La Poste identity scheme denied to many foreign residents in France

La Poste is excluding many foreign residents from its revamped ‘more secure’ L’Iden­tité Numérique online identification scheme.

Its website states that you must have a French identity document, whether passport or ID card, or a French titre de séjour with "a length of validity of at least five years".

It says the only exception is cards with a permanent validity and no mention of an expiry date.

We have not, however, been able to identify any cards issued in France that have no expiry date.

Read more: How to use French post office’s new online identity system

Rules exclude EU citizens

The measure even appears to exclude most EU citizens, as they do not need residency cards. They may optionally request one, but rarely do, and in this case it will have an expiry date.

However, foreign people would be eligible, for example, if they have a card issued originally for 10 years, such as a ‘permanent stay’ Withdrawal Agreement card, and that was issued less than five years ago.

We have pointed this out to La Poste and queried the logic.

Alternatives to France Connect

If you need an alternative, perhaps to sign in on certain sites via France Connect (for which L’Identité Numérique is one partner) alternatives include ameli.fr or impots.gouv.fr log-ins, or using the Yris application.

However, note that we were previously told you cannot use FranceConnect if you have no French social security number so the service is not suited, for example, to non-residents or some frontier workers.

Edited: La Poste responds

A La Poste spokesman said that there is no law specifying who can use the service, so La Poste chose to open it in the first instance to those they identified as being those most likely to make use of it. It is considering the possibility of opening it up further.

The spokesman clarified that the wording on the website about residency cards should be interpreted as relating to the length of validity for which the card was issued originally, rather than the remaining length of validity before the expiry date on the card (some cards, for example, are issued for just one year at a time).

We note, however, that this was not what one Connexion team member experienced. He attempted to register for the scheme with a Brexit Withdrawal Agreement Card issued originally for a five-year period, but was told the computer system would not accept it as it did not have five years of validity.

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