When my passport expires must I also renew my French carte de séjour?
We look at whether or not the validity of residence permits is linked to passports
We look at whether an expired passport affects the validity of a carte de séjour
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Reader Question: I'm a British citizen resident in France. In 2023 my British passport will expire but my carte de séjour (provided under the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement) is valid until 2031.
Is my carte de séjour connected to my passport details and will I have to renew it when I replace my passport in 2023?
It is necessary to provide a valid passport when applying for a carte de séjour but once you have obtained this residence permit, it will not be dependent on your travel document.
While passports are used to prove that a person has the right to enter the country, a carte de séjour shows how long they can stay.
It would not be logical for a carte de séjour to expire along with a passport, especially because it is possible to obtain a carte de résident permanent allowing a person to stay in France indefinitely.
We asked the French interior ministry for confirmation on this point and a spokesperson said: “The permit helps to prove that someone has the right to stay in France.
“The residence permit is not linked to the validity of the passport.”
Therefore, you can renew your passport and continue to carry your original carte de séjour with it when you travel.
It should also be noted that if you need to renew your carte de séjour because it is approaching the end of its validity period or, for example, if you have lost it, you cannot use an expired passport in your application.
You can apply to renew your British passport from overseas using this government website.
It normally takes around six weeks to process a passport renewal requested from abroad, although the UK government has said that it is currently experiencing “unprecedented levels of demand”.
At the moment, applications are taking up to 10 weeks for people in the UK, and a Home Office spokesperson told The Connexion that renewal applications coming from France are taking 11 weeks.
First time applications from people in France are taking 13 weeks.
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