How do I change the address on my French carte de séjour?
You have three months to do this after moving house. We explain the steps and what to do if you encounter a problem – which several people report happening
Once you have registered your new address online, you should pick up a new copy of your residence card in person at your local préfectureRVillalon / Shutterstock
Reader question: I have just moved house and now live in a different department in France. How do I change the address on my Brexit Withdrawal Agreement carte de séjour?
If you are a foreigner in France with a residence permit and you move house, you have three months to declare your new address and request a new carte de séjour (residency card). This is the case even if you move within the same commune.
The process for doing this is now entirely online and can be completed at this link.
It should be noted that if you do not do this within three months, you could lose access to any social benefits you claim, such as housing or family benefits. These are paid by the regional Caisse d'allocations familiales and it requires an up-to-date address.
Steps to changing the address on your carte de séjour
Before you start the process, you should make sure you have the following documents to hand:
Your current residency permit / carte de séjour
Your passport
Proof of address (justificatif de domicile) less than three months old
Three ID photos
This process is free if you have a Brexit WA titre de séjour or you are a national of an EU or EE country or Switzerland or you are a family member of a national from one of these areas.
From there, follow the steps as they come to register your new address. There is a guide to completing the process available at this link (in French).
Once you have completed the process and your dossier has been processed, you will be invited to pick up your new card with the updated address in person at the préfecture where your new address is.
Process is principally online
France moved its visa and residence permit application process entirely online in September 2021 but this decision has since been challenged and overturned following a court decision.
It means that an alternative to the online process must be offered to people for more complicated cases.
As changing the address is usually a straightforward process, the vast majority of these cases should be done online.
However, there have been some issues.
Problems with the online process
Several readers have informed The Connexion that this online process does not work for them.
One member of The Connexion team also had problems when trying to change their address, with the website displaying an error message.
The exact reason for this error message is not known.
Tina Bates, who runs Nightingale Administration, a service that helps foreigners manage administrative processes in France, says that she has found the website to have glitches and has had several people contact her about problems using it, whether to change address or to carry out other procedures
She says she does not think that it is linked to the cards being WA cartes de séjour, but rather it is a general problem with the website.
We have asked France’s interior ministry and the UK Embassy in Paris about this issue and what people who face difficulties can do and are waiting for a reply.
The member of our team who encountered the problem emailed his local préfecture about the problem, attaching screenshots of the error message. Several weeks later he was given an address to which he could send a physical copy of his application to change address and then later invited to pick up his card.
If you are having problems, one option is to email your local préfecture about it.
You can also phone the Centre de contact citoyens (CCC) on 0806 001 620 or contact the government administration platform Étrangers en France online at this link.
Another option is to contact your nearest France Services, a government service designed to help people with administrative procedures. However, if the problem is a glitch with the website, there is likely little the team at France Services can do, other than to help you contact your local préfecture.
