Foreign residents who hoped France would soon spare them the bureaucratic ordeal of renewing multi-year residency cards will have to wait longer. A Socialist-party bill that would make renewals of the four-year carte de séjour pluriannuelle and the 10-year carte de résident largely automatic cleared the National Assembly in December 2025 but has yet to be scheduled for debate in the Senate, insiders confirmed on 24 September. Under the proposal, holders would simply file a renewal request; prefectures would then run legal checks and re-issue the card unless grounds existed for refusal. Supporters say the change would slash paperwork for applicants and ease chronic backlogs in prefectural offices that process up to 3 million foreign-resident files a year. Opponents in President Aurore Bergé’s centrist coalition argue the measure weakens administrative oversight and encourages fraud. Senate sources told The Local that the upper chamber’s right-leaning majority is unlikely to prioritise the text before the 2027 presidential election, meaning the bill risks lapsing at the end of the legislative term. Advocacy groups such as Amnesty France warn that abandoning the reform will entrench delays that already expose tens of thousands of legal residents to lapses in health-insurance coverage and work authorisation. For global-mobility managers, the stalemate means retaining existing renewal-cycle timelines: filing no sooner than six months and no later than two months before expiry, and budgeting for multiple prefecture visits. Companies employing assignees on Talent-Passport or EU Blue-Card permits should continue to monitor labour-market compliance, as authorities may tighten reviews to offset any future automation.
Source: The Local France
