No news from prefecture since I applied to renew my card

I applied to extend my residency card at my prefecture but have had no news and am worried my card is about to expire – what can I do?

There have been a number of reports of problems with renewals in recent years. It is thought that understaffing may be partly to blame; reforms and improvements have been promised by the Interior Ministry. The situation is also variable across the territory, depending on the pressure on prefectures. 

As part of the reforms promised, called PERSée, the ministry said foreigners will now automatically receive both a text and an email four months before a card should be renewed, followed by subsequent alerts two months and one week before.

The aim, it said, is to avoid situations where people find themselves without legal residency rights.

Some kinds of card must be renewed via the Administration des étrangers en France (Anef) residency card website, while others have to be renewed via an appointment at a prefecture. 

If you have an account on Anef, remember to check your personal space for messages: in some cases, prefectures ask for extra information or documents. Also, see its FAQ section for help with using this site. 

If you are worried that your residency rights are about to expire because you have no decision yet, you should request an attestation de prolongation. If you are expecting an email, check your spam folder and ensure also that mails from interieur.gouv.fr are seen as safe. 

Check your prefecture’s website in the section for étrangers for its rules on making contact and reserving appointments. Use translation tools (several browsers include these), such as deepl.com if you need language help. 

If you get no response to emails or online messages via website contacts sections, it is advisable to send a lettre recommandée avec avis de reception (registered post letter) instead.

One FrancoAmerican immigration lawyer Haywood Wise, from Paris, has in the past told The Connexion that as long as you have applied on time and have proof of this, there is no reason for you to be told to leave France just because of delays due to the authorities’ backlogs.

Having said this, some cases of orders to leave being handed out in a heavy handed way have been reported in some areas in recent years. Avocat Charly Salkazanov, from ValdeMarne said he sees cases of this being done without proper investigation of the facts and despite the recipient being well integrated. Often however, these are then cancelled if the recipient appeals to the administrative court. 

This is said to be one reason why France has a low percentage of such orders that are actually enforced. 

Mr Salkazanov also warned of letting delays drag too much due to the potential for ‘tacit rejection'. 

You should be aware that if you have requested a change of residency status this can be complex, especially if seeking to move from a nonwork status to a working status, so you should make sure your dossier is complete and key documents in English have been translated.

The Défenseur des droits service (see the end of chapter 3) is a regular vocal critic of residency card inefficiencies, and is one avenue for help, as is an immigration avocat.

Marta Nahay of Exilae Avocats in Nice and Paris reported in 2024 they were increasingly having to go before the administrative judges to request a procedure called un référé mesure utile, either simply to obtain a meeting at the prefecture for their clients or the granting of an attestation de prolongement. 

In some cases, she said that this was due to problems with the functioning of the Anef site.