New rules come into force for foreigners and French residency cards

People applying for a French residency card (carte de séjour) must sign a contract promising to respect “the principles of the Republic” under new immigration rules that come into force on Wednesday July 17.

The measure is one of several from the controversial immigration law of January 2024 that come into force this week following the publication of decrees.

A decree was also published today July 16 that may simplify visa applications by making more procedures possible online, which could be good news for the many readers who have reported difficulties with the process.

Read more: French residency permit delays at prefecture: what can you do?

The 2024 immigration law, which toughens many points of France’s immigration system, has been widely criticised by the left and human rights organisations. 

New pledge required

Under one of the new decrees, foreigners applying for any document de séjour (residency document) must now promise to respect “the principles of the Republic.” These are listed as including “personal freedom, freedom of expression and conscience, equality between women and men, the dignity of the human person, the motto and symbols of the Republic, territorial integrity, and secularism”. 

The decree specifies that a residency permit may be refused or revoked “in the event of a clear breach of one of these principles”. 

It does not specify if the contract will only have to be signed on first-issue of a card, or also on renewals of the same card. 

It is possible that Brexit Withdrawal Agreement cards may not be concerned as they result from an international treaty rather than just internal French law, but no detail is given on any exemptions. 

We note also that some residency card applicants must already agree to such principles as part of the (more complex) process called a Contrat d'intégration républicaine. 

Read more: LIST: what was kept and what was rejected in French immigration law

The new rules are part of a raft of measures aiming to toughen France’s immigration system. 

They include tougher rules to obtain multi-year residency cards (including passing a test in basic French), more categories of people liable to be ordered to leave France and longer periods of house arrest in France for foreign nationals who have been ordered to leave but cannot do so. 

The measures coming into force on July 17 include:

• A fine for the employment of foreign nationals who do not have the right to work in France 

• An increase in the number of daily check-ins for people put under house arrest while awaiting removal from France 

No decree has yet been passed implementing the new tougher language rules. 

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin hailed the new measures in a post on X on Tuesday (July 16) and said they came in addition to the “very firm” measures already in force since January. 

“2,500 foreign offenders were deported in the first half of 2024, an increase of 28%,” he said. 

About a third of the original articles in the immigration law were scrapped by the Conseil constitutionnel in January including the right to an automatic visa for owners of second homes in France. 

The newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche claimed in an article on July 5 that the government was about to “suspend” the immigration law. President Macron’s Renaissance party denied the allegation and filed a complaint against the newspaper. 

Read more: New tougher French language rules for immigration: who is affected?

Good news on visas?

Another decree published in the Journal Officiel on July 16 relates to allowing online applications for visas via the france-visas.gouv.fr website, and for systems for digital collection of people’s personal data to be put in place. 

At present, applications cannot be made entirely online, and people using the site for French visas then print off the application and take it and supporting documents to a consular office or partner company. In the UK there are only three offices, in London, Manchester and Edinburgh.

The decree also says people’s data could be kept for up to five years, possibly enabling simplifications for those who apply for the same kinds of visa on a regular basis, and it refers to creating new online systems to be used by partner businesses and other organisations helping visa applicants. 

It remains to be seen what practical effects this will have on people’s application experiences, however, we note that campaigners have been pushing for more to be done online and for simple renewals for those who want six-month visas every year.

Read more: French MPs still trying to ease visa process for second-home owners