A leading association for foreign people’s rights has welcomed a ruling by France’s top administrative court demanding that the government take action in six months over IT malfunctions and difficulties with residency cards.
La Cimade, a nonprofit that provides legal support to foreigners in France, hopes the ruling by the Conseil d’Etat will boost rapid changes, coming as it does on top of instructions recently sent by the interior ministry to prefectures about plan to speed up residency card renewals.
The Conseil d’Etat targeted in particular problems with the Anef website, used by the ministry for many residency and citizenship procedures, saying the state has an obligation to ensure people can carry out their procedures “normally”.
It noted that assistance with using the site must be offered as well as the possibility of meeting an official who can register the application for those who have tried these methods and experienced technical difficulties: principles which were put into France’s immigration law in 2023 at article R431-2.
Assistance can include phoning or sending online messages to a help centre, or visiting a digital help desk at a prefecture.
Satisfied with ruling
Riwanon Quéré, legal expert for La Cimade – one of several organisations which took the case to the court – said they are “satisfied” with the Conseil’s rulings as it had asked for the “main malfunctions” with Anef to be rectified.
“That should, hopefully, significantly improve the situation for people who are faced with this digital barrier and who are unable to submit their residence permit applications,” she said.
It is important that it focused especially on Anef improvements, which the ministry’s instructions had not addressed, she said.
“The instruction was sent to prefectures in a rush, just before the hearing, and the Conseil considered it showed a clear desire on the part of the ministry to improve services for foreign nationals, but that it was not yet possible to gauge its effects.”
Its promise of extra staffing in prefectures’ residency sections was, however, particularly welcome, she said.
“We hope that this focus of resources on renewals, coupled with changes to rectify the platform’s malfunctions, will enable people to access the renewal process more quickly and that they will no longer risk losing their rights in in-between periods.”
Digitally-issued documents not recognised
One issue has been many people not being issued with attestations de prolongation de droits via the platform (a document extending rights during processing), or these not being renewed when needed.
On top of this there have also been some issues with these digitally-issued documents not being recognised by some welfare or housing bodies, the Conseil said.
Ms Quéré said the attestations are not delivered automatically: an official has to click to generate one once they have checked the file is complete. La Cimade hopes the promised extra staff will speed this up.
They can be issued for up to six months, but are often only for three, she said. In the instruction the ministry referred to renewing them automatically for up to 12 months. This is only “logical” as processing frequently takes four months, she said.
Another problem, she said, is “excessive requests for documents”, which can hold up an application from being deemed “complete”.
The instruction called for officials to ask only for documents on an official list for each kind of card. Such lists exist, she said, but sometimes prefectures add to them.
Such requests by prefectures seem to imply a policy of treating all foreigners as potential fraudsters, she said.
While many residency procedures now are via Anef, some are still left to prefectures to decide how to deal with them, whether in writing, in person or via a website called Démarche Numérique.
The latter is often used for Brexit card renewals, which are not via Anef, but it can be subject to similar difficulties.
Frustrations with website
A reader in Ile-de-France told how he applied via the Anef website as requested, two months before his card’s expiry, receiving a notification that it was “being examined” two weeks later and was “accepted” 10 days after that.
However, since then his card has expired and he has had no further communication. His latest message via the website showed as “unread”.
“There you have a perfect example. In that case, the prefect is supposed to issue a receipt that extends the person’s rights – their right to stay, their right to work – for the duration of the review,” Ms Quéré said.
“The issue with Anef is just one part of the wider problems affecting the digitisation of public services for foreign nationals.”
She said an earlier ruling by the Conseil, from 2022, had said for these non-Anef procedures prefectures must offer an alternative to an online-only avenue, but “this is not being met at all, for example the Paris prefecture has just gone fully digital without offering any alternatives”.
Meanwhile she said they meet “a whole host of people” who try to obtain Anef support but cannot receive satisfactory help.
“It’s rare for people to get an in-person appointment with a residency official, you have to fight for weeks, and in the meantime they lose their rights,” she said.
She added: “We hope that things will now improve and that we will be able to get back to the fundamental issues.
"Right now, we’re all wearing ourselves out over procedural issues, just to recognise people’s rights that already exist. Then, we’ll be able to focus on asserting new rights.”
Our reader stated he was worried now about international travel as well as his job, and Ms Quéré said this is understandable.
In such situations she said they often advise paying an immigration avocat who will take court action (legal aid may be available to those on low incomes, otherwise fees for this are likely to be around €700-1,200 she said).
“Given that the consequences for the individual are so serious, the administrative court will rule within 15 days."
Often, the lawyer writes to the prefecture and it rectifies the matter, or the case goes to hearing but the prefecture arranges a meeting or issues a récépissé just before it so the case is dismissed.” She said local branches of their association can offer support.
