Brexit Withdrawal Agreement cards: French residency requirement rules
You can lose the right to stay in France if you are away for too long
If you are absent from France fore more than five consecutive years then your Brexit Withdrawal Agreement card will be invalid
Hayk_Shalunts / Shutterstock / Church of England, Diocese of Europe
The rules governing Brexit Withdrawal Agreement cards state that if you are away for too long, the card will become invalid. Here are the rules for both five and 10-year cards.
Rules for five-year card holders
For people issued with a temporary card (renewable after five years), the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) rules state that the holder risks losing the right to later convert this to a permanent card if they are away from France for more than six months in any 365-day period.
This period, which can span several calendar years, starts at the beginning of the card’s period of validity.
The only situations in which a five-year WA card holder can be away from France for more than six months in a 365-day period are so-called ‘exceptional’ circumstances, such as an extended illness that prohibits travel.
Guidelines for 10-year card holders
If you have a permanent card (renewable after 10 years), the WA rules state that the right to reside in France is only lost after five consecutive years of absence.
This point was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the French Interior Ministry.
“The individual should keep their card and ensure they come back at least once in five years. They should, however, stay in France for a sufficiently long period for it to be considered that their absence from French territory has ended.”
We queried what counts as ‘sufficiently long’ but did not receive a reply.
A European Commission source previously told The Connexion that, in EU law, ‘absence’ would be taken literally (absence from French soil) without conditions.
