Just after midnight on 12 June 2026, the long-debated EU Pact on Migration and Asylum officially became law across the bloc. In Paris, the Ministry of the Interior wasted no time: a 22-page circular (NOR INTV2615721C) was emailed late on 11 June to all préfectures, border-police units and asylum-reception operators, explaining how the new rules are to be applied in France. The document supplements Decree 2026-463 of 9 June and amends key sections of the Code de l’Entrée et du Séjour des Étrangers et du Droit d’Asile (Ceseda). The circular confirms that, as of 12 June, France must register most asylum claims within five days instead of ten, apply the new 12-week “border procedure” for applicants arriving from a deemed safe country, and share biometric data with the revamped Eurodac database. Préfectures are instructed to designate a “pacte référent” to liaise with EU agencies and to expand the use of secure videoconferencing for remote interviews—a measure intended to relieve pressure on Île-de-France reception centres. For employers and global-mobility managers the biggest change is procedural speed. The Office français de l’immigration et de l’intégration (OFII) warns that work-permit decisions for asylum applicants will now be linked to the faster timelines. Companies posting third-country nationals to France may therefore receive work-authorisation requests from staff whose asylum status is still being examined. The circular recommends “early HR coordination” to avoid “double filing” under both labour-migration and asylum channels. Border-control practices will also tighten. From this week, travellers stopped at the frontier can be held in a new “pre-screening area” for up to seven days while databases are checked. Carriers are advised to update advanced passenger-information feeds to include country-of-first-asylum data, as fines for transport-without-documents rise to €6,000 per passenger. French airports have begun re-training staff on the new workflows, echoing warnings from Brussels that teething problems are likely through the summer peak. Although NGOs have criticised the pact for prioritising deterrence, the government argues that harmonised EU rules will reduce secondary movements and restore Schengen’s credibility. Businesses should monitor further implementing decrees, expected before August, covering detention standards and the solidarity-relocation mechanism that could see France transfer or receive applicants from other member states.
