Grass-roots collective “BougeTaPref” staged coordinated demonstrations outside at least nine French prefectures on 11 June to denounce what activists call the “digital blockade” of residency-permit renewals. Reporting by The Connexion details how protesters in Nantes, Grenoble, Rennes and Marseille piled cardboard boxes to symbolise stalled applications and organised a mock “Prefecture Olympic Games” to highlight waiting-time ‘records’. Since 2020, almost all titre-de-séjour procedures have migrated to the ANEF online portal. While the goal was to streamline services, rights associations argue the roll-out has instead produced multi-month backlogs, leaving legally resident foreigners unable to prove status to employers or landlords. In May, France’s highest administrative court gave the Interior Ministry six months to fix the platform’s failings. Delayed cards create hard costs for companies that employ foreign talent: payroll teams cannot renew social-security registration without a valid card, and some assignees lose the right to work or travel. Several HR directors told The Connexion they now budget an extra six months of lead-time and often pay for emergency travel documents when staff get stuck abroad. BougeTaPref demands more staff, reinstatement of in-person counters and a paper alternative for digital-exclusion cases. The Interior Ministry says a task-force is already piloting solutions in the Rhône prefecture and will publish key-performance indicators quarterly. Mobility managers should watch whether those targets translate into shorter renewal cycles before the end-of-year peak.
Source: The Connexion
