Brexit residency cards in France: Important to get correct receipt slip

British people who are applying for a Brexit Withdrawal Agreement (WA) residency card should be issued with a récépissé (acknowledgement slip) with specific wording, the French Interior Ministry has clarified.

We checked the rules after a reader reported difficulty with applying for the WA card she is entitled to due to close family ties - her husband, who has lived in France since 2020. 

The matter is now resolved with her prefecture but this information may be important for others.

Read more: Wife’s struggles to join Brexit-card husband in France 

The ministry said: “Prefectures have been given the instruction to issue ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ family members with a récépissé, as soon as their application dossier is complete.

“It is a specific récépissé, which carries the wording ‘A demandé la délivrance d’un titre de séjour de 5 [or 10] ans portant la mention ‘accord de retrait du Royaume-Uni de l’UE’ [Has asked to be issued with a five [or 10]-year residency card with the wording ‘Withdrawal Agreement of the UK from the EU’. 

The spokesman added that France has told the European Commision to add this récépissé to a list of French residency documents that allow the holder to travel over the Schengen area’s exterior borders without being subject to the 90/180 day rule.

Wording is crucial to travel rights

It was important to our reader that the document should be recognised at France’s borders with the UK, as she wanted to be able to visit her mother, aged 99, without worrying about questions around ‘overstaying’ in the Schengen area.

Since our previous article, she has confirmed having now received her – correctly worded – slip, which is dated as valid for almost six months. “It came as I received a message from my mother which rather alarmed me, so I’m very grateful,” she said.

Britons, and other non-EU citizens, who do not have long-stay visas or residency cards, are otherwise limited to staying no more than 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area. Close monitoring of this rule is among reasons that the EU is set to bring in new digital border controls.

Read more: New EU border control checks to start on November 10 – official 

We note that official French sites state that a récépissé issued by prefectures for other types of standard first-issue residency card is not suitable for international travel.

This is as opposed to a récépissé for renewal of an existing residency card, which is stated to be acceptable for this purpose during its validity period (usually three months, renewable again if the dossier has still not been processed), if you carry the old card as well.

First-issues of WA cards will now in almost all cases be for close family members of existing cardholders joining them in France, as they have a right to do under the Withdrawal Agreement, providing the relationship existed before Brexit.

As for existing cardholders swapping a five-year card for a 10-year one, these formalities must also be done via prefectures, and not at the Interior Ministry’s Anef website, which is now used for most other residency cards. 

It is worth noting that applications via this site do not generate a récépissé but rather a similar document called an attestation.

The attestation provided immediately after an online application will be called Attestation de dépôt de demande de carte de séjour. You cannot show this at the border.

However, once an official has checked that the dossier is complete (with required supporting documents), you should receive an Attestation de prolongation de l’instruction d’une carte de séjour – which can be used to prove residency at the border.