New law proposal aims to ease renewal process for foreign residents in France

A Socialist MP is calling for foreign people with multi-year residency cards or 10-year cartes de résident to have these cards renewed automatically, avoiding them being “placed in pointless legal fragility” due to renewal delays.

Fatiha Keloua-Hachi has lodged a proposed new law backed by a large number of fellow socialists, saying the measure would be an “administrative simplification” and a “mark of confidence by the Republic towards all those that it welcomes and who in turn enrich it”.

She said the whole community could benefit due to time freed up for civil servants.

Her text says automatic renewal would apply apart from cases where officials have “legal reasons” to oppose this, which they would have to demonstrate.

Ms Fatiha Keloua-Hachi's parliamentary assistant, Mirina Mammeri, said: “Unfortunately we’re in quite an unstable political climate, with frequent changes of government and so the proposal has not yet been scheduled for debate.

“It has a wide consensus among the socialist group and some support outside. It should be listed on the agenda in due course.

“It is on the way, and the MP may try to find more outside support, but at the moment it’s a question of scheduling.”

She added: “There are a lot of people who live here for years, not asking for French nationality for all kinds of reasons – or whose requests are denied – and for whom card renewal remains necessary.

“But for a certain number, there has been no significant change in their situation, but each time they must go back to the prefecture to prove it. It’s clogging up the prefectures.”

She stated that even where applications are made initially online, most people report being required to attend a follow-up prefecture meeting. Frequent difficulties with using the website add to the problems, she said.

The proposal is restricted to those with longer-term cards as opposed to those on one-year cards whose situations may typically require more checks to ensure they continue to meet requirements.