationality and, where the marriage was celebrated abroad, that it was previously transcribed into French civil status registers.
However, where cohabitation has been broken off by the death of one of the spouses or as a result of family or domestic violence, the administrative authority may not withdraw the card on these grounds.
In addition, where one or more children have been born of this union and provided that the foreign national holding the residence permit establishes that he or she has effectively contributed, since birth, to the maintenance and education of the child or children under the conditions set out in article 371-2 of the Civil Code, the administrative authority may not withdraw the permit on the grounds of the break-up of the cohabitation.