Conseil d’État Orders French Government to Fix ANEF Residence-Permit Portal Within Six Months

In a landmark decision issued on 11 May 2026, France’s Conseil d’État—its highest administrative court—gave the Interior Ministry six months to correct “grave dysfunctions” in the ANEF online portal through which foreign nationals must file or renew residence-permit applications. The ruling follows complaints from ten NGOs, including La Cimade and Secours Catholique, that repeated outages and design flaws were depriving applicants of legal status and access to work. Since 2021, the ANEF (Administration numérique pour les étrangers en France) has progressively replaced in-person prefecture visits. Yet users report upload errors, missing appointment slots, and failure to issue the temporary attestations that keep a stay legal while files are processed. The court found that these problems “abnormally limit” the right to stay and ordered the state to enable simultaneous multiple applications (e.g., work-permit renewal plus family-reunification) and to ensure automatic issuance of interim documents. For employers sponsoring foreign talent the implications are immediate. HR teams have struggled to onboard new hires whose permits expired mid-process, risking fines for illegal employment and project delays. The Conseil d’État’s deadline means that by November 2026 the portal must deliver a stable filing path, or the government could face daily penalty payments and further litigation. Practically, mobility managers should audit all pending permit files and secure printouts of submission receipts; these may serve as proof of good faith until the portal is fixed. Companies are also advising affected staff to keep hard copies of expiring cards and to budget longer lead-times for renewals this summer, when prefectures traditionally see a surge in student and seasonal-worker traffic. Longer term, the decision may accelerate a broader rethink of France’s digitalisation strategy for immigration services. The Interior Ministry has hinted at adding a dedicated business-user interface and API connectivity for legal-tech providers—a move welcomed by relocation firms that currently chase status updates manually.