French Residence Permit Process ‘Deficient’
In what is fast becoming an annual dressing down, the Défenseur de droits has highlighted the large number of complaints received about the poor service offered to foreigners by prefectures.
In her most recent report, the ombudsman states that 25% of all complaints in 2022 were from foreign nationals seeking to renew or apply for a residence permit. From 6,540 complaints in 2019, it rose to 21,666 in 2022, an increase of 231%.
For the Ile-de-France the increase was far worse, at 450%, while over the same period the number of claims received by the ombudsman increased by 33%.
The ombudsman considers that the figures "demonstrate a serious deterioration in an important public service to foreign nationals in France."
She blames much of the decline on the digitalisation of services which has taken place over several years, first with the deployment of an online appointment booking system, followed by the introduction of the 'Démarches-simplifiées' platform allowing the entire application for a residence permit to be made the online, and finally, under the aegis of the Ministry of the Interior, the platform Étrangers en France.
Today, these three digital platforms coexist and are all sources of rights abuse.
In 2022, the ombudsman continued receiving numerous complaints from foreigners unable to get an appointment to apply for a residence permit, and also saw a significant increase in claims from foreign nationals already in possession of a residence permit having difficulty renewing permits, whether due to the impossibility of making a online appointments, technical malfunctions with the platforms or "particularly excessive" processing delays.
Although the ombudsman states she was able to mediate favourably in a large number of cases, in certain departments she observed "a deterioration in the quality of their exchanges with the administration", with some prefectures having almost stopped responding to their interventions.
Last June, the Cour de Comptes, which acts as the National Auditor, issued a report stating that the prefectures were not fit for purpose. This followed an earlier report from the ombudsman on the same theme.
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