Legal Action on Residence Permits
24th Dec 2024
Several civil rights groups in France have commenced a legal action against the government over structural failures in the on-line system for residency permits.
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Legal Action on Residence Permits
24th Dec 2024
Several civil rights groups in France have commenced a legal action against the government over structural failures in the on-line system for residency permits.
The current on-line system (Administration Numérique pour les Étrangers en France - ANEF) for residence permits (for those already resident in France) has been plagued by technical problems ever since it began to be rolled out in 2021. The website must also be used for visa validations and naturalisations.
It has since been the subject of several damning official reports, notably from the national auditor and the national ombudsman, the Défenseur des droits, on which we reported last year.
Last month, the ombudsman submitted a further highly critical report, making it clear that the system was not fit for purpose, to the extent that it was “a violation of the rights” of foreigners in France.
In the vast majority of cases the report states that programming errors do not allow applicants to complete their procedures or to obtain appointments. In some cases, there are even difficulties creating an account. The delays that arise often mean they are not legally residence in France.
An inability to add attachments, change contact details or passwords, or to carry out several procedures simultaneously on the platform, are on the list of problems reported by users. Error messages on the website abound.
Among those affected, a growing number are foreign nationals who have been legally present in France, sometimes for many years and, for some, holders of permanent residence permits such as 10-year resident cards. However, because they are unable to unblock their administrative status with the prefecture, some people lose their jobs or suffer breaches of rights with the interruption of social benefit payments.
The most recent legal action, submitted to the Supreme Administrative Court, the Conseil d’Etat, is not the first of its kind by the group. In 2022, the court ruled that the government had not put enough support measures in place for applicants. As a result, in August 2023 a telephone helpline (Centre de Contact Citoyens - CCC) was introduced, as well as digital reception points (Points d'Accueil Numérique - PAN) in each prefecture.
However, the changes fell short of offering applicants a meeting with an official to submit an application, unless “the prefecture established that it was technically impossible for the applicant to submit their application using the system.”!
In their latest legal action, the rights groups state that neither of the changes introduced by the government are operating satisfactorily, either due to an inability by officials to resolve the technical problems, a lack of staff at PAN, or their lack of training. Indeed, it is clear that the technical problems with the website are compounded by severe staffing shortages in prefectures, many of which have seen a large increase in demand for residency regularisation, at a time when staff numbers have been reduced in the wake of digitalisation.
The rights groups state "Faced with numerous and recurring technical blockages and the access conditions, the modalities of the alternative solutions appear too restricted to allow, in practice, the dysfunctions of the ANEF to be effectively overcome.”
As a result, the group has demanded the government “to immediately put an end to all these deficiencies by taking all useful measures to ensure normal access for users to the public service, to comply with the legislative and regulatory standards of foreigners' rights and to guarantee the persons concerned the effective exercise of their rights.”