Jayanta Chakrabarty:
The current Home Minister, Bruno Retailleau, has replaced the 2012 Valls circular on undocumented migrants awaiting regularisation with a new approach to “exceptional admission to residence” (AES). The Retailleau circular, which came into force on January 24, 2025, changed the criteria for regularising undocumented migrants. To qualify for regularisation, applicants must have been present in France for seven years, compared to three or five years previously.
The circular also requires proof of advanced proficiency in French, either through a diploma or language certification.
Prefects are reminded that “exceptional admissions to residence must remain exceptional” and that there is “no automatic right to regularisation”, as the Conseil d’Etat (Council of State) emphasised in its 2013 report on “flexible law”. These recommendations are interpretative, not imperative, and do not create new rights. The final decision on each case therefore depends on the prefect’s discretionary power, with high probability of differences in methods from one prefecture to another.
What’s even more precarious for undocumented migrants is the measure obliging the prefecture to issue an Obligation de quitter le territoire français (OQTF) (obligation to leave French territory) if the application for regularisation is refused. This means they risk deportation if their application is rejected. This is a major obstacle to regularisation, and will deter many undocumented migrants from taking the plunge.
On February 4, the Home Ministry announced that France had issued 336,700 first residence permits last year, a figure 1.8% up on 2023, while expulsions rose by 26.7% with a total of 21,601 deportations. Among these, forced removals totaled 12,856, an increase of 9.7%.
The Retailleau circular reiterates the exceptional nature of AES. For regularisations justified by work, the circular calls for compliance with the conditions set out in the January 2024 immigration law – “foreigner who has exercised a salaried professional activity included in the list of professions and geographical areas characterised by recruitment difficulties defined in article L. 414-13 for at least twelve consecutive or non-consecutive months over the last twenty-four months, who holds a job in one of these professions or areas, and who can prove a period of uninterrupted residence in France of at least three years” – article L. 435-4 of the Ceseda).
‘Farm workers’, ‘housekeepers’, ‘restaurant workers like cooks and servers, ‘cleaning staffs’, ‘vegetable gardeners/horticulturalists’, electricians, computer technicians as well as hotel and construction workers are in demand throughout the regions.
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