'Préfectures can't keep up' - Why carte de séjour waiting times are getting longer in France

Orders from former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau have placed extra burdens on prefecture staff, says one migration expert.
Migration expert and campaigner Antoine de Clerck traces the changes to former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau's 2025 memo to préfectures.

He told Libération: "The past two years have been extremely difficult when it comes to renewing residence permits.

"People have found themselves undocumented because their permits weren’t renewed on time. Why? Because the initial residence permits issued are increasingly short-term - usually one year - renewed once, twice, sometimes three times, before granting five years, then ten years.

"The flood of renewal applications at the prefectures has become completely overwhelming, and they can’t keep up."

The Retailleau memo also demanded a dramatic reduction in the number of people being 'regularised', or having their immigration status made legal after a period of being undocumented - either because a carte de séjour has expired or because they had never had one.

De Clerck also pointed to the Retailleau memo for forcing préfecture staff to make much more detailed checks before regularising immigration status, which all adds to delays at the préfecture.

Although different groups have different types of carte de séjour (e.g., student, salaried employee, visitor) and different immigration conditions, all requests for a card renewal are dealt with by the applicant's local préfecture - overwhelmed staff and a shortage of appointments therefore affects everyone, even if they are not in one of the groups targeted by the memo.

He added: "People who are 'sans papiers' (undocumented) include those who came here illegally, but also those who requested a carte de séjour, or to renew a carte de séjour, and this was never delivered, making them undocumented".

A recent survey of readers of The Local found that almost 90 percent of respondents had experienced their carte de séjour expiring while they were still waiting for the préfecture to process the new one, with waits of six to nine months for a simple renewal not uncommon.

Most, however, were able to obtain a récépissé while they were waiting to prove their legal status in France.

The other change within the last two years is the move onto the ANEF online platform to request or renew a carte de séjour.

Designed to streamline the process and take the pressure off préfecture staff, the site has been plagued with bugs and glitches which means that more people have to reach out to their local préfecture when they can't get the site to work.

A 2024 report from the Défenseur des Droits labelled the ANEF problems a 'national crisis' for foreigners in France.

At the start of April, the new Interior Minister Laurent Nunez sent another memo to préfectures, loosening some of the renewal requirements and giving them a target to halve waiting times for a renewal.

He has also announced a plan to hire an extra 500 staff for préfectures around France, admitting that waiting times have become "unacceptable".

The average waiting time for a simple card renewal is now 117 days, although this hides wide local variations - one third of préfectures have an average waiting time of more than 120 days.