In recent months, the procedure for renewing a residence permit in France has become increasingly complex for foreigners established in the country. In addition to the new immigration law, many Algerian nationals find it difficult to renew this simple document.
Among these people, Nacer, an Algerian national who has lived in France for 23 years and married to a Frenchwoman for 12 years. Nacer’s misadventure began when he wanted to renew his residence permit, which expired in August 2022.
He loses his job because the prefecture misplaces his residence permit
To renew this document, the Algerian has submitted his file to the Nord prefecture in Verlinghem. As is the case for any foreign national, he receives a first receipt and then a second. But no news on his residence permit.
In March 2023, Nacer learns the reasons for this delay. The prefecture responsible for processing his file lost it. Thus pushing Nacer to become undocumented and lose his job. He who needs his job to support his family, but above all to take care of his sick wife.
For its part, to justify itself, the Nord prefecture informed the French media that its services process around 4,000 renewal requests each year. And the procedure requires extensive forensic checks, which lengthens the processing times for these requests.
Algerian national summoned for naturalization
Since that day, Nacer has lived in fear on a daily basis. The fear of being checked and taken away by the police. According to the prefecture, the processing time for the application of this Algerian national remains abnormally long. This is due in particular to the file which has been misplaced.
Something that remains positive in the case of Nacer, after the media coverage of his case, the latter received a favorable opinion for his request for naturalization. Indeed, the Algerian national was summoned by the naturalization services for this April 11.
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