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]
Residence permits for refugees have to be issued within the next 3 months following their request for such documentation. The same goes for the subsidiary protection beneficiaries.[5] 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). In 2025, the average time for OFPRA to establish documents was 9.1 months,[6] confirming a decrease after years of increases (10.1 in 2024, 14.5 in 2023, 10.3 months in 2022, 8 months in 2021).
OFPRA reconstructed 79,140 civil status documents in 2025[7] compared to 77,300 in 2024 and 64,900 in 2023, but the number of beneficiaries of international protection has also increased significantly in recent years. While waiting for this document, refugees are simply given a document called “certificate of extension of instruction” (Attestation de prolongation d’instruction, API) by the prefectures in lieu of a residence permit which is not considered sufficient by many actors to access rights or services necessary for integration (bank account, housing, employment, etc.).[8] 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 of civil status documents must, in principle, allow access to all social rights. [9]
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.[10]
For several years, these delays by OFPRA caused delays in the issuance of residence permits, but that is no longer the case. Since the first half of 2025, prefectures are no longer required to wait for the issuance of civil status documents from OFPRA before processing residence permit applications from beneficiaries of international protection. The processing times for civil status documents from the OFPRA are faster, and residence permits are regularly issued before the OFPRA documents are received.
The remaining obstacles to the timely obtaining of residence permits lie in both the submission and processing of applications for such permits through the ANEF online service, which continues to present practical shortcomings. These issues were highlighted by[11] the Ombudsperson in a report published in December 2024, and have since led several organisations to bring a case before the Council of State in 2025[12] seeking to compel the state to address them. At the time of writing (15 April 2026), no decision has been issued yet.
According to provisional Ministry of Interior statistics, France granted 54,230 residence permits to refugees and stateless persons and 35,000 to subsidiary protection beneficiaries in 2025 (compared to 36,990 and 13,930 respectively in 2024).[13]
[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] Article R. 424-7 Ceseda.
[6] OFPRA, ‘Bilan 2025 de l’OFPRA’, 27 January 2026, available in French here.
[7] OFPRA, ‘Bilan 2025 de l’OFPRA’, 27 January 2026, available in French here.
[8] 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.
[9] Administrative Court of Melun, Decision No 2400178, 11 March 2024.
[10] Conseil d’Etat, n°496615, 30 January 2025, available in French here.
[11] Défenseur des droits, L’Administration numérique pour les étrangers en France (ANEF) : une dématérialisation à l’origine d’atteintes massives aux droits des usagers, 11 December 2024, available in French here.
[12] Forum Réfugiés, ‘Dématérialisation des titres de séjour – Recours devant le Conseil d’État L’État empêche les personnes étrangères de travailler et de s’insérer’, Press release, March 2025, available in French here.
[13] Ministry of Interior, Les chiffres de l’immigration en France – Titres de séjour, January 2026, available in French here.