New online procedures for renewing a five-year Brexit Withdrawal Agreement residency card are now online for several, but by no means all, areas of France. More are expected to follow.
We have checked how the procedures work and what Britons need to do.
People living in France before Brexit were issued with special residency cards to ensure they were not caused undue hardship due to a sudden change in their rights linked to loss of EU citizenship.
Variously known as ‘Brexit cards’, ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ (WA) cards, or Warps (for ‘Withdrawal Agreement residency permit), they give the holder the right to live and work in France without limitations and to benefit from similar rights in France to EU citizens in most respects except voting rights in local and EU elections.
They were created by the ‘citizens’ rights’ section of the WA – the treaty agreeing the terms of the UK’s exit – with the aim of allowing these Britons to ‘continue to live as before’.
There are two kinds, depending on how long applicants have been in France: ‘permanent stay’, issued for 10 years and renewable with very minimal formalities, and those issued for five years.
Officially called titre de séjour portant la mention Accord de retrait du Royaume-Uni de l’Union Européenne the cards are recognisable from wording saying Article 50 TUE (the letters refer to an EU treaty).
More than 165,000 Brexit card applications were made in 2020-2021 (with the first cards issued late in 2020). An estimated 42,000 of cards issued were five-year cards for people who, on January 1, 2021, had not been living in France for five years.
Holders of five-year cards issued in 2020 that are coming up for expiry shortly are eligible to apply to ‘renew’ for a 10-year Brexit card and should aim to apply no later than two months before (about three months before is ideal).
Similarly, if you have a five-year card that is not expiring yet but you have lived in France for more than five years now, you have acquired ‘permanent stay’ rights under the WA treaty and are entitled to ‘upgrade’ to the 10-year card if you wish to do so.
In practice, there is no great difference in rights conferred by a five-year or 10-year card. But, once ‘permanent’ rights are held, a person’s Brexit residency rights are guaranteed unless they spend more than five years away from France.
People only entitled to five-year cards should not usually be absent from France for more than six months a year, states the WA. Exceptions can allow absences of up to 12 months for ‘important’ reasons, including childbirth, serious illness, study or vocational training or a posting abroad.
Ministry called for new procedure
The Interior Minstry's section dealing with foreign people's entry and residency, the DGEF, asked prefectures to put a renewals process for WA cards online via the web portal Démarches Simplifiées in the second half of September 2025 and some have now done so (find their details here). They were also requested to update their own prefecture website with information about this.
A standardised form was offered for prefectures to set up their online renewals pages, with the aim of creating the same clear and simple process across France.
We understand some prefectures are still in the process of doing this, though not all were ready before October (whether for technical reasons, or linked to September strike action or communication and procedural elements etc).
It is, however, possible that some prefectures will choose not to use the standardised procedure recommended by the DGEF and that residents in their departments will still need to contact the prefecture to find out their preferred alternative (such as applying in person or by post).
If your card is not expiring in the next two months, the Interior Ministry told The Connexion it is best to keep checking for any updates on your prefecture's own website, or, if there is no information and your card will expire imminently, ask your prefecture for an appointment as soon as possible.
The information about the Interior Ministry's request to the prefectures was originally passed to us from the European Commission via the groups British in Europe (BiE) and Rift, which, along with the British Community Committee of France, have continued to work on Britons’ rights in France through the Brexit process and beyond.
The commission monitors the application of WA rights and was informed about the new process by the French government and was also told that (in conformity with EU states’ obligations to inform the British ‘WA’ community of their rights) updated information will be published in due course at official French national sites such as brexit.gouv.fr, Service-Public and interieur.gouv.fr.
BiE co-chair Jane Golding called the ministry's plan "a very positive step forward" and said the commission told them it hopes this will "significantly facilitate the process for WA beneficiaries in France."
Démarches Simplifiées (DS) is a web portal that French official bodies may use to place certain procedures for their residents online.
Several prefectures which have followed the ministry request now direct users to new pages on DS set up according to an identical template.
We note that these template pages are headed with wording referring to 'expiring cards', however text on the pages also confirms the right to a 10-year card after a person has had five years of legal residency in France.
How the DS web pages work
We will take an example of one of the prefectures that is now up-and-running with this standardised system: Calvados.
1. Visit the prefecture's own website: calvados.gouv.fr (all departmental prefecture websites look similar to this, but with dashes if they exist in the department name).
Click Démarches at the top then > Acceuil des étrangers > Les titres de séjour > Titres de séjour Brexit > Titre de séjour Brexit 'renouvellement'.
2. You will see on that last link that the prefecture website, as of September 30, 2025, invites people to use a 'new procedure' at DS, with a corresponding link.
In the case of Calvados the link is to: www.demarches-simplifiees.fr/commencer/renouvellement-des-titres-de-sejour-article-50-tue-5. Calvados had already previously taken the initiative to place a Brexit card renewals procedure on DS, but this has now been replaced with the new standardised version.
Several other prefectures now also offer their own similar renewals web pages based on this template.
The main difference we have identified between them is the contact phone number and email address at the bottom of the DS page, and the fact the web addresses of each prefecture's DS page look slightly different, for example with different letters or numbers at the end (where a number appears it has no link to the French department number of the area).
Prefecture sites already inviting applications, that we identified before October 1, are at this link.
How to apply on the new DS pages
Click on the button to start the process using FranceConnect if you are eligible for this (most people are). You need to have worked in France and/or be registered in its health system with a social security number. It works by using log-ins from a partner site such as impots.gouv.fr or ameli.fr.
Alternatively, create a Démarches Simplifiées account using email and creating a password.
Follow further steps as requested.
What documents will you need?
All documents uploaded must be in a digital format such as .pdf .doc or .jpg so you need to scan in certain items or take high-quality photos of them.
You need:
- A valid British passport including pages with key identity details as well as validity dates and entry stamps.
- Proof of residency less than six months old, such as an electricity, gas, water, landline phone or home internet bill, rental agreement or rent receipt, or any other suitable document.
If you live with another person free of charge, you need an attestation d'hébergement, signed and dated from them stating that you live with them at their named address + copy of their own residency card or national identity card or passport + proof of residency for the person if not shown on their ID document.
- Your previous residency card
In case of an important change in your situation (eg. divorce, marriage, death of spouse...): proof of this change (death or marriage certificate etc).
What happens then?
You must also bring three recent passport-style photographs.
We are checking further with the Interior Ministry and prefectures as to the final steps, eg. if the old card will be taken and replaced with a récépissé receipt slip, and if so, how long the latter is valid for and if it can be used for travel purposes to show at the border.
Récépissés are often valid for three months (potentially, renewable again if necessary) and can usually be used to travel in the case of a 'renewal' as opposed to a first card application.
However, there are question marks over compatibility with the EU's new Entry/Exit System which starts from October 12.
How does this compare to process the first time WA cards were issued?
The first Brexit cards were issued in autumn 2020 to Britons who had submitted their details via a dedicated national website that was opened temporarily in 2019 as a precaution in the event of a 'no-deal' Brexit (in this scenario, they would urgently have needed ordinary French residency cards to avoid them becoming illegal residents).
A no-deal was averted and a national site for WA card applications was then open from October 2020 to October 2021 (those who had applied on the previous site did not have to reapply). Applications via this were forwarded to prefectures for processing and Britons had to visit them to give fingerprints. WA cards were then sent out by signed-for post.
After a grace period allowed for under the WA, Britons living in France before Brexit were told they should have a card by January 1, 2022 to remain legally.
- Send your questions about Brexit cards and their renewal - or tell us about your experience if you have done it - via feedback@connexionfrance.com
