Reappointed Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau will implement his migration policy which will hurt foreigners, particularly those who struggle to regularize their situation and find themselves stranded for lack of a residence permit.
Concerns ahead for foreigners in France? Bruno Retailleau will make several changes in the country's migration policy. In 2025, the Minister of the Interior intends to replace the circular signed in 2012 by Manuel Valls, then Prime Minister, and governing the issuance of residence permits to undocumented immigrants. This circular concerns the regularization of 30,000 people per year while the Retailleau circular will regulate regularizations through the work of undocumented immigrants present in France and strengthen the verification of pay slips and employment contracts at the prefecture level. The new circular must include a new list of professions in shortage. This measure, already provided for by the Darmanin law, never came into force.
Read: Bad news for immigrant workers in France
In 2025, Retailleau intends to restrict the conditions of access to residence permits for medical reasons and strengthen the conditions of access to State medical aid (AME). From next year, it will therefore be more difficult for undocumented immigrants in France to obtain free treatment. The minister also plans to tighten the conditions of access to family reunification. Moreover, the family reunification procedure, which allows foreigners legally settled in France to bring their families, is already subject to requirements in terms of resources and housing.
Read: It will be even more difficult to obtain a residence permit in France
Retailleau also intends to “reestablish the offense of illegal residence”, which he considers to be an “urgent measure” which will grant the police more investigative powers.
France
