The Conseil d'Etat has issued a judgment and an important opinion on the conditions to be respected in order to require foreign nationals to use teleservices to apply for a residence permit.

1. The State may impose the use of a teleservice to submit an application for a residence permit.

But a legislative or regulatory text is necessary: the prefect cannot decide alone to impose the use of a teleservice for the filing of an application for a residence permit. If no regulatory text provides for it, the prefect can simply authorize this dematerialized sending.

2. Compulsory use of online filing must be accompanied by 2 minimum guarantees.

1️⃣ Support: foreign nationals must, for example, be able to benefit from telephone assistance or the provision of a computer (current Digital Reception Points); 2️⃣ A substitution system (deposit of the paper file in the prefecture, for example): it must be accessible if 3 conditions are met:

➖The support was not sufficient;➖It is impossible to use the teleservice;➖And this impossibility results from the "design" or the "mode of operation" of the teleservice.

3. The framework provided by the Council of State will not solve the problems posed by dematerialization.

The human resources assigned to the reception of foreign nationals in the Prefecture remain insufficient. The processing times are getting longer and the dematerialization often obstructs the delivery of a receipt, however by law. These two factors artificially place foreign nationals in an irregular situation who would nevertheless have the right to a residence permit. And the consequences are serious: impossibility of leaving the territory, risk of job loss, blocking of any other administrative procedure in progress or blocking of any naturalization applications in progress, etc.

To be accompanied in your application for a residence permit or its renewal, contact us:

Alexandre DELAVAY

E-mail : alexandre.delavay@delavay-avocat.fr

Such. : 33 66060939326