People awaiting a response to a French residency card renewal application should not remain passive if several months go by with no update, a French immigration lawyer has warned.
Under French immigration law, a lack of response after four months is treated as a tacit refusal. Applicants then have just two months to appeal – prompting lawyers to advise against inaction.
Doing nothing and assuming that patience is the best policy, can, therefore, put your legal residency at risk.
Note, however, that certain immigration statuses confer strong residency protections, such as holding a permanent stay Brexit WA card, and such cardholders should not be forced to leave France without serious justification such as that the person is deemed to pose a threat (for example, due to terrorist links).
Free appeals to the prefect of your department and/or Interior Minister are possible via registered post with receipt slip. You can ask that they re-examine your dossier, explaining any elements that you believe may not have been taken into account.
If you do not receive a response within two months, this is also equivalent to implicit rejection, and your remaining avenue is the administrative court (a further two months for this runs from the refusal by the prefecture/ministry). You can also appeal directly to the court without passing via the methods above.
This comes amid repeated concerns raised by France’s Défenseur des droits service, to which people can turn for help, which states that more than a third of some 103,000 complaints in 2024 related to foreign people’s rights, most of them concerning the issuing or – especially – renewal of residency cards.
The official period of four months applies to most kinds of card, with a few exceptions. Examples of exceptions include 90 days in the case of a passeport talent ‘carte bleue europénne’, multi-year posted-worker or stagiaire ‘ICT’ cards, seasonal worker cards, European student mobility program cards and cards for jobseekers or those setting up businesses; and 60 days for ‘researcher’ passeport talent cards.
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Appeals should be made to the local administrative court. It is possible, if you wish, to do this free and without a lawyer; see the site of the court for further information on appeals, which can be lodged by letter or at telerecours.fr.
However, there is a further complication. Depending on how you applied (via registered post with reception slip for proof of sending, in person on online, depending on card type and prefecture preferences) a card has only been legally ‘refused’ if the prefecture accepted the application as ‘complete’, and thus has processed the dossier and taken a decision on the facts.
If it failed to issue a card as the dossier was ‘incomplete’, there is no appeal process as there is no ‘refusal’; you would have to apply again.
Sometimes the prefecture will notify of a problem with the dossier, and, for example, ask for extra supporting documents, but sometimes it reportedly shelves the file.
If, however, you handed it in in person and received a récépissé, or applied via the Anef website and received an attestation de prolongation d’instruction, these are proofs of having submitted a ‘complete’ dossier.
Avocat Charly SalkazanovCharly Salkazanov
Avocat Charly Salkazanov, from the Val-de-Marne (Ile-de-France) bar, said: “The problem now is that officials don’t even bother to say the dossier is incomplete and elements are missing – normally they should, but they don’t and can just reject a dossier on grounds that it was incomplete.”
He advises, before the four months are up, writing, if necessary, to the prefecture to ask if the dossier is ‘complete’ and if they need any more elements (either via registered post, or online).
Then, after the four months are up, he says he usually writes to the prefecture on behalf of a client, to ask the reasons (la motivation) for the implicit rejection.
“They should reply within a month, but often, they don’t. But then, when I go to court, that allows me to argue that the prefecture refused for no reason. But you can only do that if you’ve followed this step.
“Often, members of the public just leave it and after six months, you’re out of time to act.”
He added: “The prefectures are more and more overwhelmed by the demand and don’t have time to give each application the time it deserves, and the administrative court is having to act as a kind of extension to the prefecture for the renewal of cards.”
