British Embassy backs residency card survey to help Britons in France

There are three days left to complete a survey about applying for a Brexit WA residency card that the British Embassy says will help it better to understand how to give support.

You can find the survey at this link.

Rift (Remain in France Together), a large Facebook group providing information for Britons eligible for residency under the Withdrawal Agreement, launched the survey at the end of last month and is seeking more contributions before it closes at the end of the day on Sunday April 11.

It says it aims to gauge what percentage of UK passport holders and their family members have or have not applied, and to identify trends in applications such as how long it takes to obtain an appointment and what documents are asked for.

The survey has been backed by the British Embassy in Paris which said in a Facebook post that the "answers will help us understand how many British people have applied for residency and how we can best support them during the process".

The survey is quick and anonymous and involves multiple-choice selections on a single page of questions.

They relate to whether or not you have applied for a WA residency card, and if so when you applied, if you have been given an appointment at your prefecture, if you have received your new card, etc.

It comes as the deadline for final applications for those eligible is now less than three months away.

The cards concern Britons aged 18 or more who were living in France before the end of the 2020, and their close family members, who wish to establish formal residency rights in France as their main home.

Bodies accredited by the UK government to help Britons with their applications have stressed that people should not panic if they have applied but have not yet had an appointment – this can take several months and varies from one area to another.

The key point is to apply online at the official portal, which you can find here, as soon as possible, and at the latest by June 30, 2021.

Having done so, check that you receive a confirmation email as proof of applying. It should come within a few hours of sending the application – check your spam folder if necessary.

This can be printed out and shown as evidence of residency in France, for example on returning to France from a trip abroad to avoid having your passport stamped as a visitor.

At the end of March the Interior Ministry told The Connexion there had been 120,623 applications for residency cards from Britons, including 9,600 who applied on the old ‘no-deal’ website that was open at the end of 2019 and so did not have to reapply on the new portal which opened in October 2020.

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