It will no longer be possible for prefectures to regularize more than 30,000 undocumented immigrants per year. The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, adopted a text which toughens regularizations and aims to reduce the flow of regularizations by around a third, or 20,000. In a circular to the prefects, it increased from five years to ” at least seven years” the duration of presence required on French territory for a foreigner who requests papers for exceptional admission to stay. “A length of presence of at least 7 years constitutes one of the relevant integration indices,” writes the minister. “The exceptional admission to residence of a foreigner in an irregular situation can only take place in the absence of a threat to public order,” specifies Retailleau, calling on the prefects “to systematically combine the refusal of residence with a measure requiring people to leave French territory.”
Read: Bad news for foreigners in France
Another major change: “in order to guarantee effective integration, particular attention must be paid to applicants’ mastery of the French language. In this sense, proof of a French diploma or a linguistic certification, issued by a duly accredited organization, or any other proof of mastery of the language must be favorably assessed,” we read in the circular. Regularization also requires a commitment on the part of the foreigner, who cannot, moreover, be polygamous. He “undertakes, by contract, to respect the principles of the Republic”, explains Le Figaro. As for foreign workers, a list of professions under pressure in France will appear in February, to regulate the exceptional admission to stay of professionals already employed by work in hospitals, nursing homes, catering, construction, agriculture or boilermaking, reports the same source.
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