High court challenge against France's 'dysfunctional' residency permit website
Sooner or later most non-EU citizens living in France will have to interact with the Anef website - the online portal to which France is gradually moving the administration to get or renew a
carte de séjour
residency card.
But since its inception in 2020, the site has been dogged with technical problems. Last year the rights body
Défenseur des droits
revealed that it was dealing with
a 400 percent increase in complaints
relating to residency permits since the website was launched.
Now a group of 10 charities, organisations and human rights groups
have launched a joint complaint
with the Conseil d'Etat.
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Announcing their legal action, the group say that repeated problems with the Anef site "hinder foreigners' access to the job market, exacerbate their precarious situation and heavily penalise the associations and companies that support or employ them."
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9 tips for dealing with the Anef website
They added that the result was "life paths shattered, people prevented from working, companies deprived of employees, associations exhausted by dysfunctional procedures and préfectoral services struggling to unblock situations".
They also note that while there have long been problems in securing a
carte de séjour
, in recent years there has been a sharp rise in problems with renewing the card.
France's Conseil d'Etat has a dual role - scrutinising new laws and acting as an arbitrator in disputes between the government and the people. Individuals can bring their own private cases, but it's more common for groups or representatives to bring a case about an issue that affects a large number of people.
Explained: How France's Conseil d'Etat works
In this case the groups bringing the case say they are acting after repeated appeals directly to the Interior Ministry - responsible for immigration processes - have been ignored.
In December 2024
Défenseur des droits
- issued a
40-page report
, detailing the many problems that foreigners in France face when using the ANEF website.
Some of the most common problems included information not being passed on to the préfecture dealing with the application, applications not being 'closed' properly, preventing people from being able to renew their card and not being given the correct type of
récépissé
while they were waiting for their application to be dealt with.
In a separate issue, many foreigners in France have reported problems with getting an appointment at their local préfecture to collect the card once the application has been dealt with.
The legal case before the Conseil d'Etat accuses the state of "fault through failure to act" on the complaints received.
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