A dematerialized tool with significant failures
Deployed since 2020 with the aim of simplifying administrative procedures, ANEF has established itself as a single dematerialized channel for requests for certain residence permits by foreign nationals. However, since this tool was put into service, the Defender of Rights has received numerous complaints from people who are no longer able to complete the necessary procedures to obtain a residence permit or to receive a response within a deadline. normal, including in the case of a simple renewal.
The service fails in its promise of simplifying administrative procedures. Persistent technical problems, choices or unthought in the design of the tool sources of difficulties, piecemeal deployment and lack of information for users, lack of flexibility to complete or modify a filed application… The tool suffers from numerous limitations which affect both the filing and processing of securities applications.
Between 2020 and 2024, the number of complaints received by the institution of the Defender of Rights regarding the rights of foreigners increased by 400%. In 2023, this number represented a quarter of its total complaints – it will undoubtedly be a third in 2024. Of these complaints, three quarters relate to residence permits. Finally, the vast majority of these requests (also three quarters) concern renewals of residence permits, therefore concerning people who already live in France and already benefited from a regular permit.
The Defender of Rights' delegates are confronted daily with situations of unacceptable breaches of rights.
Massive and serious rights violations
In a decision of June 3, 2022, the Council of State ruled that the submission of an application for a residence permit via the ANEF could only be imposed on the condition of guaranteeing normal access to the service as well as the effectiveness of rights. This involves supporting the dematerialization of specific reception and support services, particularly for people who are far from digital, and guaranteeing the possibility of using an alternative solution when the dematerialized submission of the application proves impossible despite this support (for example, the physical submission of a file).
The Defender of Rights observes in his complaints that foreign people forced to resort to the ANEF to submit their application for a residence permit encounter numerous difficulties that the reception and support services put in place, such as that the Citizen Contact Center (CCC) and the Digital Reception Points (PAN), do not make it possible to overcome: unsuccessful exchanges with the CCC, complexity of access to the PANs, lack of qualification of the staff, lack of staff, insufficient prerogatives of these services to remove blockages… And, the right to submit the request through another channel is often hampered.
The risk is for people who are prevented from accessing a process or finalizing it, to end up finding themselves without proof of their right to stay. However, the loss of this right can lead to other breaches of rights, particularly economic and social: loss of the right to work, loss of employment, suspension of social benefits, loss of housing or even difficulties in accessing healthcare. .
In all cases, the failures observed have the effect of keeping the people concerned in an uncertain and precarious administrative situation for several months or even years during which they are forced to suspend or postpone a number of projects, both professional (internships, training, change). employment, etc.) and personal (moving, family visit abroad, etc.), which require being able to prove a right to stay.
The operational recommendations of the Defender of Rights
The scale and seriousness of the violations of rights noted by the Defender of Rights require the adoption of urgent measures. Without calling into question the possibility of electronic submission of residence permit applications, the Defender of Rights issues 14 recommendations to make the ANEF a real simplification tool for users, including:
- Integrate into the Code of entry and stay of foreigners and the right to asylum a provision recognizing the right to carry out any procedure through a non-dematerialized channel, without precondition,
- Automate the automatic renewal of instruction extension certificates (API) and create, for people requesting the regularization of their administrative situation, a dematerialized certificate creating rights delivered after verification of the completeness of the file,
- Improve the information given to users on the prefecture websites, regarding the procedures for submitting permit applications and update it regularly.
