Author
Residence permits are granted to refugees for 10 years (Carte de resident).[1] The same permit is also granted ipso jure to their family, in particular to:
- Spouses, legal partners (PACS) or de facto partners (concubinage) if they arrived with them or at least before registration of the asylum claim and if they are of the same nationality (they actually benefit from the same protection status as their family member, through the principle of family unity);
- Spouses, legal partners (PACS) or de facto partners (concubinage) if they have been admitted to join them under the family reunification procedure;
- Spouses, legal partners (PACS) or de facto partners (concubinage) where their union was sealed after the asylum application, under the condition it has been lasting for at least 1 year, and if they are genuinely living together;
- Children up to their 19th birthday regardless of the conditions of arrival;[2]
- For minor refugees: their parents and underaged brothers and sisters. The date retained to determine if the refugee is or was a minor for this purpose is the date of the lodging of the asylum claim.
Since 1 March 2019, residence permits delivered to subsidiary protection beneficiaries are valid for four years (Carte de séjour pluriannuelle).[3] The same residence permits are granted to their family according to the same rules as for refugees.[4]
Refugees may encounter difficulties to get their residence permits issued or renewed.[5] Their residence permits have to be issued within the next 3 months following their request for such documentation. The same goes for the subsidiary protection beneficiaries.[6] However, OFPRA may take longer than expected to deliver the necessary documentation that has to be submitted for the issuance of their permits, namely the OFPRA birth certificates (see Civil registration). Without them, prefectures refuse to deliver the residence permits and only provide certificates that a request for a residence permit has been lodged (attestation de prolongation d’instruction – API). It was one of the main obstacles to integration in 2024. In 2024, the average time for OFPRA to establish documents was 10.5 months,[7], a decrease after years of increases (14.5 in 2023, 10.3 months in 2022, 8 months in 2021),[8] and around 60,000 people were waiting for these procedures at the end of 2023 (no more recent data).[9] OFPRA reconstructed nearly 77,300 civil status documents in 2024,[10] compared to 64,900 in 2023 and 43,550 in 2022, but the number of beneficiaries of international protection has also increased significantly in recent years. While waiting for this document, refugees cannot be issued their residence document and are simply given a document called “certificate of extension of instruction” (Attestation de prolongation d’instruction, API) by the prefectures which is not considered sufficient by many actors to access rights or services necessary for integration (bank account, housing, employment, etc.).[11] In March 2024, however, an administrative court considered that it was not necessary to oblige OFPRA to reduce its deadlines because the provisional certificate of family composition issued by OFPRA and valid until the issuance civil status documents must, in principle, allow access to all social rights. [12]
In January 2025, the Conseil d‘Etat rejected a request from several associations for measures to ensure that civil status certificates are issued more quickly, as it took into account on the one hand the efforts made by OFPRA to reorganise since 2022 and the waiting time to receive such documents starting to slowly decrease and on the other hand the fact that BIPs can – in law – receive temporary documents in the meantime to access their rights. NGOs highlight that this does not work in practice, due to delays in receiving these substitute documents and misapplication of the law by relevant stakeholders who do not hold them as valid to open rights.[13]
According to provisional Ministry of Interior statistics, France granted 36,990 residence permits to refugees and stateless persons and 13,930 to subsidiary protection beneficiaries in 2024 (compared to 32,654 and 11,854 respectively in 2023).[14]
[1] Article L. 424-3 Ceseda.
[2] For those who get the card for the first time while they are under 19, presence in France for 10 years with the residence card initially issued will allow them to renew their residence permit.
[3] Article L. 424-9 Ceseda, inserted by Article 1 Law n. 2018-778 of 10 September 2018.
[4] Ibid.
[5] See e.g. La Cimade, De longues files d’attentes virtuelles pour accéder aux préfectures’ 19 December 2017, available in French at: http://bit.ly/2BVdrZe, although these have not been encountered by Forum réfugiés – Cosi in the areas where it operates.
[6] Article R. 424-7 Ceseda.
[7] OFPRA, ‘Publication des premières données de l’asile à l’OFPRA en 2024’, February 2024, available in French here.
[8] OFPRA, Rapport d’activité 2022, available in French at : https://bit.ly/49eglrk.
[9] Administrative Court of Melun, Decision No 2400178, 11 March 2024.
[10] OFPRA, Premières données de l’asile 2023 [chiffres provisoires], 23 January 2024, available in French at: https://bit.ly/3xaPG1u.
[11] Forum réfugiés, L’intégration des réfugiés freinée par les délais excessifs de délivrance des actes d’état civil, 10 Juillet 2023, available in French at : https://bit.ly/3VCXpQ4.
[12] Administrative Court of Melun, Decision No 2400178, 11 March 2024.
[13] Conseil d’Etat, n°496615, 30 January 2025, available in French here.
[14] Ministry of Interior, Les chiffres de l’immigration en France – Titres de séjour, 4 February 2025, available in French here.